Fortunately, none of the things you describe happen where I live. Religious groups more or less ignore/tolerate each other.





I'm sure EA won't add religion to the game simply because I say it would make a nice addition, and I know that if that won't happen I'll need to get CC if I want some form of religion in my game. However, we were discussing how this would benefit the game or how it should be implemented, but almost everyone here just gets irrational and claims it would offend the entire world if religion were to be introduced.




You don't have to agree with me but just stating that it won't happen and that you don't want it because it will offend everyone doesn't help. So far, the only people I see offended are the atheists.



Yes, race in South africa is an issue but you can't talk about race in the middle east. Maybe ethnicities.




So far I only understood that atheists are so firm in their beliefs that they get offended by the mere mention of a god, whoever he may be.






Nice try. you accuse me of personal attacks and then you go on and carry out your own personal attacks. Also, the point I was trying to make to Ranissa, and that you missed, was that a real Sunday school teacher does not dismiss religion as being offensive.




There is race in the game. You can create sims to resemble any race you want and yet no one was offended by it. Why? Because it was presented realistically and everyone could identify with it. They can do the same thing with religion/spirituality, and present it with a few basic objects, interactions or celebrations. There were a few in Sims2, I think they could expand in the same way. Surely, your proposal of Llama on a cross would offend many people because that would be open mockery.

So just because people where you live (which I noticed is Romania, a strongly Catholic/Christian country) don't fight means that it should be included into the Sims game because it's possible for people not to fight? Forgive me for putting words in your mouth, but not all areas are blessed to have strongly religious people ignore/tolerate each other.

The few benefits of religion in the Sims far outweighs the cons of putting it in. EA wants to make a game that appeals to the most amount of people it can. The best way to do that is to avoid topics that already divide people. If religion was added into the game then someone somewhere would be offended and that's one less person that'd pay and play.

You have to think like a salesman. How do you create a game where you play out people's lives without offending people but rather bring them together?

There are more important things to be implemented in the game than religion. I wouldn't mind too much though, as living in a Christian society, there's the influence of Christianity everywhere, i just simply ignore it. But that would cause controversy for sure.

Temples and churches would be a nice implement to the neighborhood, for landscaping. But sims really don't need to have beliefs, that would help the game in nothing.

The Sims is what the individual player makes it. They came out with holiday stuff in Sims 2, and that's about as religious as EA needs to get IMHO. There are plenty of modders and artists out there that can create religion based CC if they want and then people can download what they want...they did it in the first two Sims games and it works just fine with no one being offended.

As an atheist, I am happy there is no mention of religion in the Sims 3. I think our sims worship a brand new religion anyway, and that is bowing down to the all powerful player

Where you live is not a microcosm of the world. If we want to play that game, then where I live (the Midwestern United States) must be *exactly like everywhere else*.



Let me preface with this: discussing including religion in the Sims (to steal a movie quotation shamelessly) "is like dancing about architecture". It might be interesting but it will be pointless because, as many of us keep saying, it probably won't happen. Also, it's rather a moot point because you can do it yourself once there is more CC out there, from your own NPC to your own buildings to your own ceremonies to even your own career track (man I miss Hogwarts as a career track!). That said, let's talk:

I've not seen you talk about how to implement it except to talk about a "holy book", a place of celebration, someone to lead celebrations and celebrations. If I missed something, let me know. Here's the discussion:

1) Not all religions rely on a "holy book"; some use many, others use none. How do you make a game that appeals to the broadest spectrum of people so you can make sales, not offend certain sects of the population and still be fun and engaging when you include a "holy book"? How do you define it to make it worthwhile, not worthless: other than an "officiating" career, who benefits from reading it and how - is it just another moodlet?

2) Place of celebration. I admit, I haven't done much celebrating in the Sims 3 and in Sims 2, I always had weddings at home (easier to control, imo). As someone who has always considered home the center of a family and so celebrated births, deaths and weddings there, I guess I'm not sure what the purpose of this place would be. However, if you mean it to be a place to "celebrate faith", again there's a sticky wicket: how do you design it? Mosques look different than cathedrals look different than baptist churches look different than halls of jehovah's witnesses...etc etc etc. As for going here for counseling, I think that's awesome - except it's not the only place people go for help or guidance and the way people approach their spiritual leaders for guidance is different.

3) Celebrant/Officiant. I'm assuming this is a career path. If it would intersect the rest of the population like being a klepto does, I can kinda see how it would be cool (yay for officiating at your neighbor's wedding or funeral!) but if it doesn't, the rabbit hole = Sleep in the vestry, work hard, Spirituality as usual, prepare sermon (this could be offensive to some religions), meet congregation (again, could be offensive)?

4) More celebrations. I liked having Christmas except I never used the stuff - I always forgot or it was too much trouble. I did use it for taking family photos but it's hard to document a Christmas every year. I'm not sure what other celebrations would go here. Some religions have wakes but you can technically do that already - just throw a party and have the urn in pride of place. Some religions have bar mitzvah (not sure I spelled that correctly) but now you're heading into deep religious waters again. I doubt Southern Baptists would appreciate a Jewish ceremony in a game with the exclusion of their tradition of baptism. I'm not able to think of any other ceremonies that are spiritual without straying too far into one religion's "territory" over another.

As for benefiting the game: none of this benefits the game if EA would lose a significant portion of its fanbase over including it. Again, I also say: CC for it!

I think you should go back a couple of pages. There are a couple of people in this thread who say "I'm a believer but I do not want it in my game". Please don't make statements like this as it only weakens the rest of your discussion.



Ah, semantics, how I love thee. Now you've conceded a point that race is an issue in places other than America. Perhaps it's time to concede that, other than in your home country, religion can and does cause great societal rifts.



I went back and looked at my posts. Where did I say I was atheist? You still don't know whether I believe or not because I still actually haven't said.



That's opinion, deary, as you only know what *you* think a "real Sunday school teacher" would do. And no one is "dismissing religion as being offensive". My VERY FIRST point was that I think it's awesome if you want it - put it in your game and have lots of fun.



Race is not about color. Please don't be specious as a simmer being able to create a green sim is not the same discussion as "race relations in the world".

Okay, I'm going to have to leave you guys to it. I'm moving and the computer goes bye bye today.

Final word? Put it in your game yourself and be happy. The end.

I just realized, no one has asked what the sims think!
What do our digital people think about adding religion into their world?
Are they okay with someone other than us as their virtual overlord?
I think this image says it all.



She doesn't look too happy.


Edit: I would like to see the reaction people have when they see this symbol in their game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JainismSymbol.PNG
Does anyone first think religion? Or ...?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism
In case anyone is interested.

Just like people in reallife because who cares if you're atheist or Christian and still talk shit about all religions that you don't believe in?

I think most people think the symbol for Jains is the same for Nazis. I mean, Nazis destroy symbols' goodness, Christian fundies took the religion away from Jesus, even Muslim fundies will attempt to blow themselves up and demean the koran.

I don't mind my sims being catholic or hindu but I don't care for them blowing themselves up in cars just because someone's a pagan or something.

I don't think specific religion should be introduced but perhaps just a single House of Worship. You know, just a simple community lot labled "House of Worship" where Sims can go and worship. They'd just have to make the building as ambiguous as possible.

I agree, if there should be a religion in the Sims, it should be a newly created one just for this game. Llama religion would be awesome! Hail o' mighty Llama!

Sims will -never- have a 'God'.
As far as the creators will ever go to have a religon in the games would be The Plumbbob.
If they -ever- attempted to hint at a religon, they will be sued. No doubt.
We can all dream and spam our download folders with religous stuff as much as we want, but all it will ever be is a dream or spammed download folders.

Race did not affect the sims in any way beyond their appearance. I also would dispute that "realistically" part of your statement, but that's a different topic. With religion, on the other hand, if Sims 3 expansions were to be anything like Sims 2 expansions, sims would likely become obsessed with the religious actions that would come with this hypothetical expansion. It would also be fairly difficult to create a generic religion that does not resemble any group of real-life religions. For example, there are only a limited number of religions that have holy books, with most of those being Judeo-Christian religions (I'm including Islam in that group). There is also a number of mutually exclusive ways to define God.

Well we all have our own opinions and there's no need of debating over it, that's what the debate thread is for. Some of us believe Religion should be in the game, while others believe it shouldn't and we're all pretty much "sticking to our guns".

The Debate Room is more for non-Sims topics, while this thread is specifically focusing on how the addition of religion would impact the game.

Don't call my Dreamydre wrong!
The Debate Room...is for debates.
There isn't (nor should be) any restrictions on Sim Debates (unless it's on something meaningless).

Well of course nobody's going to be offended by having other races in the game, that's not the point. Putting the religions and religious practices will be the same as putting in stereotypes like black sims wanting watermelon or a latino sim driving around in a van with a virgin mary painted on the side.

The Sims having religion in the game will most definitely be viewed as mockery. Don't you see that? The Sims is not serious enough of a game to respectfully represent religion.

The Llama on the cross may be open mockery, but don't you see how this is going to work? WHO'S going to represent Bhudda? WHO'S representing Jesus? Will Hindu-sims worship Llamas instead of cows?

You need to put yourself in a mindset of what the majority of people will think. Because obviously, you're in the extreme minority with this.

I'm basing my statement off of this locked thread.

-random posting-

Offtopic: -Chucks master ball at missingno-

On topic: I've said all I will say.

Or we could let EA keep the game, essentially, the way it is. I'm happy with it at this stage.

On the note of assumptions, I don't assume that those people are ignorant. I'm basing that off my experience with religious people. A good example is the principles of LaVeyan Satanism and Christians. Most Christians believe that Satanism is evil and is against Christianity, and that it's just a cult of devil worshipers.
From my study of Satanism, I've found that it's nothing of the sort. I'm not going to get in depth with it, but it's just an example of how Christianity, and not to mention other religions that take part in the arguments, attacks its "rivals". One of the Satanic Sins is, in fact, ignorance, so to be ignorant of other religions and to persecute other religions without knowing of them would be a Sin.

Either way, I'm not taking part in this argument anymore. At least not with you, Crocobaura. I've made my point. I'm happy with it.

I'd reply to that but apprently it's against the rules to reply to each point a poster makes. It's degrading and bad.





Yes, they could become obessesd, but we also know that it's possible to have interractions associated with certain objects only which would prevent all sims in the neighbourhood developing interest in something you don't want them to.

Better be careful about enabling that pedophilia trait in Awesomemod if you add religion to the game...

Sorry, bad joke.

I'm glad that there's is no religion in Sims. Though the idea of "Forgive me my Sims" EP or a stuff pack sponsored by Vatican sounds hilarious, it would cause too much controversy. Religious people would be upset because the game surely wouldn't show all aspects of their religion and *gasp* some might even find the simplistic concept of Sims offending and sue EA (and you can bet someone WOULD sue them).

On the other hand, while religious people would believe there's still not enough religion in the game and they need more, many atheists wouldn't buy the EP even if it was packed with round walls, glass elevators and flying cats. That would mean lower sales for EA, which I doubt is something that EA is trying to achieve (despite all those bugs in Sims 3).

Besides, if the EP should represent all religions and personal believes equally, I wonder how people would react if Satanism was included. Because Satanists have feelings too, you know

And what about all those little religions? I'm a Valoist. That means I won't buy the EP unless there are interactions like "Worship Ozzy Osbourne", "Headbang to Cathedral" and "Plan moving to Helsinki". Vulcan salute "Live long and prosper" is a must too.

Now as I think about it, bring the EP on, at least we'll have something to discuss for the next five years

That was more of a discussion than a debate though, which is why I think it was locked.

We actually already have a Sims 2 debate in the debate thread, there's really no difference....I'm just saying.

That particular thread was locked because it was redundant.

No True Scotsman fallacy. You're good at this.