Problematic Living

I was playing Sims 3 the last few days and while I love that game to pieces, especially with all the achievements one can reach, I've run across a few things I find to be problematic. Some trigger warnings might apply.

1.1 Broken Careers.

This is really just a performance issue, and isn't even on my list of problematic things other than a warning to other players out there. 

Don't try to become Emperor/Empress of Evil or Master Thief in Midnight Hollow. The whole Criminal Career is broken in that town, which saddens me greatly, since it's my favorite career in the game.

1.2 Impossible Opportunities

Another performance issue really. Some Teen opportunities are impossible to fill if the teens have jobs, because there's a conflict. Again, this only really occurs in Midnight Hollow.

Now on to the SERIOUSLY PROBLEMATIC BIT.

2. Reputation

In Sims 3, your sim gains reputation based on what they do while interacting with other sims, just as you would in real life. Unfortunately, it seems that the Reputation Calculator was built in the 1940's, because some of the things your sim gets a bad reputation for are just extremely outdated.

For example, one of my sims had sex and got pregnant without being married to the guy and guess what? Once the twins were born, she got a reputation for being Inappropriate, all because she gave birth out of wedlock. Really, EA? Really?  And to top it off, she had the audacity to find herself a boyfriend after her fiancée died, and got an Indecent reputation for it.

I'm not one to be picky about in game stuff, but really? People stopped being shocked about unmarried parents about 30 years ago. Time to wake up and follow reality.

3. Parental Leave

I am now on the third generation in my sim family and I noticed something odd. Let me give you some background to help this make sense.

I created the sim Phoenix Isevi. She married Hyun-Moon and they got four kids (two sets of twins - Aimee, Roneve, Morax, and Agares). Now, the only one who got parental leave was Phoenix. And she had no choice in the matter. I could not send her to work as Ruler of the Free World no matter how I tried. Not even when the older twins became teens and they had a butler could I send her to work. Hyun-Moon on the other hand refused to take Paid Time Off.

Again, wake up and smell the 21st century. Phoenix was clearly the one be paid the most of the parents. Let her work.

4. Skinny Dipping

Here is when the difference in values really shine through. You can't go skinny dipping if there are Babies, Toddlers, Children, or Teens on the lot, which is fine. You can, however, go skinny dipping with the previous age groups present IF you have the Insane personality trait. And IF you are a guy. Any female Insane sim I've tried to skinny dip on a lot with youngsters on plain refuses.

Now, I like to kick double standards when I see them, but the game algorithm in Sims 3 makes it impossible without hacking or modding, and I don't like to do that. testingCheatsEnabled is really as far as I will take cheating in Sims3. 

Please, EA Games and Maxis. Patch away the stupid outdated norms. I want to get the Faithful moodlet for more than just sticking with one partner for my sim from high school to their dying of old age. Like, sticking with your sim children as their father became a ghost in front of their eyes. Or calling your family every day. Or... I don't know.