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The Sims 2
Developer(s)	Maxis
Publisher(s)	EA Games (PC) Aspyr (Mac)
Designer(s)	Jamar Sloley, Patrick J. Barrett III, Matthew C. Brown, Cooper Buckingham, Kacper Centowski, Jenna Chalmers, Shannon Copur, Michael Cox, Amy Dallas, Kevin Gibson, Daniel Hiatt, Kevin Hogan, Hunter Howe, Creighton Hurt, Trevor Jalowitz, Lyndsay McGaw, Ashley Monif, Solveig Pederson, Todd Reamon, Kana Ryan, Lauren Wheeler, Jeannie Yang
Engine	Custom
Platform(s)	Mac OS X, Windows
Release	Windows NA: September 14, 2004 HK: September 15, 2004 , TW: September 15, 2004 EU: September 16, 2004 BR: September 17, 2004 Mac OS X June 13, 2005
Genre(s)	Life simulation game
Mode(s)	Single player

The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game to date, The Sims. It was released on September 17, 2004 and sold a then-record one million copies in its first ten days. Along with the core game, Electronic Arts has released six expansion packs and six stuff packs with one stuff pack due to be released later in the year. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the music. The game builds on its predecessor by allowing Sims, the simulated human characters, to age through six stages of life and incorporating a more powerful 3D graphics engine. As of July 2007, the base game has sold more than 13 million units worldwide, making it the 2nd best selling PC game of all time, only behind the original The Sims.

A sequel, The Sims 3, was announced in November 2006 by EA.

Frank like big hairy balls. He likes Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.

History

Development

EA Games announced on May 5, 2003 that the Maxis studio had begun development on The Sims 2. The game was first shown at E³ in Los Angeles, California on May 13, 2004. Will Wright admits that while most of the content of The Sims 2 are original ideas, inspiration for its own expansions and constituents spawned from the successes of the first game. The community interest in the antecedent The Sims: Unleashed expansion, for example, ensured the creation of The Sims 2: Pets expansion.

After development concluded, designers from Maxis regarded The Sims 2 as very capricious during creation. Bugs would appear apparently spontaneously, and Sims would be "tweaked", or have anomalies not present in a previous run.

Controversy

The game's highly malleable content and open-ended customization have led to controversy on the subject of paysites and sexual modifications. Custom content is distributed through independent websites, some of which charge for downloading materials. Some modifications, purportedly revealing sexual anatomy, sparked legal controversy. On July 22, 2005, Florida attorney Jack Thompson alleged that Electronic Arts and The Sims 2 promoted nudity through use of a mod or a cheat code. The claim was made that pubic hair, labia and other genital details were visible once the "blur" (the pixelation that occurs when a sim is using the toilet or is naked in the game) was removed. Electronic Arts issued a statement saying that when the blur was removed, Sims lack such anatomical definition, similar to Barbie and Ken dolls. Electronic Arts executive Jeff Brown said in an interview with GameSpot:

This is nonsense. We've reviewed 100 percent of the content. There is no content inappropriate for a teen audience. Players never see a nude sim. If someone with an extreme amount of expertise and time were to remove the pixels, they would see that the sims have no genitals. They appear like Ken and Barbie.

Reception

The Sims 2 had a successful E³ showing in 2004. In all, it garnered four awards based on that exhibit alone, and two more upon further review. The Game Critics awarded the game Best Simulation Game at E³ 2004. GameSpot, GameSpy, and IGN also awarded The Sims 2 their Best of Show at E³ 2004 designation. The game also received the Editor's Choice Award from IGN and GameSpy upon final review of the finished product. From 71 online reviews, the average score was 90 out of 100. Seven of those sources awarded the game a 100 out of 100 score.

In addition to its awards, the Sims 2 creator, Will Wright was recognized by being nominated at the Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards for Visionary and Game Developer. The game was also nominated for two international awards, Best PC Game, 2005 from BAFTA, and the International Press Academy Satellite Award for Best Puzzle/Strategy Game, 2005.

Comparison to The Sims

Graphically, The Sims 2 is more detailed and realistic than The Sims and lets players view its world in full 3D. Unlike earlier Sim games, such as SimCity 2000, which used dimetric projection and fixed resolutions, the camera in The Sims 2 allows the player to view things from many angles. Sims themselves are much more intricately detailed than they were in The Sims. In The Sims, Sims are 3D meshes, but The Sims 2 introduces far more detail in mesh quality, texture quality, and animation capability. A Sim's facial features are customizable and unique, and Sims can smile, frown, and blink. The player can adjust, for example, a Sim's nose to be very large or very small in The Sims 2's Create-a-Sim. Texturing is still achieved through use of raster images, though it appears more lifelike. Movements are more smooth, natural and true to humans and Sims are in general more animated.

There is also an increased realism in gameplay. Sims have new experiences unavailable in The Sims, such as aging (though it can be disabled) and eventual death. Sims can become pregnant and produce babies that take on genetic characteristics of their parents, such as eye color, hair color and personality traits. Additionally, babies in The Sims 2 progress through life stages to become adults, while babies in The Sims only become children before ceasing to continue aging.

Game customization

The Sims 2 is an extremely malleable game. Modders alter the game in ways as simple as creating new floor texture or as complicated as writing entire patches for the game code to customize its behavior. Such modifications are all loosely referred to as "custom content." Specifically, custom content can be divided into four categories: exporting (creating Sims and lots in-game or using the game's included Body Shop and exporting them to a file), recoloring (creating a new texture for an object), meshing (creating an object or modifying its shape) and hacking (writing code that manipulates game and object behaviors).

The modding community for The Sims 2 is self-supporting, with more advanced modders writing tools and tutorials to help in creating custom content and modifying the game environment.

The "Sims 2 Body Shop" is a program shipped with The Sims 2 that allows users to create custom clothing and body recolors, such as eyes, hair and skin tone. These custom created parts can be imported directly into the game, or can be uploaded onto the official The Sims 2 Exchange. These parts can be then added to other users' games.

Two elements that propagate customization are the official Sims 2 Exchange and the extensive network of fansites that distribute content. More than 250,000 Sims and lots have been uploaded to the Sims 2 Exchange on the Official Site. Some fansites require either a one-time fee or a subscription to access some or all of the content on the site. Most of the sites do not charge for usage; some however, do allow voluntary donations to offset the cost of website maintenance.

Game editions and add-on releases

For the PC, there have been six released editions of the core game, six released expansion packs and six released stuff packs. There has also been another stuff pack and expansion announced. Many of these have been ported to Mac OS X by Aspyr. The Sims 2 has also been released for a number of game consoles.

Core game

Expansion packs

The Sims 2 expansion packs provide additional game features and items. Generally, expansion packs add one central gameplay element, several peripheral elements, a new type of "expansion neighborhood", a new mythical creature (e.g. zombies in University and vampires in Nightlife), and over 100 new objects. Six expansion packs have been released so far, with another hinted pertaining to the theme of "hobbies" set to be released in February 2008.

Stuff packs

Stuff packs are add-ons to the base game that add only new objects. There are currently six released. Stuff packs were originally called booster packs, as seen in the release of The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack. Current releases are called "Stuff Packs" and include certain gameplay elements introduced in previous expansion packs (as opposed to Holiday Party Pack, which only added a package file containing object data). Stuff packs typically add around 60 new items.

See also

• The Strangerhood
• The Sims 2 (console game)

References

1. "Mac OS X system requirements". Aspyr Media. Retrieved 2006-08-29.
2. "Windows system requirements". EA Games. Retrieved 2006-08-29.
3. Walker, Trey (2002-03-22). "The Sims overtakes Myst". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
4. IMDb. "The Sims 2 trivia". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
5. "Bon Voyage Press Release". EA. 2007-07-26. Retrieved 2007-07-26.
6. Thorsen, Tor (2006-11-02). "Sims 3, next-gen Black, new SimCity & LOTR coming". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
7. Orry, James (2006-03-11). "Three new Sims games in development". Pro-G Media, UK. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
8. ^ "EA Announces Plans For The Sims 2". The Sims 2 Press Release. 2003-05-05. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
9. "Will Wright Speaks Simlish". GameSpy. 2005-02-27. Retrieved 2007-04-07.
10. Bradshaw, Lucy (2004-08-31). "Zany Outtakes from the Cutting Room Floor". Maxis, mirrored at GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
11. CNN (2005-07-28). "'Sims' content criticized". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2007-03-01. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
12. Surette, Tim (2005-07-02). "Sims 2 content "worse than Hot Coffee"". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
13. "Best of E3, 2004 Winners". The Game Critics Awards. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
14. "Best of E3, 2004 Winners". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
15. "The Annual GameSpy E3 Awards!". GameSpy. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
16. "PC Best of E3 2004". IGN. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
17. "The Sims 2 Review". IGN. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
18. "The Sims 2 Review". GameSpy. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
19. "Main Reviews Breakdown". Gamerankings.com. Retrieved 2007-04-07.
20. "Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards". Billboard. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
21. "Latest Winners and Nominees". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
22. "10th Annual SATELLITE Awards" (.doc). International Press Academy. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
23. "Official The Sims 2 Website". 2007-04-12. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
24. "Official The Sims 2 Website". 2007-09-04. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
25. See ref # 29
26. The Sims website with announcement of the Bon Voyage expansion
27. The Sims 2 Community Chat
28. working title used on sites for pre-ordering such as Walmart and Gamestop.
29. Same as title
30. Insert with Bon Voyage
31. "The Sims(tm) 2 Celebration Stuff Videos". Maxis. Retrieved 2007-03-08.
32. "The Sims(tm) 2 H&M Fashion Stuff". Retrieved 2007-04-26.
33. "The Sims(tm) 2 Teen Style Stuff". Retrieved 2007-08-24.

External links

Official site

• Official The Sims 2 website
• Official The Sims 2 UK website

Producer journals

• The Sims 2: Nightlife Producer Journal by Tim LeTourneau
• Update on The Sims 2: Nightlife Producer Journal by Tim LeTourneau
• The Sims 2: Open For Business Producer Journal by Tim LeTourneau
• The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff Developer Journal by Lyndsay Pearson

Resources

• The Sims 2 website directory at the Open Directory Project
• The Sims 2 at Gamespot
• List of Mods for The Sims 2

v t e Sim video games
Maxis Electronic Arts
People	Will Wright Mike Perry Jerry Martin Lucy Bradshaw Jacques Servin
Related articles	Simlish
Category

Template:SimUniverse

• 2004 video games
• Mac OS X games
• Windows games
• Interactive Achievement Award winners
• Video games with expansion packs
• The Sims games and expansions