It’s easy to get stuck in a building rut. Now that Sims Mobile players have four floors worth of renovation space available to them, many are left scratching their heads and deciding just how to fill those rooms. How many bedrooms and bathrooms does one player need anyway?

Consider the creative genius that is Mini Moo. Her stunningly sophisticated build features not only interior design staples such as bedrooms and kitchens, but she’s also created fabulous new areas in which her Sims may relax.

Create a movie theater
📝 Place squat, square recliners in rows.
📝 Keep lighting low and minimal
📝 Include “sound equipment” such as the guitar amp for realism
📝Create narrow rows with runner carpets or the cheap kitchen mat (they have a lovely texture, and they snap well together.)

Create a Spa
📝 Cover walls with wood panels
📝 Install a hardwood floor in a similar color to the walls
📝 Use squat wooden coffee tables as “seating.”
📝Include bathroom amenities such as soap dishes and hampers for a steam/spa room vibe.

Bring the Outside In
📝Columns aren’t just for exterior support! Bring columns inside as fashion-forward interior walls.
📝Bring pizzazz to your makeshift column wall by alternating column colors. This creates the look of a stylish feature wall.

Whar are your favorite rooms in your home? Share out in the comments!

Minutes after FreePlay’s Sim Gurus confirmed Carebears for the newest Sims FreePlay update, the Game Changers let loose a barrage of videos outlining brand new Sims FreePlay events for the month of October.

Amid the player favorites and hobby event reruns, FreePlay will present its players with a Share Your Care Live event, Influence Island season two, a new SimChase event, a Downtown Developer event, and a new maternity pack!

Most of these events offer cutely colorful prizes such as rainbow doors and windows, animated Carebears, lollipop hedges, and so much more!

Keep it locked here for the exclusive resources you’ll need to succeed during these events!

​Stay safe and happy Simming!

Although word of this sugary-sweet update leaked onto YouTube late last week, Sims FreePlay developers officially confirmed Sunday what players have buzzed about for days: a Halloween collaboration between Sims FreePlay and the Carebears.

In a video saturated with pastel pinks and Carebear baby blues, the FreePlay team showed off their latest update with stunning, saccharine vivaciousness.

The video begins as most standard Halloween videos do; the camera pans over a dark field with bony, bare trees, a cluster of jack-o-lanterns, darting shadows, and frightened Sims whose teeth chatter in fear. The darkness cracks open when a team of three Carebears bursts through the threshold of an unsuspecting door. Quickly befriending the gathered Sims, the Carebears dance, play, skip, and are generally pleasant visitors full of their signature joy.

​

What does this really mean for FreePlay? Can players look forward to a Carebear-themed live event? Will Simmers have the chance to earn colorful new onesies and rainbow-striped furniture?

Stay tuned to find out! The “Scare and Care” update drops October 5th!

Happy Simming!

As autumn rolls through the northern hemisphere and kicks off an impending holiday season, the Sims franchise is ratcheting up their revenue-generating efforts to engage Simmers in a series of player-pleasing patches and fresh events. FreePlay dropped a clue about its October update; Sims Mobile finally unveiled its newest event type; and Sims 4 made good on its promise to improve available skin tones. ​

​This week, the Sims FreePlay dove headfirst into a rerun of beloved live and hobby events.  On September 23rd, both the Urban furniture hobby event and the Holiday High-Rise event kicked off. During the Urban furniture event, players hammer their way through the woodworking hobby with as many Sims as they can manage.  Each time the player completes the woodworking hobby, they receive a furniture pack.  These pieces include items such as lush green walls, urban trees, a sleek urban fireplace, a plethora of chairs, bookcases, tables, plush but sophisticated sofas, squat urban beds and bedside tables, rugs, lighting, counters, and dining room items! 

Additionally, the Holiday High-Rise event began.  This event unlocks stunning new furniture fit for any luxe hotel or high-rise condo.  As usual, Simmers will need to craft as many items as they can. Using their crafted candles, pottery, glassware, and jewelry, the Simmer "purchases" various furniture packs. The available packs include lobby stone tile, black and silver spotlights, toilet partitions, sleek shower and towels, sink soaps, toiletries trays, black and white desks, paintings, vases, cupboards, luggage racks, floor lilies, shelves, chairs, gold conch decor, luxurious television sets, counter tops, coffee tables, spas, and doors! Phew! If Simmers earn all of the aforementioned prizes, they will earn the grand prize: an incredible condo that Sims can visit for extended vacations. 

Players can look forward to one last SimChase that triggers September 26th, but this is another season four rerun: Teen Retreat. 

As expected, Sims FreePlay dropped a clue about their upcoming October update.  On September 22, the official Sims FreePlay Twitter account tweeted a three-paneled picture with a Jack-o-lantern in the first panel, a pair of lollipops in the second panel, and a blue rain cloud in the third.  While the jack-o-lantern is a clear reference to an upcoming Halloween event, Simmers collectively scratched their heads about the lollipops and raincloud.  A few Twitter users pointed out that the images look remarkably like the printed tummies of Carebears, and soon, images of cute and colorful carebears began populating both Freeplay Twitter feeds and subreddits.  What is the Freeplay team planning? Only time will tell. 

The mystery of impending updates is largely over for Sims Mobile. In a stunning reveal, the Sims Mobile Game Changers completed the map they'd pieced together for over a week.  On September 22nd, the Sims Mobile team rolled out their newest live event type: a treasure hunt.  If Influence Island is FreePlay's version of Sweet Treats, Sims Mobile's newest Treasure hunt event is its version of FreePlay's live events.  The treasure hunt event is a recurring live event which will alternate with Sweet Treats.  Working together with a new child NPC named Samuel Friday, or SmallFrye for short, Sims Mobile Sims will gather clues, conduct investigations, and lead expeditions to unearth relics: skull coins and golden bunnies.  These relics, in turn, "purchase" prizes that the player must "dig for." If the player manages to earn enough relics and unearth all the prizes, they will earn the grand prize: a collection of college-themed hair, costumes, and furniture.  Players will have to manage their time wisely in order to earn enough clues to power both investigations and expeditions. There are the usual event cool-downs to keep in mind, and a nail-biting element of chance via Smallfrye's relic-discovering mini-game. Naturally, players can earn more chances to "dig" for relics by expending simoleons, SimCash, and cupcakes.  The first treasure hunting live event will populate in player games September 28th.  

In addition, players will take part in a new Wumples on October 4th.  Presenting the usual barrage of energy-sucking activities, Wumples the bunny offers a jailhouse toilet, a jailhouse soap shelf, and ten fashion gems in exchange for the player's labors. 

As usual, Sims Mobile presents a parade of purchasable packs in the coming weeks as well: Treasure Hunter's Explorer's Pack, the College Collection pack, and the Darling Dreamboat pack.  The contents are as follows: 

WHAT: Treasure Hunt explorer’s pack
WHEN: September 28th
COST: $9.99
Rewards:

• Society House Sofa
• 500 Ancient Relics
• 100 Golden Bunnies
• 30 Clues
• 500 SimCash
• 5,000 Simoleons
• 10 Cupcakes

WHAT: College Collection Pack
WHEN: September 28th
COST: $7.99 USD
REWARDS:

• Under Locker and Key locker
• Dorm Room Drawers
• Preppy Planner and Pinboard
• Standard Cubed Shelf
• Narrow Cubed Shelf
• 8,000 simoleons

WHAT: Darling Dreamboat Pack
WHEN: October 4th
COST: $8.99

• Casual and Calm ensemble
• Really ripped jeans
• Dreamy dreads
• Keep it Cool Combat boots
• Lazy day top
• 9,000 simoleons

​The Sims 4 team finally revealed its timeline for improved skin tones this week.  In a jaw-dropping Tweet, SimGuruLyndsay not only promised improved skin tones in an October 6th patch but also announced that, by December, the Sims 4 team will roll out over 100 brand new skin tones, a skin tone slider, and a make-up slider. This astounding announcement, of course, comes on the heels of many years filled with player protests. Since Sims 4's inception, players have turned to skin mods for the rich, shimmering, coppery skin tones more closely akin to those in real life. 

This goes without saying, but as a life-simulator, Sims 4 needed this change.  This push for greater representation is not only appreciated, not only long-awaited, but also necessary. 

Stay safe, wash your hands, and happy Simming

This week we have Bee Bunny in the studio,  we’ve a brand new segment from the gallery all about Cocovannilla including a full page interview on the site, PeaFrogSims has a plethora of new challenges to take on, Lady Sweet Tart puts the spotlight on a brand new Cc creator, and we have a plethora of Sims, Sims Mobile and Sims free play news

For many people of color, self-hate begins before we have even the proper words for it.

When my grandmother took me to buy my first baby doll, she steered to the little section of curly-haired, deeply-browned skinned toys. I stared at the humble rows of plaited, kinky curls and flat noses, at the unblinking brown eyes and full mouths that were like mine, and I felt shame.

“I don’t want these,” I said.

”Why?” she replied, clearly perplexed.

”.... Because black dolls are ugly.”

My experience, though heartbreaking and harrowing, is not unique. Even now, despite the world’s new appreciation for black and brown culture, for our endless contributions, for the need for better representation, the children I serve in urban education still avoid the brown crayons in their crayon boxes.

“Peach is better than brown,” one of my fourth graders once remarked, her head bent over a scribbled portrait of herself.

The world at large teaches people of color that there is “good” and “bad” hair. That rich, dark skin is not a marker of beauty but of savagery. These ideals are deeply ingrained in people of color. Currently, movements to include black and brown people in the beauty narrative is not simply a sign of changing times but also a necessity. To undo hundreds of years of self-hate is no small feat.

The Sims, and any other video game that allows a person to create a character in their own image, can be likened unto the baby doll section of a toy store. People of color stare at the rows of skin tones available to them and, finding none that really represent them, subconsciously swallow a difficult fact: that the companies people of color financially support still don’t give half a damn enough about representation to get it right the first time. How can a child, dark-skinned and unaware of their own rich loveliness, look at a Sim meant to represent them and feel seen, feel beautiful, when the darkest skin tone available to them
appears as ashy and translucent as poorly painted cellophane?

It’s only a game, perhaps. This is what many detractors pose. But what is represented in the media, the medium we all consume in gargantuan amounts each day, deeply affects the self-esteem, self-image, and self-love of people of color for the rest of their lives. It allows people who do not share the plight of poor representation to continue ignoring what is obvious: that people of color exist and that their representation matters.

Weeks ago, Sims 4 announced that, amid mounting social pressure, that they would finally improve the skin tones available in base game. This was an issue long assailed by black Simmers everywhere, but in the wake of intensifying Black Lives Matter movements and the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, EA could no longer turn a blind eye to the adamant wishes of its players.

This, of course, says a lot about the composition of the decision-making powers that be. I find it unlikely that a person of color would have green-lighted the terrible tones in the first place. To truly amend and avoid such missteps in the future, it’s imperative that EA ensures that people of color always have a seat at the decision-making table.

September 23rd, 2020, the SimGurus finally, formally announced that improved skin tones would hit Sims 4 PC games on October 6th and console games November 10th. But this is not all. In December, Sims 4 will roll out over 100 new skin tones, a skin tone slider, and a makeup slider.

Why not stop at just skin tones? Skin is a tricky beast. Two people can be of the same color but have different undertones. That is— not all browns are created equal. One can be “brown” with a rich, coppery red undertone, a sunny yellowed undertone, or a cooler, darker undertone. And this to say nothing of the shimmering beauty that can be called black. The darkest of us can be so stunningly black that we appear to glow, a jaw-dropping blue-black appearance the color of midnight, or even a smooth inky blackness that seems a near impossibility. A slider addresses the variations in skin undertones. Including a make-up slider corrects the lipstick, eye shadow, and blushes that often clashed garishly with darker skin tones,

These tones, currently, do not exist in Sims 4. The darker skin tones lack the required richness and intensities of those observed in real life.

I’ve written a fantasy book that involves a cast almost entirely of people (beings?) of color. Last November, I finally sat down to create my beautiful dark-skinned elf, Malakai. I was shocked when the darkest skin available to me was closer to gray,

What was supposed to be my brand new black beauty became more closely akin to the living dead. This was disheartening to say the least.

If you haven’t been following, allow me to reiterate why this matters. Such blatant disregard for the inherent beauty of blackness and brownness communicates a lack of understanding about the gravity of the situation at hand.

Even as Jovan of Sims Community broke the story, he faced the mindless trolling comments of unabashed White Supremacists. Jovan, rightly, told the user where to go with their racism.

I was prone to believe the comment the off-handed, micro-aggression I’ve grown deeply used to in my daily life, but a quick peek into the offender’s feed showed me differently.

White supremacy is real. But this is an article for another day.

If nothing else, remember this: people of color everywhere are striving to reclaim their beauty, their self-worth, their self-love. Games, and all media for that matter, must do their part to support this reclamation. Dismantling self-hate must be an intentional act, an act in which we must all take part.

Go forth, happy Simming, and love yourself.

One misstep that many novice builders make is a simple one: they assume that once they are able to build bigger rooms that they should. Then, after building a huge room, they push furniture to the walls and leave huge swathes of empty space. Don’t fall into this trap!

✔️Bigger is NOT always better. It is better to build a smaller room that is stuffed to the brim with good objects than to throw expensive objects into a huge room.
✔️Fill every empty corner with floor plants
✔️Fill wall space with curtains, wall lighting, and wall art.
✔️Allow furniture to breathe in the space.
✔️Demarcate space with area rugs
✔️Use fireplaces for instant coziness.
✔️Use simple white or black swatches to make even cheap items appear luxe.
✔️When in doubt, create a new seating area.

What are your favorite tips and tricks for using space? Comment below!