The scarecrow

[sara_dippity]

Does it have a use? I've never seen any birds attacking my crops, just decoration or does it boost growth?

[jsalemi]

Does it have a use? I've never seen any birds attacking my crops, just decoration or does it boost growth?

Decoration, mostly, but if you have your sims view it long enough, it comes to life and scares them.

[sara_dippity]

AWESOME!

[Lorelei]

Decoration, mostly, but if you have your sims view it long enough, it comes to life and scares them.

HOLY CATS! The animated snowman was creepy too. What are those EA folks smoking?

[jsalemi]

Animated snowman?  Is that a Seasons thing, or one of the holiday packs?

[amjoie]

They must either be smoking something, or just be warped. I have seriously wondered about the creaters of the Sims 2. They call it a wacky sense of humor, etc. But I find nothing humorous about their purposeful creation of the impovershed, the mismatched, the colorless, and the truly ugly; all when they could have created sometihing elegant, colorful, and beautiful -- or at least something balanced somewhere between the two extremes.

I also don't appreciate their sadistic fetish about killing off my Sims. Especially killing them with things that should normally be wonderful parts of life, like sitting in front of a warm fire on a cold night, or gathering around a Christmas tree to celebrate. I customize and mod everything to bits -- all so I can play a decent game, pleasing to my eye, without burying most of my Sims before their very short lifespan has been fulfilled. If I wanted some adreniline pumping slaughter, I'd buy a shooter. I play the Sims to relax and enjoy myself.

Come to think of it, I remember being told in Sims 1 that the price of having eternal sims, was some chances of accidental death in the game. Well, now my Sims are NOT eternal, by purposeful design, and STILL MaxisEA adds *multiple* new ways for them to accidentally die with practically *every* expansion.

Think about it for a moment. If you have all the expansions up to and including Seasons, and you play without a protective mod in your game, what are the odds your Sim will never live long enough to become an elder?? He/she can die from kissing too long, sitting in a hot tub too long, eating spoiled food, sitting by the pool too long, running with a scissors, catching a random plague, getting hit by lightening, getting hit by hail, getting burned up while cooking or sitting in front of a fireplace, taking an elevator ride, getting burned up from being too close to a Christmas tree or outdoor Christmas ornament, running on the treadmill to long, getting hit by falling sky debris, fixing a broken appliance (even if the Sim is skilled to the max), flying a kite, drowning in the pool, or too much whoopee. And if he is sloppy, he can even die from a sudden attack of flies. In addition, female Sims can also die of pregnancy, even if their hunger never goes into the red. (I may be forgetting some other peril, there are so many.) And all that isn't even counting the chance to become the undead because of a wandering vampire autonomously biting him or her.

Trying to avoid death in this game is like constantly dodging a bullet, if you don't have protective mods. Ridiculous ....

[witch]

Gawd blimey, I wish it were so. I've never had a single accidental death in the entire sims 2 run, bar fire, even then the pleading with the grim reaper usually works. Or resurrection. I wish there was MORE realistic random illness and death in the game. I wish kids could die. Or sims during childbirth. Actually I really want it to be autonomous, I won't direct my sims to die but I'm looking forward to the first lightning strike. My sims eat and play outside in the rain continuously but no luck so far.

[Orikes]

Trying to avoid death in this game is like constantly dodging a bullet, if you don't have protective mods. Ridiculous ....

And for all your complaints about it, there are people out there that complain there aren't enough ways to kill sims, or that they're too invulnerable, or, etc. I understand your point, but if the game isn't what you wanted it to be, don't play it. Or just happily make and use mods to make it more like what you want.

Honestly, I get tired at all the bitching people do about games when they're not exactly as people wanted it to be. It gets taken to a zen level that just makes me want to scream at people to stop playing the game if they hate it that much.

[Nailati]

can die from kissing too long

what

It gets taken to a zen level that just makes me want to scream at people to stop playing the game if they hate it that much.

If it were at a "zen level," then you would be unperturbed by it.

[fff]

Amjoie, a lot of those deaths you mentioned - kissing too long, drowning in the pool, too much woohoo - only occur if the player is not paying attention to the game and fails to notice that the needs bar (hunger or energy) is getting dangerously low. So those are avoidable deaths, and you really only have yourself to blame if your Sim died just because you didn't notive their hunger bar was in the red. Also, the running with scissors death was only possible if you downloaded the object - if you didn't want your Sims to risk death, then get rid of the download, there are plenty of other ways for your Sims to increase their fun.

FWIW, I agree with Witch - I wish there were more chances for random death - the ones already in the game (hit by satellite, swarm of flies etc.) all seem to have a pretty low chance of happening. For as long as I've played TS2 (which was since it first came out) I have seen NO satellite deaths, NO fly swarm deaths, no hail deaths, nothing. The only 'accidental' deaths I have ever had were ones caused by deliberately taking out the pool ladders. 

[Kyna]

FWIW, I agree with Witch - I wish there were more chances for random death - the ones already in the game (hit by satellite, swarm of flies etc.) all seem to have a pretty low chance of hapening. For as long as I've played TS2 (which was since it first came out0 I have seen NO satellite deaths, NO fly swarm deaths, no hail deaths, nothing. The only 'accidental' deaths I have ever had were ones caused by deliberately taking out the pool ladders. 

That's been my experience too.  Sure, now my game is heavily modded, but I remember back when I only the base game and didn't realise there were mods for the game.  Even back then the only non-old age deaths were when I removed the pool ladder, or sent my sims to cook then took out the kitchen doors and the smoke alarm.

[Sagana]

I don't use any 'protective' mods, hoping to get an occasional accidental death. I took out all fire alarms ages ago (and continue to take them out of any new houses - I don't want the NPC generated.) I ignore them if they get sick and just have them do what they would anyway. Let them stomp on roaches and lay around gazing at the sky.

I've had two 'not old age' deaths in my game and they were both on purpose. I removed the ladder and drowned a sim once and recently started a black widow and poisoned one. And it was *hard* to get them to die both times. She (the recent poisoned one) had to go sooooooo red before she'd die, way lower than I let them get except on purpose and for a long time.

I have elevators on lots I play a lot, and they break all the time (and sims enjoy whoohooing in them), but it doesn't kill them. I guess I micromanage too much to let them do much that's dangerous. And I keep them too happy - they're usually platinum or gold, sometimes a little green. Their needs are never red - maybe tinged a bit, but not that 'Red - Danger Will Robinson' thing. Anyway they're tough little buggers and never die.

Have you ever actually let (or tried to get) a sim to die? Mostly it is nowhere near as easy as all that

PS: Forgot, but I also make them repair everything themselves (again, I don't want the NPC) and they don't die from that either. I made one poor sim with 1 mechanical get shocked from the dishwasher all day. But I let her take showers and eat and all, so eventually she fixed it without dying from it.

[Tyraa Rane]

Have you ever actually let (or tried to get) a sim to die? Mostly it is nowhere near as easy as all that

I had a sim catch pneumonia the other day and decided to see if she'd actually die from it--I basically let her run around on free will rather than take care of her. Despite her getting so stinky she was attracting flies, eating out of the garbage can constantly instead of the fully stocked fridge (sloppy sims, honestly ), picking fights with the social bunny, passing out in a heap all over the house, etc. etc. ...she still made a full recovery.

...At least until I got annoyed and dropped a satellite on her head.

[Maria]

I had a romance couple who'd each finished their life goals of woohooing with 20 people and lived long happy lives.  It seemed that the perfect storyline for their deaths was that they died in an elevator crash while woohooing happily away with each other as happily married elders the night of their golden anniversary party.

I used boolprop to break that elevator dozens of times, sending them crashing down each time.  Finally, he died of starvation, standing next to the elevator.  I sent his weeping widow on a few more elevator crashes, then finally had to use the insimenator to have her commit suicide.

Unless you're going to drown or starve your sim, it's pretty hard to kill them.  Runs with scissors seems to be broken now too (or perhaps I have a conflict, not sure).

[J. M. Pescado]

The thing with sim deaths is that it's nigh impossible to get them to die of anything that you'd NORMALLY expect them to die of, but plenty of potential WTFbombs, which can sometimes prove fatal in highly publicized cases.

[amjoie]

I dont' want accidental deaths, and I *do* watch my Sims. But I have had them die of pregnancy, with hunger still in the green. Just acted weird for a second or two and then keeled over dead. I have had them die from trying to fix an appliance when their skill was at max. I even had a repairman work on an appliance and get killed. I've had a Sim autonomously go swimming instead of going to bed as I had directed, and drown, while the partner was busy doing something (which I was watching). I've had a Sim who was autonomously poking a fire in the fireplace. catch on fire and die. I've had a Sim who was cooking, with about 3/4 of the cooking skill completed, die from a flash stove fire -- instantly swallowed him up in flames -- and that was with the alarm installed. He was engulfed in flames long before the fireman arrived. I've had a romance Sim keel over after too much whoohoo, before I realized that it could happen. I've had a Sim watch the clouds, because I love watching clouds, only to get hit by a fallen satellite. Sure, it happened before I realized you can't watch clouds in safety. But watching clouds *should* be an enjoyable experience, not a potential death sentence!

Spontaneous combustion, new with Seasons, can and does happen after getting too hot from *any* cause. And I have had Sims dangerously hot from too much making out -- which my Sims often do autonomously. I never thought to stop them from kissing. Who would have guessed you could die from kissing? I had a Sim dangerously hot from sitting in the hot tub too long on a Sim owned business. Whether or not they combust after overheating is a roll of the dice. And that is too much of a chance, for me. Because no one should ever die from kissing or soaking in a hot tub.

I had a Sim die from disease, even after lots of bed rest, which is not supposed to happen but did happen in my game. I've had a Sim get "paralyzed" (looked like a zombie) from eating food which was fine when he took it from the serving plate and started eating, but which spoiled part way through his meal. (I restarted that game, so I don't know if the paralyzing would have resulted ultimately in death or in recovery.) My Sims very first elevator ride resulted in "the plunge."

I've had a tree hit by lightning, very close to my Sim. As quick as that storm came on, my Sim would never have had a chance to get to safety before the lightning struck, if there had not been a tree in the yard and it had targeted him instead. And for sure, he could never have gotten out of a hot tub or pool quick enough to avoid a strike. So I built a greenhouse around all my Sims outdoor activities to entirely prevent the possibility.

I started getting mods to prevent accidental death, because it was happening in my game way more than I wanted it to happen. I'm not complaining needlessly. I have been disturbed by the degree of accidental death in my game. I don't appreciate how the game was coded. That's my perspective, because that has been my experience. Your mileage may vary. Shrug.

For those of you who want more accidental death in your game, try IRL burying a son, an aunt and uncle, a best friends husband, and then watch your elderly parents struggling with disease, all within a few years time. Add a few trips to the hospital for yourself, being confined to bed between trips, with your own life in uncertain balance -- then tell me how much fun it is to watch death in a game that is supposed to be played for fun and relaxation.

Not all of the MaxisEA target audience is +/- twenty-something looking for any kind of excitement to validate their existence. Not all of us think death is a kick. Some of us have lived long enough to know from experience how short life can be, and know that death isn't fun when it causes the deepest and longest lasting pain a human can feel.

That being said, I do enjoy the Sims, immensely. That's why I play. But I enjoy the game in spite of MaxisEA, not because of them. The game is only enjoyable because of the mods I chose to put in it, not because of the orginal coding. The game should have been coded so that the risks could have been adjusted to the game play style, on a sliding scale of risk at the whim of the player. If that had been the goal, it could have been easily coded for customization. That would have made everyone happy. But MaxisEA is saying on one hand that the game is "for however you want to play it" and then forcing a certain style of play on the other hand. And that was my original objection. My perspective, and IMHO. You are free to disagree ....

[Ellatrue]

Not all of the MaxisEA target audience is +/- twenty-something looking for any kind of excitement to validate their existence. Not all of us think death is a kick. Some of us have lived long enough to know from experience how short life can be, and know that death isn't fun when it causes the deepest and longest lasting pain a human can feel.

Excuse me?

The problem here isn't twenty-somethings. It's you taking the game WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. If the sims 2 has become an escape for you, you need to stop and join a book club or something. Of course life is short and painful, but that shouldn't have any bearing on how much you seem to be reacting to a computer game. You need to seperate real life from the sims. Don't complain to us because you have no perspective.

[amjoie]

LOL

I'm not taking the game too seriously, and it isn't any more of an escape than TV or a book.

I object to the coding of the game. That was the point.

Lots and lots of people have complained about MaxisEA for lots of different reasons. Complaining in this forum has become an art form. So I complained. So what? Did I ask you to agree with me?

Or is it that you are uncomfortable hearing a perspective that dramatically differs from your own ....

[gjam]

Excuse me?

The problem here isn't twenty-somethings. It's you taking the game WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. If the sims 2 has become an escape for you, you need to stop and join a book club or something. Of course life is short and painful, but that shouldn't have any bearing on how much you seem to be reacting to a computer game. You need to seperate real life from the sims. Don't complain to us because you have no perspective.

No, excuse me!

Isn't disagreeing with how MaxisEA coded the game at least half of what modding is all about?  Sure some if it is bugfixes, but the rest is changing the game to suit our personal preference as to what would make it "better". 

Whether I agree with amjoie's specific complaint, or not, how is it different from complaining that they can't have triplets or quads?  How is it different from complaining that the nannies are stupid?  How is it different from complaining that employees at businesses don't behave right? How is it different from complaining that the skins aren't realistic? How is it different from every other complaint I see on this site?

Yes, I know mods exist to alter all of those examples.  That's precisely my point.  If they hadn't annoyed somone in the first place, the mods wouldn't have been created. But,not everyone has the skills to make the mods they want.  Some of us have to hope that someone else will make them.  And horrors, if we look around and don't find what we want, sometimes we even talk about our ideas, to try to inspire someone to create it.

[KellyQ]

The only time I've ever had a non-old age death was when I first got the game. I had created a couple, moved them into a lot, shortly thereafter, the female sim became pregnant. I had no idea that the pregnancy state would be so unrealistic. It became a loop of the sim being too tired to eat, too hungry to sleep, rinse, lather, repeat. Then the grim reaper showed up and despite the frantic pleadings of her sim husband, she died anyway. I was horrified!
Anyway, I learned to keep a better eye on my pregnant sims but still use cheats sometimes (usually for energy) because their motives decay so rapidly and I find it highly unrealistic. Not that zombies, vampires or werewolves are realistic either but I don't play those, heh. I've been pregnant twice and not only could I continue to work, I never nearly starved to death, peed myself or passed out from exhaustion.

edited to correct typos

[Kyna]

Amjoie, I want whatever makes your game so interesting.  Honestly.  It's boring when every single sim dies of old age, unless I deliberately try to kill them.

I won't go on again about the deaths I've never experienced in my game, although I do have 4 sims who are proof that lightning strikes aren't fatal - at least not in my game.  I have another sim who combusted in a hot tub, but survived.  She was visiting the lot, my playable tried to put her out when she just vanished.  When I played her lot later I half expected to see the "sim has died on another lot" message, but no, she survived.

For the record I'm not +/- twenty-something, and I have seen close family members die.  I have also struggled with an illness that has nearly claimed my life a couple of times.  I "have lived long enough to know from experience how short life can be, and know that death isn't fun when it causes the deepest and longest lasting pain a human can feel."  My real life experiences don't change the fact that I do want to see more accidental deaths in my game.  Maybe the issue here isn't to do with age or real life experience of mortality (as you seem to think), maybe it's more to do with how attached you and I are to our sims.  I dont think I'm as attached to my sims as you seem to be to yours.

[Eleonora]

The only truly accidental death I've had was when I could have used it least. I had a female Sim who had married an elder, he had an adopted teen girl, and the couple had just had a baby boy. Dad was getting old though and the same they that Grim came for him, his young wife decided to relax on the lawn. Naturally, a satellite falls on her head, and the poor teenager is left to raise her baby brother on her own.
I love these twists though, and if my Sims don't die spontaneously, I will often make them have an 'accidental' death, just to add some more drama.

[MMEStalker]

Isn't disagreeing with how MaxisEA coded the game at least half of what modding is all about?  Sure some if it is bugfixes, but the rest is changing the game to suit our personal preference as to what would make it "better". 

Whether I agree with amjoie's specific complaint, or not, how is it different from complaining that they can't have triplets or quads?  How is it different from complaining that the nannies are stupid?  How is it different from complaining that employees at businesses don't behave right? How is it different from complaining that the skins aren't realistic? How is it different from every other complaint I see on this site?

I may be wrong here, but judging from Ellatrue's post and the part of amjoie's post that Ellatrue quoted, I think her problem was more the implication that there's something wrong with people that like the deaths in the game:

Not all of the MaxisEA target audience is +/- twenty-something looking for any kind of excitement to validate their existence. Not all of us think death is a kick

 As well as the implication that people who enjoy the deaths in the game haven't encountered much suffering in real life, that was what bugged me about amjoie's post, and I thought that was what Ellatrue was trying to say.

I've hardly had any accidental deaths in my game, the only ones I have had happened when I stupidly left a friend playing the game while I made coffee. So I just exited without saving.

[sara_dippity]

I've only had one accidental death. My four year old however has had many. Now I max his sim's motives and stop the need decay so I don't have to explain why his sim fell asleep and the scary man came and took his sim away.

[Lorelei]

This may be a case of EA/Maxis sadorandom telepathy and contrariness. Those who want more accidental death never get any, and those who would rather play a more realistic game where death risks are comparable to those in real life (old age, disease, fire) seem to get the ridiculous satellite-smash deaths and other glitches. You can also see this effect with the telescopes. If you don't want M-preg in your game, your male Sims have a 100% chance of abduction, while those eager for alien half-breeds end up resorting to cheats to get them.

I've noticed that the sims I actually give a crap about and which I've spent the most time playing with seem to suffer the most WTFwasthat?! events. Townies, which are a plague in my game, seem to be immune to everything save deliberate homicide. Obviously, the more time spent with a sim increases the chances of borkination or undesirable events. They suck you into giving a crap about pixels, then try to delete them. I get just as irritated when my computer corrupts a text or image file, which fortunately hasn't happened in a long while, but those generally take less time to recreate.