Is there an actual, canon, map of Simnation anywhere? I'm curious.

(I get that its basically meant to be America, but is it canonically 100% America?)

I don't think there is an actual "national map".

There is no official map, unless you consider the ones from the console games.

There are though a few unofficial maps floating out there.

I personally just place everything in an alternate Earth. Sunset Valley is in California/Calsimfornia, Bridgeport is Seattle, Willow Creek is New Orleans, Strangetown is small town Nevada, etc.

Hmm... where would Sixam be on the map? :P

Sirus of course. --- Or "Planet X" if you are more inclined to "Pulp" then "Ancient Aliens".

I doubt there is, they intentionally leave the national and government lore alone likely to allow players to project their own ideas into it.

That being said, there are some interesting and fascinating reads:
http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/SimNation

Map
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net...=20140213203816

Frankly, I wish there'd be more discussion about this and would love to hear people's thoughts. I do agree with you and imagine SimNation being the SimWorld's version of America but I imagine other people don't. However, when making the Sims 1 they even stated that the game was based on an American sort of society but, again, that doesn't have to be set in stone.

However, it should be noted that Sims have a lot of royal houses and was founded by a Monarch (Sims Medieval) and those are more European concepts. Very much a mixture of everything.

SimNation is certainly a representative-democracy and arguably has a military (or political or otherwise) hegemony on the world (or possibly a world government) as the top political career is "Leader of the Free World".

SimNation being on earth would explain why many of our musical artist have their songs airing on sim radio.

I have no idea what I imagine SimNation is. It just sort of... Is :P

I'm English myself, but most of the pop culture I absorb is Anerican, so that probably influences it all a lot

The map James009 posted leaves me thinking:

x I always thought Riverblossom Hills was Swedish? I think I heard it somewhere, could be wrong

x Aurora Skies is not norweigan, absolutely not. It has Iceland all written over it. And I thought Dragon Valley was in the UK/Ireland?

x Barnacle Bay has in my mind always been closer to Sunset Valley

x Belladonna Cove has for me always been closer to New York/Bridgeport since I can see some New York influences in the town (like the stand-up café)

x Shouldn't Veronaville be placed in Italy/England? The victorian houses and the italian ones, and it is based on Shakespeare

x I always thought Strangetown and Lucky Palms we're closer to each other. They both have that two-road thing going on, I thought it was the same road. Look in the spoiler

I never owned sims3 so I dont know half of those places :P

I would be curious to see the realtionship between sims 2 cities/towns/neighbourhoods and sims 4 cities/towns/neighbourhoods.

I was thinking about it all when I was thinking about the legacy blog I do, I realised I needed a rough idea of the locations of places in relation to each other. I eithier needed to make map of my own or find a canon map. It's not so bad right now, but if each expansion adds a neighbourhood it'll get crowded, fast.

Edit: In my head its bears little resemblance to the real world. Its a sort of mishmash of european/american/english popculture. I suppose there are other continents, but I've only really thought about it in terms of holiday destinations lol.

Edit2: the more I see that map you linked, @James009, the more I like it... where did you find it? I might have to steal it Or at least borrow to influence my personal headcanon. I'm thinking Willow Creek would be near starlight shores, and Oasis Springs in the desert jsut behind it. Granite falls in the Stoney Moutains somewhere... My only problem with that map is I was imaging a central mega-city (SimCity, obv). And, like I said, without playing Sims3 I dont recognise a large propertion of the place names.

Oh yeah, I definitely do not agree with that map on some things, such as the following:
Sims University is not in California, it's in Northern Massachusetts/Somewhere in New England
Twinbrook should be a bit more inland, as right now, it sits on New Orleans, which is where Willow Creek would belong.
Aurora Skies is definitely not the Netherlands and belongs in Iceland.
Al Simhara, in Spain, REALLY? LOL
Shang Simla... A little lotta bit too far North.
Not sure why Lunar Lakes is even on there.
Roaring Heights, inspired by Miami, should be a bit more south, but at the same time has rolling hills, Florida is as flat as a pancake. Perhaps Roaring Heights would be better suited in the Savannah, Georgia area or there bouts.
The Simaican Isles... Uhm, first Sunlit Tides is in the pacific ocean, nowhere near Isla Paradiso which is in the Caribbean. Also what ever island (I can't seem to find it) they used for the "Simaican Isles" looks strange Barnacle Bay... I'm not sure where I'd even put that, probably Bermuda to be honest.
And last but not least, Appaloosa Plains, it seems to be sitting in Missouri/Kansas right now, which is kind of on but kind of off at the same time. I'd think Appaloosa Plains would be more around the Utah/Wyoming Region.

Maybe it isn't meant to eb a hard-and-fast transfer from an american map onto a sims map? Inspired by America, definately, but you might not be able to point at an Earth map and go, "Pleasantview, there, Strangetown, there..." as it probably has non-Earth geography

I personally like to picture them in different made up countries, in their own made up world. Just like we have our world, they have theirs :p

My way of determining locations on SimNation is to make it very general, and add more specific "general" descriptions if needed. Here's my view:

And if the place is an island, it could be anywhere on the map. Heck, there could be an oasis in the middle of the map, none of those regions are defined in specific terms.

Otherwise, i don't think it would be possible to have a definitive map of SimNation. Too many Sim games with different locations, that consolidating all of them into one map...may break each other's canon-locations...if that makes sense.

Also: Twinbrook is an island

It could jsut be a really big continent. Sim-Pangea. With other continents/islands for holidays destinations

Until TS4 you didnt travel between neighbourhoods/cities easily or often, so theres no reason to think theyre actually anywhere near each other.

Edit: And speaking of extremley general maps... Check out this beauty It's what I've got for TS4 towns, so far

Seeing Al Simhara placed in Spain on that map makes my eyes feel like they're bleeding.

And how about Miniopolis and Urbville from The Urbz: Sims in the City
Miniopolis has swamp lands and Urbville has a very New York feel to it.

The is also all the other sim towns from the console/handheld games SimValley, Willville, Pleasantview, Melbourne, Whiskerton, Barkersville, Moolight Bay, Vista Beach, Beacon Bay, Surger Maple Coast, & Port Abrel

I just had a thought, one other fun thing to consider is that they introduced Tiberium into The Sims 3. You could maybe make an argument that the two games are connected somehow. But I think it'd be a stretch to say they're in the same universe (as that involves all the real-world countries) but maybe they're related.

What if we have SimNation turn into the GDI in the Sims 5? Hahaha.

Anyways, I started with a better argument with this and realized the futility half-way through.


But in terms of mapping, we should also look at the Simcity series more for geography.