It had height when it was released but what about now? Any new players? Or maybe I can say, will it be passed to the next generation or will next generation find something else to be interested in and say, "Yuck, that Sims 2 is to old for me."

Huh. When I saw the title of this thread I wondered how you could have missed the active Sims 2 section of this site. I wanted to laugh at the part about the Sims 2 being "dead". That really is funny. Then I read your post and considered what you might be suggesting about new players. If I understand you, you're saying that someone who has never played The Sims 2 would not be interested in trying it.

I won't answer because I can't, but I would like to point out that people are still playing Sims 1 since it's release in 2000. Further, according to a Wikipedia article I saw (which quoted something else, of course) "As of May 2011, the franchise has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide". Another old game, Morrowind, from 2002 continues to have a sizable fandom today.

After considering that and your post, I am wondering about the following:

1 - How much longer will it last for all three of these games

2 - What thinking on your part led to the question in the first place?

There are new people playing the Sims 2-a lot of them are former Sims 3 players who have given up on that game and turned to Sims 2 for more fun-or perhaps they were Sims 2 players who bought Sims 3 thinking it would be an improvement and were vastly disappointed in it.

The numbers aren't quantifiable, but I'm sure that it's high.

But the previous point is also on target-why ask the redundant question when so many are asking how to play the game in the first place?

I've only had the game less than a year, so I'd have to say it's not going to run out of steam anytime soon. I've already infected four people myself who never even heard of any of the Sims games.

I had not heard of the Sims games until my first year at University where my flatmate had been playing the recent release of Sims 3 Base game. I watched her play it a fews times and saw that it was fun, and we would make characters together. I was at first going to buy the Sims 3 but my laptop wouldn't be able to handle it so I got the sims 2. Very glad I did because I think Sims 2 suited my style in terms of understanding the game, for me the sims 3 looks too complicated. I'm sure its not once you get the hand of it, but I could just tell that I wouldn't like it as much.

So yes there are still new players being introduced, I've only been playing the sims 2 games for a year and a half, and I've gotten all EPs except Apartment Life (which I'm still debating on whether to get or not... but that may require me to update my hacks and I can't be bothered.) and just the one stuff pack Glamour Life (considering getting more, but not sure which other one to get...any advice?) I've also downloaded plently from MTS and other websites. My download folder only being 646MB, so it has room to grow.

So if you meant are there still new people being introduced to the Sims games, then my answer is yes.

My local Best Buy has a huge display of Sims 2 games, front and center. I'm sure they wouldn't waste valuable space if the game wasn't still going strong, in terms of new sales.

No everyone still play it , actually new generation of kids like it i have little brothers and they always wanna play it, currently they are playing the sims freeplay until one of them get a descent laptop or a computer ,and i told other people in my class about it they mostly like the whoohoo part.

While it's bad form to extrapolate a general from a specific, I can definitely say new people are still starting to play Sims 2. I only picked up the game in April, and I'm definitely hooked!

But, there again, I still play SimCity 2000 (released 1993), Discworld (released 1995) and Pharaoh (released 1999).

Andy

I'm another person who only started playing Sims 2 about a year ago. I actually started out with the Sims Social and liked it, but was getting frustrated with all the cash-grabbing and friend requirements. So I picked up a used copy of the Sims 2 Deluxe since the Sims 3 base game was still pretty expensive. I remember it also frustrating me a lot at first, but it grew on me once I figured out how to play effectively.

A lot of old games can be considered classics. People still play them in the same way that people still read classic literature or listen to classical music. I think it may still be too early for the Sims 2, but the first Sims has definitely reached that status. The Sims 2 probably appeals more to the slightly older generation that is used to not having the flashiest graphics and isn't obsessed with what's the prettiest, but what's the most fun to play.

If the prices of Sims 2 keep going back up, I'm sure there's not going to be a lot of new people wanting to play it.

Seriously...stuff packs are rocketing back up to forty bucks! And here I wanted to complete my collection. ;_;

Maybe it's a supply and demand thing? More people are wanting to start playing it or go back to playing it, for whatever reason, so shops/sellers are putting prices up? I'm certainly glad I've got all the SP's and EP's though - I bought some secondhand locally so they were quite cheap but I paid £30 for Apartment Life and I wasn't too happy about that! Totally worth it though, in my opinion, but knowing something's worth the money it costs is no help if you just don't have the money to buy it! :-)

I reckon there are still people discovering The Sims 2 for the first time. I've been playing it more or less since it was released, but I did briefly (and expensively!) experiment with The Sims 3. It just didn't hold my attention in the same way, though. I enjoy the storytelling side of things and like being able to play all of the lots in rotation. On the other hand, there are some Sims 3 challenges I loved and will play again at some point.

If I could I'd play The Sims too, but I don't have it and I'm not sure what my laptop would make of it. I did play it back in the day though, so I wouldn't be a new player as such.

I think those who are infected by snobbery would think of the sims 2 as "too old for them", okay, not everyone. There are still new players. There are even players that are leaving sims 3 and coming back to sims 2.

Is this topic going to turn into the so called "extremely overly baked subject"?

Yeah, but if we limit talk to only those things that haven't been discussed before, there won't be anything left to talk about! And for new people, the overly baked subjects are still fresh.

Also you must remember there are people that are so very addicted to Sims 2, and as far as I know there is "No Rehab Center" for help. Look at my "eyes" here >> can you not tell that I am so far gone with my addiction >> My eyes that there is no help for it even if they are playing Sims 1, 2, or 3 they have an addiction for the Sims.

I got the Sims 2 (my first sims game) this spring, so nope!

I think I got the idea because I feel the game is winding down when I see so very many dead links and sites. But I don't see any dead Sims 3 links or sites. As fact, I am hard to find Sims 2 custom now I keep google all I get is Sims 3. So many people left never to come back. Who will take their places? That is what I meant. I did not know this was a rehash subject. Sorry.

On the Swedish Ebay, the Seasons exp. pack is being auctioned and now costing the equivalent of *23,32 dollars*, and there is not even a manual included, it just says that the serial number can be found on the internet. Even so there have been many bids.
But what with the manual missing I will look on the American ebay instead, for Seasons EP. What is this "region coding" that people mentioned in another thread. I bought Double Deluxe form USA there was not any problem to install it.

I joined the community quite recently, actually. I think I regained an interest in the Sims, tried to download my copy of Sims Double Deluxe, failed, and decided to find a copy of Sims 3. Sims 3 was too expensive, so I went a generation down, and here I am.

I haven't seen any copies in stores, though.

I had buy all of my Sims 2 EPs at a used games store since all Walmart and such sell is Sims 3.

I started playing since Sims 1, though I was probably a 2nd grader back then and it had been out for years already (I'm almost 15 now) so I diffidently don't count as a new player

Well, in regards to the dead links, there's tons still online. Not necessarily active for some, but online none the less. Here's the The Sims 2 Fansites page that's not advertised on ModTheSims (e.g. few people know that a "links" section exists). It was only when the staff announced that the wiki pages could use some clean up that I noticed there was a wikipage dedicated to Sims 2 links. So I typed up as many links as I could search for...waaayyyyy too many stuff.

In terms of whether the game is dead, I wouldn't say that. I would say that it's not hyped up as much as back in the early 2000s, when The Sims was a new concept, with life simulation being new/improved. Also, I would say that battle/shooter games and console games get more hype than a gentle/non-destructive game like this (except for the corruption to game files, that being the destructive part, lol). So hearing about The Sims 2 in the media might make a person think such a concept is dead.

Also, check out the "New Creators" threads here for the last few months, you'll see a ton of New Sims 2 items. But I think people find a lot of dead links because it costs money for people to host sites, and some of the smaller sites have decided to get rid of older items to make room for Sims 3 stuff. That helps keep their bandwidth at a reasonable rate, which keeps the fees low. Not every CC site is lucky enough to have so many kind and generous donors like this one does.

I thought "region coding" referred to dvds that you would watch on your dvd player, such as movies. From what I've seen of the Sims dvds, the American and European versions are interchangeable. The only difference I've noticed is that the European ones give the option for installing the game in various European languages during set up and the American one's only give English or Spanish as an option. The other languages are there, you just have to go into the registry to change it.

I've gotten many of the Sims EPs as well as Stuff packs new on Amazon. In fact, I just completed my collection with Teen Style Stuff, Celebrations, and Ikea stuff. IKea and Teen were packaged on a disk with University. So, it's still possible to find unopened packages of the games. The prices varied and University by itself was significantly more expensive than the bundled version.

Back to topic:

There are many sites that disappear and many more keep popping up. Fandom does what it can to preserve what's out there in the community, so if you are looking for something from a site that is no longer active, you can often find it at the graveyard or at one of the yahoo groups that keep showing up. Go to the WCIF thread here at Mod The Sims. Other Sim websites have similar sections.

Target here where I live still sells a lot of Sims 2 and their expansions. That's how I got my Fun With Pets collection(x2), Season, Bon Voyage, Apartment Life and FreeTime.

I bought the holiday pack and Glamour Life on Ebay from UK because I couldn't find it here. These days however I see a lot of Sims 2 (the big bulky box with the CD in it) at Thrift Stores, and I always laugh and get tempted to buy it just to have it. I've had to replace my Pets twice, the first one I misplaced the disc or I THOUGHT I misplaced it, and then come to find out a week after I bought it, my husband opened the CD drive of my old computer which is now his, and there it was. Talk about a face palm!

The Sims series is one of those types that will never die. As others have said there's a lot of games older than the Sims 2 that are still being bought and played. Some people are willing to pay a small fortune for older games they can't find. Games is one of those hobbies that can kill your budget in the blink of an eye, if you're not careful. It took me a year to gather all the expansions/stuff packs, and that was with combined collections.

You misspelled "woohoo".