Sims Mobile’s Latest Passive/Playable Feature Poses Problems

The latest highly-anticipated Sims Mobile update did not come without a few unexpected glitches.

On February 8th, Firemonkeys studios rolled out a fresh Sims Mobile feature that provided an overhaul to the game’s current game play. Before February 8th, Sims Mobile restricted its players to four playable Sims. When a certain Sim completed four living “traits” in game, the Sim asked to be “retired,” leaving a game slot open for a new Sim, usually of the next generation.

This generations style game play was the heart of Sims Mobile since its global inception in March 2018.

However, as the game gained popularity, many dedicated Simmers began holding onto favored Sims, choosing not to retire them for either long periods of time or not at all.

This resulted in some Simmers advocating for more playable Sim slots. Holding onto certain Sims while building relationships and birthing Sim babies created a backlog of “NPC” or “non-playable character” Sims that Simmers were itching to introduce.

The newest “playable/passive” feature in the Sims Mobile allows players to make any playable Sim a “passive” NPC at any time. When a player renders a Sim “passive,” they free up that Sim’s playable slot. Then, players can promote a previously non-playable Sim to “playable.”

​This brilliant compromise preserves the all-powerful number of four, upon which Sims Mobile’s events and underlying mechanics hinge, but allows for more freedom and flexibility in gameplay.

But this change did not come without hiccups.

Game Changer Simmerdown Mal noticed first. When she made her forever Sim “passive” and then reactivated her as “playable” her Sim lost the ability to retire at all. Mal’s only option was to make passive and remove her completely, which Mal would never do to her forever Sim.

Other players also noticed that after becoming passive, some Sims lost critical relationship stories. This caused Simmers to lose treasured connections with other players, forcing them to start the grueling relationship story build grind all over again.

Firemonkeys is currently looking into these troublesome issues. According to Game Changer Salix, players who have experienced these glitches should report them on AHQ, EA’s bug-reporting forum.