The Sims 3

As in previous games of the franchise, in The Sims 3 players control their own Sims' activities and relationships. The gameplay is open-ended and does not have a defined goal. The Sims live in neighborhoods, now being officially referred to as worlds, which can be customized, allowing the player to create their houses, community lots, and Sims, although many of these come with the core game. These worlds are now seamless, allowing all Sims to move around freely without any loading screen in between lots, as happened in the previous games.

The neighborhood includes community lots which can be leisure lots (parks, markets, gyms, and movie theaters) and job lots (town hall, hospital, and businesses). Since the neighborhood is open, the game includes the "Story Progression" mechanic, which allows all Sims in the neighborhood to autonomously continue their lives without the player ever controlling them. This helps to advance the story of the whole neighborhood instead of only the active playing units. Sims live for a set duration of time that is adjustable by the player and advance through several life stages (baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, adult, and elder).

Sims can die of old age or from causes such as fire, starvation, drowning, and electrocution. The base game comes with the world Sunset Valley and an additional world called Riverview can be obtained for free from The Sims 3 Store website. All expansion packs except Generations and Seasons included a world, and additional worlds can be bought at The Sims 3 Store for SimPoints. Sunset Valley and a few of the other worlds available have some degree of connection to the storyline set up by The Sims and The Sims 2 .

In-game Sunset Valley is stated to be the same town as the default neighborhood in The Sims , and Pleasantview from The Sims 2 , although set twenty-five and fifty years earlier, respectively. Several pre-made characters from other Sim games appear throughout The Sims 3 ' s worlds, many of them in younger form. Career opportunities like working overtime or completing tasks can yield a pay raise, cash bonus, or relationship boost. Challenges occur randomly based on each Sim's lifestyle, like relationships, skills, and jobs.

Skill opportunities are the requests by your Sim's neighbors or community members for Sims to solve problems using their acquired skills for cash or relationship rewards. The new Wishes reward system replaces the Wants and Fears system in its predecessor, The Sims 2 . Fulfilling a Sim's wishes contributes to the Sim's Lifetime Happiness score, allowing players to purchase Lifetime Rewards for the cost of those Lifetime Happiness points. The game introduces a big change in terms of customization with the "Create-a-Style" tool.

In this way, every object or piece of clothing in the game is completely customizable in terms of color (which can be picked from a color wheel ), material (plastic, stone, fabric, wood, and so on) or design pattern. Create-a-Sim The Sims 3 introduces many more character customization options than its predecessor The Sims 2 . Like the previous game, the player can customize age, body build, skin color, hairstyles, clothing, and personality. A new life stage is included between adolescence and adulthood: young adulthood.

This stage was introduced in The Sims 2 University only during the university period, but is now accessible from Create-a-Sim. Additional options were added in expansions and updates, such as tattoos, breast size, and muscle definition. The Sims 3 offers a wider range of skin tones than its predecessors, ranging from realistic light and dark skin tones to fantasy green and purple colors. As opposed to previous games, where personalities consisted of sliders, and a limited set of personality points to distribute among them, The Sims 3 introduces a trait system: adult Sims can have up to five personality traits to pick from a list.

These traits can be mental, physical, social, or influenced by lifestyle and jobs. The traits will determine different actions the Sims can make, as well as behaviors and wishes.