I have always wondered is there an exact year when the sims 2 allegedly takes place? I read somewhere that The Sims 3 takes place in the fifties, the sims 1 takes place in the nineties, and the sims 2 takes place in the current time period. But I've always wondered is there a more specific year or time when the sims 2 takes place like 2004 or 2006? Or is it just whatever the player imagines?

Yes to me Sims 3 is like the fifties but Sims 1 is more like the early seventies with Sims 2 in the early nineties.

Sims 2 is meant to take place 25 years after Sims 1. Meaning if Sims 1 is the nineties, Sims 2 is this year or the future. Which, with technology like servos and the Simvac and such, is not entirely out of the question, especially considering the game was made in 2004.

I always see it as the mid 2000s, but when I think about it it would kinda be in the future... with the alien pregnancies and robots...

I guess what I do is a play a family that has a story that takes place in a certain year, so what I do is name/rename the neighborhood and than put a year after the hood name; that tells you what year the events in that hood are taking place. For instance I renamed Downtown to Downtown Los Angeles-2011. And Bluewater Village was changed to Ridgewater-2006. So I guess it technically it has to do a lot with imagination.

TS2 takes place 25 years after TS1, while TS3 takes place 25 years prior to TS1. I'm not sure when TS4 takes place, but considering Cassandra is a teenager in that game, I'd assume 5-8 years prior to TS2.

EA is horrible at story-telling as you can see though, as TS3 is nothing like the fifties, and TS1 is nothing like the seventies, and TS4 is nothing like the late nineties. Based upon the technology, media, common lifestyles, and social programs in TS2, I'd imagine it takes place in the early-mid 2000's, and therefor is the only one of the four that makes chronological sense.

I think of time and space in games as separate from our own. It's just easier that way.

And, no matter what, the technology within each Sim game stays static: imagine our world but where the tech never changes (unless an EP is added), the clothing on the racks at stores stayed the same in terms of styles/designs, and what kids do to pass the time is exactly the same as their grandparents.

I don't know about the rest of y'all, but Drama Acres and most of my other neighborhoods exist in the twenty and a halfth century.

I've heard that Sims 3 was supposed to be set 50 years before Sims 2, and Sims 1 was supposed to be set 25 years before Sims 2. (My guess is that those years are based on the ages of Sims like the Goths that are present in the first three games). In Sims 3 Mortimer Goth is a child, in Sims 1 he is an adult, and he is an elder in Sims 2. Bella Goth is a child in Sims 3, an adult in Sims 1 and missing (and marked as dead in SimPE) in Sims 2.

I personally don't worry about it.

I hadn't even realized there were supposed to be years that the games were set in- the fact that each new release incorporates new real-world technology always made me think they were just later on, with some comic-book-universe-style retconning going on to explain away the age differences between characters...

SimHampton is in its own timeline (current year is the Year of Shadow), with no direct analogue to Earth time.

Never really give much thought to what year/years any of the Sims games are set in, but I agree on Sim 2 seeming a bit early 90's.

My own game is just in a time of it's own. The time is current, but not current by real world standards.

My own theory is something like this. First of all, the Sims world is not OUR universe and is therefor different than ours both cultural and technological.
But The Sims 2 is set in 2004. The Sims 1 is set 25 year before that, which is 1979. This puts The Sims 3 in 1954 (which is VERY anachronic yes, but most of the stuff are in there for gameplay reasons, who would like to play a new sims game that is not updated to show how "our" world is?). The Sims 4 is 2014 but an alternate universe than earlier games.

Personally, I do not have a set year for my sims, not really even thinking of them being on this earth necessarily. I might incorporate some historical cultures or people into my sims' world, but they have no real tie to the actual culture or people. For instance, I have had Vikings in a hood, but they were not historically correct in the least. Plus, it is so rare that I actually play the starter hoods instead playing my own hoods that the timeline that was originally intended doesn't matter. If I play the extracted sims from the starter hoods, their ages may be off, such as all the PV sims being the age as they originally are except for the Goths where Mortimer and Bella are adults, Cassie a teen, and Alexander a child. So timing is all in the mind of the player

My set year for the neighborhood is up to each individual hood and progresses as sims age.

As for the overall timeline, here's my theory:

Sims 3: This game is 25 years before sims 1. So, given the levels of technology (not counting future tech in into the future, that's way farther out than even TS2), it was in a prosperous, free era of SimNation. As for aliens, they were just beginning the Pollination program. They would abduct anyone on the streets, regardless of their desire for it.

Sims 1: Because the government doesn't care if your kids starve but by golly they better not flunk school or else they'll go to military school, and the lack of technology, I believe that TS1 was during a military dictatorship. Given the drop in technology compared to 25 years ago, I believe that the oppressive SimNation dictatorship banned various forms of technology and many sites on the Internet to keep people from using it to educate themselves and rebel. Because there's no alien abductions in TS1, I assume that the government fought the aliens and subdued them... for a while. (The aliens in TS2 Strangetown that survived were still under an independent nation containing Strangetown because their terrain is unlike anything in TS1. Dina and Nina's alien-hybrid dad or grandpa looked so human like his parents could cover up his alien heritage to save his life. All other aliens were probably killed or kept in camps. Hmm. Maybe some aliens getting released from the camps and learning the ways of TS2 SimNation would make a good hood story.) Back on topic, I think the government exaggerated the danger of aliens and fearmongered to make people willing to sacrifice their civil rights for protection.

Sims 2: 25 years later, for some reason, a rebellion has happened. SimNation is free again, under the hands of a democratic government. Schools and colleges are available to the common folk once more, the government actually cares for the welfare of the people, and technology is beginning to flourish (especially with mods like Monique's PC and objects like custom laptops. I think one came as a preorder bonus for AL but I dunno.) The aliens have gradually restarted their Pollination program. However, to avoid liabilities, they only take those who take an interest in them. (Hence why you need an expensive telescope to get abducted.)

Sims 4: AU that I would like to pretend doesn't exist.

So that's my $0.02.

The lilsister computer is guaranteed not to attempt world domination by 2015. According to it's Sims 2 description.
So Sims 2 is probably early 2000s
meaning Sims is cicra 1975
With Sims 3 being 1950s.

As others have mentioned it is not chronological to our own time.

In my own game the time is around 2035.

Since the basic computer looks like something we had at highschool in 1980, I can't see it being further ahead in time.

Well, clearly it's an alt-Earth, with somewhat but not quite the same technological progression. Sims 2 has servos (obviously the Asimovs got developed a bit faster) and cell phones but not touch screens. Early '00s seems about right. Cell phones really came in around them, and PCs. I shared an email address with both my parents through high school--being University, they were early tech adopters. I got my own PC when I left for college and my parents were dubious because there was a computer lab in my dorm and surely the three computers in it were enough for 53 girls to share--they were only for writing papers on, after all. (My roomie and I both had PCs: we were the only room in the house where both roommates had one.) Freshman year--'98--no one had cells, by senior year--'02--everyone had them.
As far as society goes, since sims don't see race, history clearly developed along very different lines, and we know they have royalty (regicide code chance card, Law Enforcement Career) as well as elected representatives (politics career). The existence of supernatural sims, flying superheros and ecologists as job positions (does Tony Stark come from Sims Earth?), the differences between sim witches and our witches (Seriously, if any of you have flying broomsticks, do want a demo, please!), and teleportation implies that the laws of the universe are different, too. I think I recollect something about two moons in the base game night sky as well.

I don't have any of the others, so I can't say about them, but I suspect EA would have done better keeping the base game set in now-modern-times and done stuff packs for other eras. Goodness knows there is enough medieval fan-made content for Sims 2 to fill at least one, maybe three, expansion packs very nicely indeed, so they could find a market for it.

I have an iPhone 5 default replacement for the cell phone, so it looks more modern. I also use TakaMQ's laptop with Monique's PC's features. So that brings my game up to today's tech standards, at least somewhat.

I was using computers like that at school in 2004 when the game came out! And iMacs, when I went to graphic design college. Remember them, with the coloured panels on the side? Although most of the office beige models had been replaced with flat-screen, black-and-grey models at that point, I guess the time they were standard still was more 2002 or so. I played TS2 on a screen just like that PC until 2011, because I cadged the monitor free from a friend and didn't have money to upgrade.

However, I still don't have a Little Sister PC. I'm quite upset about that. I would like a folding screen, even though it looks like a laptop from 1993, and who uses a tower laid on its side these days?

The Sims? At least some of my Sims do

Upright towers suck! The horizontal ones you put the monitor on top and then they're at a comfortable height for your eyes and the drives, buttons, and ports are right there in front of you. Upright towers are in the way of either your desk space or your leg room, sprawl cables everywhere, and are vulnerable to cats, plus I have to find something else to put the monitor on top of (that's another thing, why aren't more monitors easier to adjust for height?)

Bring back horizontal towers!

The Sims games being in any chronological order clearly does not work. There are inconsistencies in age, appearance and character between the different installments. Let alone that all games taking place in the same timeline would mean that the Goths built 3-4 towns, have been the first family in each of them and have an old manor in each of them (with a graveyard).

The Sims games each take place in an alternate timeline at a time roughly corresponding to the years they were released in (meaning Sims 1 is set in the late 90s/early 2000s, SIms 2 in the mid-late 2000s Sims 3 in the early 2010s and Sims 4 in the mid 2010s)

Sims 3 < Sims 1 < Sims 2
50 < 25 < Present (?)


I always wondered if I was the only on that thought this and thought it was a little creepy. Cool, I guess, but creepy.