Living in the Simulation

Olivia and Shauna get pixelated this week with a look at The Sims, the long running game that allows - even encourages - murder and other virtual, victimless vices. They delve into the game lore, highlighting the oddball characters that appear in every version of the game, and discuss the various ways they make the game their own. The Junkies also talk about the Sims movie being produced by Margot Robbie, and answer the important question: does playing the Sims make us akin to the Old Testament God, or are we all in a simulation with a supreme being programming our actions for their own amusement somewhere? Or is it both?

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
♪ Entertain me, entertain me right now ♪

(00:04):
- Hello and welcome to the one and only
Pop Culture Junkie podcast, I'm Olivia.
- And I'm Shauna.
- And you're deep in our world now,
but before we expand on that,
let's take a brief detour and talk about our Patreon.
Yes, we have one and you can choose to express
just how much you like us.
At the you like us level of $1 a month,
we'll give you a special shout out

(00:25):
on an episode of the show.
And at the you really like us level.
You'll get access to, sorry, I'm just doing the background.
So it sounds for you, make it a little juicy here, you know.
- Thank you.
- You're doing amazing.
(laughing)
- Or wherever.
- At the you really like us level of $5 a month.

(00:46):
You'll get access to our uncensored video version
of the podcast up to a week early,
allowing you to feel superior to everyone else out there.
I mean, you probably already do,
but you know, now you have a reason.
(laughing)
Absolutely.
And for this episode, we're talking the history,
the wild lore, how we play, what's next,

(01:09):
and even that mysterious upcoming Sims movie buckle up
because we're about to get pixelated.
So I wanna rewind a minute.
We're here today to talk about the Sims.
- The greatest video game of all time.
- Yes, the best game of all time.
- Yes.
- The Sims dropped in the 2000s created by Will Wright.

(01:33):
It started as SimCity, which we all know and love,
which was really ultimately inspired by architecture,
urban planning, murdering people on a roller coaster.
- You say that's the only thing I remember about SimCity
is I think playing it in like the computer lab in school
and just murdering people on a roller coaster.

(01:54):
- Mass murder via roller coasters.
- Is that the same thing?
- Yes.
- Roller coaster tycoon or those two different games.
- I think they were like somewhat like the expansion
packs of Sims that we have today.
- So I think it was an okay.
- Yeah, it was like, yeah.
So Sims City and then you had all of these offshoots.

(02:14):
I always think about how you were just like
continuously cleaning up vomit.
(laughing)
- Oh my God, I forgot about that.
- Yeah, right.
- It was too scary. - Right, you were like,
you were like, I wasn't cleaning up the vomit.
- They were living with it.
- But they looked stew in their own juices.
They're gonna die anyway.
(laughing)
- Yeah, it's like they weren't really living with it.
They were dying with it.

(02:35):
But ultimately the Sims became one of the best
selling PC franchises ever.
We've had tons of Sims games.
We started with the Sims one.
Today we're on Sims four and endless expansion packs.
We have hot day, making magic, pets, university,
get famous.
There's like fairy lands now.

(02:57):
It's honestly anything and everything you can dream of.
- There's kind of like a Harry Potter one.
I think Star Wars one.
I have the seasons which I really like
because then it actually snows and gets hot
and there's holidays and all of these little stuff packs
you can buy too.
So there's a Gothic stuff pack,

(03:17):
an emo stuff pack that you can add to their furniture
and their outfits.
This game has taken so much of my money.
(laughing)
- And all of these versions get more and more complex.
You start with basic needs and furniture
to fill on multitasking emotions, lifestyles.
- Yes.

(03:38):
- More popular now are these mods as well.
And it's actually not something you can buy
but it's things you can find on Reddit and the internet
where you can actually alter the code of your game
and change it where you can do delinquent things.
Shana actually taught me about this.
One of the more popular ones.
- Did I really?

(03:59):
- Did I really?
- Yeah, I never heard of it.
- Oh my God.
Okay, that's my favorite one.
You download Wicked Wins.
And honestly, I love playing with the mods
but sometimes you spend more time fixing your mods.
So I sit down and I'm like, I'm gonna play the Sims
and anytime there's an update, you have to reinstall
all of your mods.

(04:19):
So it takes like 45 minutes and then finally at that point,
I was like, yeah, fuck this, I don't wanna play anymore.
(laughs)
- Wicked Wins instead of doing woo-hoo,
your Sims actually have intercourse.
- There's no blurring here.
- There is no blurring.
- They are nude.
There are lots of different positions.
You can have multiple partners at once.

(04:42):
They can do it in different places.
You can put on how shy your Sims are with the Wicked Wins
or like how, I don't know if they're gonna do it in public
and at one point I had that totally turned off.
And my Sims went on a date to the McDonald's
and we're just like going at it in the middle

(05:03):
of the McDonald's and then someone else jumped in
and I was like, oh my God, you guys.
- Orgy party at McDonald's, you know?
- Just vile, just on that floor.
It's just too sticky.
Just,
but yes, I do love my Wicked Wins.
There's also extreme violence
where your Sims can all murder each other violently

(05:26):
and there's blood and all that.
And then base mental drugs.
So you can have your Sims use the Pop Culture Junkie podcast
is not condone, illicit drug use.
- We do.
Unless.
- To deal with the age of eighties.
- There you go.
- There you go.
- Yeah.

(05:46):
- And then you go on for alcohol though.
- It's like what's the legal age to do a lot of cocaine
because that's what my Sims are doing.
Growing a ton of weed, just railing lines.
They're all coke dealers.
But then if you deal drugs in public,
the cops can come and arrest you
and you have to spend the night in jail.
And then they just want,

(06:07):
yeah, one cop will just walk up to you
and be like, you're a runner or a rush for drugs.
And you're like, oh, me.
- I like how the people who created the mods
were like, you know what?
We need some consequences one day.
- Yeah, I'm just, yeah.
You spend one day, but then they clear out your stash.
So they take all of your drugs.
So that kind of sucks.
And then you have to go to court, I don't know.

(06:28):
It's kind of in depth.
So.
(laughing)
- Drugs are bad, even though the drugs are bad.
- Drugs bad, okay.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- But yes, I love my mods.
I love making Olivia naked in the mods.
- Oh yeah, who doesn't?
- In real life.
And in the Sims universe.
And the Sims is ultimately captured so much

(06:49):
of people's attention since the 2000s.
In 2014, we got the Sims 4, which is still kicking
with us.
One of the things that EA Games changed is they actually
made the Sims 4 free.
And the way that they make money now is through
those expansion packs.

(07:10):
And if you are still a Sims player in 2025,
you are bought in, you're buying those expansion packs.
- Oh yeah.
- You really want it.
And so they use this strategy of making the Sims free
and they get you hooked, you know, just like that drug.
They ultimately really keep you coming back for more.
And most of us know the Sims as us playing it,

(07:34):
creating our own characters, designing our own homes.
But the Sims itself actually has some crazy lore
within it and different families, different players
that whenever you join the game,
they will exist within Sims City
or whenever you do join the Sims.
You'll see these existing characters.

(07:55):
And what we wanted to do today is dive into those iconic Sims
that we've seen throughout all the different versions
from the story of looking at you, baby.
- Yes, Shana.
- Shana's, you know, fantasized about him, for sure.
- I have.
- And it's good looking at him.
- Some of them have persisted through many versions
of the games, some of them have changed.

(08:17):
And so we're gonna get started and dive into
the different families that we meet within the Sims
'cause just like your neighborhood.
- There's some juicy gods.
- There is juicy hot gods.
So first we have the Goth family.
They are the crown jewel of the Sims drama.
Mortimer, Bella, Cassandra, and Alexander Goth.

(08:41):
So they are the most iconic and mysterious family
in the Sims universe.
They've appeared in every single Sims game
and each version tells a slightly different story about them.
So in the Sims one, the Goths are very wealthy
and spooky, kind of giving like Adam's family vibes to me.
- They have the graves in their backyard with ghosts, right?

(09:03):
- Yes, I think so.
I played Sims one.
I didn't play two or three.
So I played one back in the day and I played four now.
- Fig fan.
- Yes, I know.
I couldn't afford it.
- But now I can't because you know, I don't,
adult money and it's free.
(laughing)

(09:24):
- In Sims one, the Goths are wealthy and spooky.
Bella is alive and well.
In Sims two, things get a little weird and Bella is missing.
She vanishes under suspicious circumstances
and no one knows where she is.
You can find her in strange town,
but she has no memory of the Goths
or being part of the family.

(09:45):
So at this point, it's heavily implied
that she was abducted by aliens
and her last location is at the Calleant A. Sister's house
who have those alien connections
that we'll get to in a minute.
Mortimer is now older in Sims four and trying to move on.
Cassandra is engaged to Don Lothario, little playboy.

(10:06):
We'll see all that goes.
And Alexander's just a kid.
He's just a little Goth kid.
So the fan theory about the Goth family,
again, is that Bella was abducted by aliens,
but it was because she was getting too close to the truth
behind the Calleant A's and their alien bloodline.
So they took her over to silence her.

(10:28):
And I love this.
And I love the last names in this are so on the nose.
It's so funny.
Like my favorite that we'll get to is the land grab family.
Like it's just so on the nose and I love it so much.
But yes, I love the Goths.
I think there's still a live in my game.
I had aging turned on for a while,

(10:51):
except for my households didn't age.
But then that kind of sad.
Bella is alive in my game, but she's just elderly.
That's it.
She's elderly.
So then I ended up turning it off for everyone
because I didn't want everyone else to get old and die.
You're like, I can't keep up with all these new people coming in.
Literally, oh, there's so many new townies in my game now

(11:12):
because I think the OG characters have all kind of gotten
old and died, unfortunately, but like their ghosts
are just kind of floating around.
Malcolm Langegrabbs ghost floats around my town
and not man screws anything that moves.
That man's going to ghost.
Oh, he's a horse.
He's a horny little ghost.
He's a horny little ghost.

(11:34):
And next we have the Caliente sisters
who are really wrapped up within the Goth family.
Most people refer to them as gold diggers with alien DNA.
And it is Nina and Dina Caliente.
They are closest to Caliente.
They are closest to Don Lathario, Mortimer Goth, and Bella Goth.

(11:57):
So Nina and Dina are twins, but fans have always
kind of called out that they don't actually look alike.
And most people speculate because they
are half aliens.
Now stick with me.
In The Sims 2--
I'm here with you.
I'm here with you.
In The Sims 2, they live with Don Lathario

(12:17):
and are trying to deduce Mortimer Goth, who
is a newly widowed older man.
And in The Sims 2, part of the game
that you have to play the main characters,
like The Sims Created Characters, to get to.
And it is called Strange Town.
And when you go there, there is a lot of alien things happening.

(12:39):
And so that's really why they think
that Bella was abducted by aliens.
So I think if you go to Strange Town,
you actually can meet an alien.
And there's flying saucers and things like that.
And it does say that Bella was in Strange Town,
but she doesn't remember her family.
Would Bella and Mortimer or Mary to each other, right?
Yes.

(13:00):
OK.
Got it.
So yes, he is a widow or he thinks he's a widow in Sims 2
because his wife is missing.
Which is Bella, who's in Strange Town.
Deena has possibly already married and buried
a rich husband before.
Who has a widow?
We love a black widow.
We love a black widow.
And so many of my Sims have just--

(13:22):
I'll create a man just for him to die.
Just for him to die.
And one thing that we didn't necessarily
mention about the Goth family is they are rich.
When you go into the game, you always
want to play the Goth family because they have this mansion
and everyone else has a middle class family home.

(13:45):
Unless you're the land grabs.
Yes, yeah.
They are the Goths 2.0.
And so ultimately, Deena and Nina
are really these kind of gold diggers.
Like I said at the beginning.
And they are seen as these nefarious women who
helped get Bella Goth got and ultimately are--

(14:09):
Bella got got got got got got got.
Ultimately are part of the plan on the night
that she disappeared.
And so the family and the fan theory around them
is that the family and they were sent by aliens
to infiltrate the Sims society.
Obviously.
Deena's pursuit of Mortimer was to secure the Goth family

(14:32):
wealth for whatever alien plan is underway.
And so what do aliens need money?
World domination.
I mean, I guess I'm just thinking back
to V our last episode that you should check out.
And the aliens wanted more like resources.
I don't know.
Like what does an alien need with currency?

(14:54):
What does an alien need with simlions?
Isn't that what their money's called?
Simlions?
Yeah.
Well, currency would get you things.
And then things are like supplies, I guess.
But--
Materialistic aliens.
Yes.
As Scarface would say, first you get the money,
then you get the power, then you get that girl.
So maybe they're trying to make alien babies

(15:16):
like they did with the county and two sisters.
So they want to be rich so that they can be handsome
and wantable by sim ladies to make sim babies
to infiltrate simsiety.
It goes all the way to the top.
All the way to the top.
We are back.

(15:38):
And we are to my favorite character in favorite townie,
Don Lothario, or as Olivia called him, the ultimate fuck
boy.
So Don Lothario's key traits are hot,
shirtless and commitment phobic,
kind of like my college ex boyfriend.
Bono.

(15:59):
He is engaged to Cassandra Goth,
involved with Nina, Dina, and Bella.
So Don Lothario is the messy king of sims too.
He's got four romantic relationships going at once,
unless you make him have relationships
with your characters that you create, which he always wants
to show up and do, because he's Don Lothario.

(16:21):
He's engaged to Cassandra,
but flirting with everyone else, including her mom,
Bella, you dirty, dirty boy.
I called Andrew Don Lothario at one point.
I don't remember what he was doing.
Did he get the reference?
No, I think I need to break up with him.
I was like, OK, Don Lothario.

(16:41):
Divorced reason.
He didn't know my sims reference.
My sims reference.
He's like, I'm sorry.
What did you just call me?
Anyway, I digress.
Some fans think that he was working
with the Calientes to lure Bella away.
And in Sims 3, he shows up as a younger version of himself
in Sunset Valley, which is a prequel.

(17:04):
And we see how his drama got started.
I didn't realize Sims 3 was a prequel,
but I guess it's because I didn't play that.
But that's kind of--
The timeline kind of jumps around
and you bring all these different ones, yeah.
I like that.
A fun fact about Don.
His bio says he's quote, afraid of commitment,
but can't resist a pretty face.

(17:24):
Same, Don.
Don and I have that in common.
They say so.
He's just your average Arizona state student.
Got it.
Perfect.
Perfect.
To the ASU of Sims City.
Go Devils.
There is also a Sims University pack,
but I haven't downloaded it.
I played that.
I think I played it in Sims 3.
Fun.

(17:45):
I was in middle school, though.
I mean, should not have been playing--
I think that's a challenge.
Yeah.
I think that Sims 3 was--
maybe it was Sims 2, but Sims 3, I think,
is when you got the heart bed that could vibrate.
Oh, Sims 1, I think we had the heart bed too,
because I remember I Stephanie and I used to play--
we would have sleepovers where we would just sit in whoever's

(18:08):
parents house we were at, and their computer room
would play the Sims for hours.
And we would always make the kidding
school that we had to crush on, because we
had to crush on the same boy.
And he'd be so hot and shirtless,
and we would get in the vibrating bed with him.
I love that.
Together?
No, only one at a time.

(18:28):
Although we did download a hot date.
And maybe it was Sims 2 now that I think about it,
because I'm not sure if all these expansions
packs were with Sims 1.
I don't know.
Somebody let us know in the comments.
But I was like, oh, Stephanie and Shawn,
I need to go and have a girls day.
So they went on a hot date, and then it ended up
falling in love at the end.

(18:49):
And we were like, no, no.
Restart, restart, because we were children.
And therefore, oh, no.
Shawn hadn't realized she was a bisexual then.
I wasn't.
Maybe that was my awakening.
Maybe I was like, yeah.
I kind of liked them.
[LAUGHTER]
Maybe I want to go on more hot dates with some ladies, anyway.

(19:11):
[LAUGHTER]
We have a couple more families.
Yes.
And then we have the pleasant family
who are most known for their absolute suburban despair.
And so the members of this family are Daniel, who's
the dad, Mary Sue, the mother, Angela, the twin daughter,

(19:32):
and Lilith, the twin daughter.
They were probably the least fun to play with,
mainly because they were pretty good.
I remember playing with them.
And I would always use--
Oh, woo-hoo.
They were poos, which in the Sims, that's no fun.
You don't want to be poor in the Sims,
Bernie porn real life.
Oh, my God.

(19:53):
I always make my character start poor.
I like the Rags to Rich's Challenge,
where they start with zero.
And they have to like forage off of the land.
And then eventually--
Yeah, and they get a job with their phone.
And then I have them shower at the gym
and sleep in the library.
And the challenge is to get from $0 to $1 million.

(20:14):
Just--
You're scraping by your bootstrap.
They always end up dealing drugs.
I make them all drug dealers.
Every single day.
Hi.
Literally it.
Rosebud Cheat, the second I get in there,
because I want to be playing and building,
and making the space by own.
And all of the cheap furniture is ugly.

(20:35):
They do that on purpose.
But uncomfortable.
And then all your Sims can play in that their backs
or that their shower wasn't nice.
And you're like, bro, you're using a--
Just like an apple that you picked from the backyard
as you're lunch.
You're going to sleep in whatever bed we can afford.
Yeah.
And despite being poor, they are kind of the suburban, middle class,

(20:59):
happy family.
But there is a lot of tea going on within that family.
So Daniel is cheating with the maid.
Mary Sue is a workaholic.
But she's about to get fired.
Angela is the golden child.
She's dating Dustin Brooke.
And Lilith is the rebel hated by her family

(21:19):
and possibly secretly in love with Angela's boyfriend.
So we get a little fun.
I have a question here.
Oh, never mind.
We're pleasant.
OK.
Yeah.
The classic family.
That pleasant.
Not the brooks.
They're probably also poor.
OK.
Yeah.
I don't know why.
I would assume that the broke family are poor.
I may be mashing the two together, but in my mind.

(21:40):
But, you know, whatever.
Behind the white-picket fence family--
so the theme of them is behind the white-picket fence,
this family is like straight, desperate house wives
energy.
And it's a little fun with the teenagers
kind of fighting over a man.

(22:01):
It's kind of like the younger version
of the Caliente sisters with Bella and the Goth family.
I love that.
You never know what lyrics behind your neighbor's front door.
My neighbor's too, because I'm naked in front of the window
a lot.
I'm definitely the naked neighbor.
Oh, I'm absolutely the naked neighbor.
Somehow, Sean, I has been the naked neighbor at my house.

(22:24):
And I've lived here for three months.
This woman was just walking around but naked.
And in front of these giant day windows,
I've lived here for--
Oh, forgot.
I still forgot.
But yeah, front neighbors and your back neighbors
have both seen me.
Can't help--
How I'm naked.
Like, yeah.
Oh, not a lick of clothing.
Not a lick of clothing.

(22:45):
Because why would I wear clothing at my friends' house?
It's my birthday.
I'm going to be naked anyway.
It's my birthday.
I need to be in my birthday soon.
I need to be in my birthday soon.
I need to party the way that I came into this world.
Nude and drunk.
Anyway, the broke family is next.
Brandy broke, Dustin broke, and the unborn baby broke.

(23:06):
Brandy is widowed or has been skipped broke,
died under mysterious circumstances.
Some say it is that ever dreaded pool ladder removal.
They have this fun little Easter egg in the Sims now
where your Sim Awika from a bad dream.
And it'll say what their dream was.
And they're like, Sean had dreamt about drowning

(23:27):
inside of a pool that had no ladder.
That's crazy.
Why didn't she just hop off the side?
(laughs)
They're self-aware and we love it.
Okay, so Brandy is widowed, pregnant, broke,
trying to raise two kids alone,
Dustin's in trouble with the law.
Some fans think that skipped broke, didn't die,
but faked his own death because, you know,

(23:47):
he's running away from someone or something.
Maybe the--
♪ Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't ♪
The responsibility's a fatherhood or aliens.
It's one of the other.
- It's one of the other.
- He's running away from that broke-ass baby.
- That unborn broke baby.
- No one wants a broke-ass baby, shit.
My baby's gone.
- Come on, Roach.
(laughs)

(24:08):
- And we mentioned Strange Town.
I did want to kind of go into a little bit further
of the characters that we see within that.
It's kind of known as the X-Files of the Sims.
And so we have Belagoth, which we've mentioned a lot.
The nervous subject, the beakers, the grunts,
and of course our elusive aliens.

(24:30):
So this neighborhood is filled with a bunch of weirdos.
There's government experiments that went wrong,
alien abductions, and even hybrid babies.
So nervous subject is literally being experimented
on by the beaker family.
The grunt family is a military unit fighting alien influence,

(24:50):
but even their son gets abducted and impregnated.
- Oh, God, Jesus Christ.
It's getting dark.
And like we mentioned, Bella is there,
but you can't remember anything.
So Strange Town is very fun.
And that's only in Sims 2.
- Yeah, Sully would love to go there.

(25:10):
- The truth is in Strange Town.
(dramatic music)
- So the land grab family as their name might imply
are greedy, powerful, and possibly evil.
So the members are Malcolm Land Grab, Nancy,
Jeffrey, and Baby Malcolm Jr. in some of the games.

(25:32):
So think ultra rich, ultra violent.
I almost said ultra violent.
Isn't that a Lana Del Rey record?
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- They are not Lana Del Rey.
They are Trump.
(laughing)
Like Trump family mixed with bond villains.
Nancy is a criminal, Jeffrey is in politics,
and Malcolm's just kind of a spoiled brat.

(25:54):
And Sims 4, they own most of the town.
So whenever you pay your bills,
like the electric bill it goes to the land grab electric company.
And they can shut off your power.
And I've always noticed it says,
you have 24 hours to pay your bill
before your electricity shut off.
And then it's like immediately right then.
They're like, "Just kidding.

(26:15):
"Shut down, shut down."
But yes, in my game,
I kinda turned the land grabs into that aristocrats joke.
- Oh, you made a man's test?
- Yeah, I made them a little like white Lotus season three,
the brother action going on.
- I love that.
- So they're all just high out of their minds
and just doing unpleasant things with each other.

(26:37):
And then they all die.
- Doing their family members.
- They're all doing each other and then they die.
Yeah, so they're all dead as they say.
- I think so.
(laughing)
- They're all dead in some incest orgy drug-fueled evening.
But yeah, Malcolm Leagrab, his evil ghost floats around still.
- I love that.
I love that.
Yeah, eat the ridge, eat the ridge and Shana's game.

(27:00):
And I can go through each other a little too literally.
- It was very long then.
(laughing)
- And so as we've kinda gone through this,
you're probably like, wait, what's the order of the games?
It's almost like the Marvel universe.
Like this one goes here.
They are not, Sims 1 does not happen first.
All those things, right?
So Sims 3 is technically a prequel.

(27:23):
So like we mentioned, you see younger versions of characters,
including a teen fellow, a young Mortimer,
and an early Don Litharium.
- Sexy.
- Sims 2 is in the middle where a lot of the drama happens
when they first become adults.
And ultimately we get to see a lot of the key lore

(27:44):
that we've been discussing throughout this.
Sims 4 is technically an alternate universe.
I did not know that.
That's interesting.
- And the game creator, Maxis, said that it's a parallel timeline.
So events don't match up in the same way.
So ultimately like a multiverse.

(28:05):
- Yes, it's definitely Marvel.
- It's just definitely interesting.
- Yeah, right.
And there's no official chronological order
that makes 100% sense.
They were having a silly goofy time
when they were making up these things.
And that's part of the fun.
It's like a glitchy multiverse.
And really the Sims has so much lore.
Like a lot of us do just play our own characters,

(28:28):
but I would encourage you to play around with the families.
There's a lot of fun.
You can find things like Strange Town when you do that.
And ultimately kind of play your own characters
and theirs as well, because there's quite a bit of fun.
- I like that.
I think I'm gonna start doing that
because I always just kind of play with my own.
- All right.

(28:49):
So we've talked a lot about the lore.
Shana, let's tell the listeners how you like to play the Sims
and they can call you a psychopath as well.
(laughing)
- Well, I already said that I made the entire
Land Grab family incestuous homicide.
Also known as murderers.
Homicide Ill-Maniac was where I was going with my mind.

(29:10):
- Okay.
- So they're all disgusting.
For the most part though, I make, so I have Shana and Andrew
and they live in this huge mansion
and they have Buffy and Toast
and they are ripped out of their minds and wealthy
and maxed out on all of their skills.
So I stopped playing them as much,

(29:31):
even though they still exist in the town.
- Was that after I told you you were insane
for only playing you in your husband?
- No.
So I have, oh yeah, in the Sims,
Shana and Andrew are always just with each other.
They don't play around, no.
But they have friends who are the entire cast
of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

(29:51):
I have all of sex in the city and there,
I have the Adams family, I have Elvira,
I have Olivia.
So there's a cute little Olivia.
Oh, she lives with Lady Gaga
and my friends Heather and Jessica.
So I've made a lot of the people that I know.
So I kind of, and then I make randoms too,

(30:13):
if I'm just like, oh, I wanna play the doctor career,
then I'll just make up like a random person
and play the doctor career.
I never find myself playing as men,
unless it's, if I'm playing as Andrew
or if I'm playing as like Spike in the Buffy house.
But if I'm just like, oh, I'm gonna play the Rags to Riches,

(30:33):
I'm gonna make a girl.
- Okay, obvious.
- Gender fluid king Spike.
- Oh yeah, yep, I definitely play some Spike
and he is with Buffy, but he also kinda,
he gets around because he doesn't wanna,
look, I was Spike.
I should make him an Olivia hookup.
I think that'd be good for you.
- The fact that you haven't, rude.

(30:53):
- I know, I'm sorry.
You just hooked up with that guy in the bar.
Oh, and then I also, I made the bar that I worked at.
This is what Olivia thinks I'm Psycho for.
(laughs)
So when I worked at a bar how I met Olivia,
I made the bar in the Sims game and Shawna and Olivia,
which is go to the bar together and hang out,

(31:14):
which is essentially what you and I were doing.
- Yeah, so I'd be like, I'm gonna go home,
and play the Sims and then I would just make the Sims do
what we just did.
- It was so crazy.
Like, okay, so she's making it sound like she plays this game
so much more diverse than she does.
She may actually have these people.

(31:35):
- I do, I do, I do.
- But, so Shawna and I are talking about the Sims
and she's like, I ask a question,
so how do you play the Sims?
I love asking people this because I think it's like
really illuminating.
Like, how do you play the Sims?
Do you play yourself?
Do you play other characters and create other characters?
Or are you just like, I don't even wanna play the characters.

(31:57):
I just wanna like interior design and build my own Sims.
- Yeah, oh that's fair, yeah.
- And Shawna's like, oh, I play myself.
And like, Andrew and I are the only two people together
and I made the casual pint and she has her life
and does the exact same things in the cat and our dog.
- I mean, they have better jobs than we have.

(32:17):
- Yeah, yeah, but you still didn't even give them Rosebud.
It's the crazy thing.
Like, you know, they had to work for their money.
- In saying, like crazy.
And so if you can't tell by my reaction to this,
I am almost always playing other people.
I like to play some of the stock characters,
but a lot of the time I like to build like a super hot person.

(32:40):
- You never make an Olivia?
- I've made an Olivia.
Like, when I was younger, I would make up like
older versions of me.
- Okay.
- That would really ever play me as an adult.
- Interesting.
I've said you the Olivia that I made.
I'm really proud of her.
I think she's my friend character that I've made
that looks the most like one of my friends.

(33:00):
- Yeah, no, posted on the Instagram, that's great.
- Yeah, I need to post me and you hanging out on the Sims
on our Instagram so people can agree or disagree to us.
Like us. - Yeah.
- How much does this look like us?
- Yes.
- And one time I was like,
"Shana, you need to be manifesting me,
"hooking up with a man or finding a man in the Sims."
And so she goes, "Okay, I'm gonna do that.

(33:22):
"Makes me hook up with this guy in the casual pint bathroom,
"the bar that we hang out with."
- "Minsroom."
- "In the men's room with a man with a blue mohawk."
- It was a green mohawk.
- Okay, okay, very important distinction.
- So Olivia, yes, hooked up with a guy with a green mohawk
in the men's room of the bar.
And so I sent her like a picture of it in my phone

(33:43):
on Snapchat and I was like,
"Look, I got you a male suitor on the Sims."
Just like you asked and she was like,
"That's disgusting never to begin or at least make it seem."
- I think you also take me on a pregnant.
- He did, he got you pregnant
and I also have an abortion mod.
- So don't let Shana do manifesting for you,

(34:09):
especially in the Sims,
'cause she's gonna go really weird with it
unless it's her own character.
She's like, "Evaly sabotaging me via her Sims plan."
- Oh no, Sim Shana has gotten like 15 abortions.
- Well, only one off from regular Shana, you know?
- That's true.
- No, I'm at 14 now.

(34:30):
God, we're going off the rails here.
So we both play in different ways,
but also kind of similar ways.
- Yes, I like it.
- I think it's funny.
What's your design aesthetic within the Sims?
- Oh, it varies so drastically from person to person.
So I made all of the sex in the city girls

(34:53):
live together and each of their rooms is very distinct to them.
Oh, I made the spice girls too.
And they live in this huge mansion and so each room,
I had fun customizing scary, sporty,
posh baby ginger.
Shana and Andrews is very mid-century modern in the desert
which is also our house.
I know.

(35:13):
- I heard time you tell me more about this character,
like these characters.
You, I'm like, "Why are you doing?"
- It's unique.
- But upgraded, it's Miba, upgrade it.
- Is it?
- Baby a little up.
- She's got a six pack.
- She's got a six pack.
- Like she's shredded out of her mind.

(35:34):
- Her husband's a professional athlete.
- Crisis, crazy person.
- But yeah, other people's houses,
I have like one boho chic house.
I made Bulma and Vegeta from Dragon Ball.
And so I made like the lab that they live
and work and train at in there.
So it really is, it depends on the character,
I guess is what I'm trying to say.
- What about you?
- Okay.

(35:54):
- I think that's probably like the one place
that I really play in the way that I would like it.
Like what would be like a dream home?
Like if you went into my Pinterest board
of all these like crazy different homes
that I could absolutely never afford.
Like that's what I'm making in the Sims.

(36:15):
But a lot of it's like very colorful, very
or Nate I guess.
So, but that's why I always need to do the rosebud
cheat just straight out the gate
because I've got the most expensive furniture.
I'm customized in things.
They're comfortable.
Oh my God, we have like a sauna and a home gym.
Like everything that you could imagine

(36:36):
that you want in your house.
I love that.
- Yeah.
And I think if there's one common thread among,
I've asked a ton of people this question
of how do you put the Sims do you play yourself?
What do you do within it?
If there is one common thread,
everyone is murdering people in the Sims.
- Oh, and you're not murdering people

(36:56):
or are you even playing the Sims?
- Exactly.
And so I'm like, what does that say about us?
Like the second we get these little controllable characters,
we want to just start murdering people.
And I think that really gives me like old testament God.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
And they become like self-aware in Sims 4 though.
There's this recent update at least in the last two years

(37:19):
where they go like it'll say,
"Oh, Olivia, I can't help shake the feeling
that there's some overarching power
that's controlling her every whim.
Will she ever be in control?"
And they get like really anxious.
And every time that pops up I'm like,
"No, you won't be."
- That's so funny.
- I like that.
- I like the more simulation, simulation

(37:40):
during the time it becomes real.
Oh my God.
- With the games.
- Simulation.
- Poo.
- My mind is blown.
(laughing)
- Blown.
- And there's so much great things about the Sims.
And I think really that is why the Sims has stuck around

(38:03):
for so long is really we've seen it evolve in iterate
and the way that people play with it.
There's expansion packs, there's modifications
where we're crowdsourcing the Sims development ultimately.
And there's just so much fun.
- Right, and they listen to the fans.
They just brought back the robber who wasn't in Sims 4.

(38:26):
But everyone remembers that robber
from the first games where that creepies it comes on.
And they like, you get so scared.
- I haven't played in, gosh, it's been at least two months now.
So I need to get back on and get my new computer.
- The computer that I play with Sims on
is literally my college computer.
- Oh no, that thing's running.

(38:47):
- Yeah, it literally, yeah, it makes so much noise.
I'm like, is this the finished problem?
- Probably.
- So it's like you download too many mods
and it's just like, and it goes so slow.
- Yeah.
- The mods definitely broke it.
- Yeah.
- I need a new computer.
I keep debating like do a buy new computer
just so I can play the Sims, but probably.

(39:09):
- I think so.
- But and record this podcast.
- What are you waiting for?
- Yeah.
(laughing)
So the Sims 5 was in development for a very long time.
They were teasing it.
They were telling us that the Sims 5 is coming.
As of a couple months ago, they're actually canceled
the release of Sims 5.

(39:32):
And they're actually doing, let me actually get the proper name
'cause I was sending it.
So it's called the project.
- Yeah, project, I was calling it Reen,
but like R-E-N-E is--
- That's the idea.
- Reen or Reen.
- Reen, Renee, whatever.
So they canceled the Sims 5
and they're doing project Reen, Renee.

(39:53):
Right now, they have a small group of testers.
So people have actually seen what it looks like
within the project test group.
- Shell.
- I saw some screenshots within it.
And ultimately, the Sims games makers, E-A,
said that because so many people have bought

(40:13):
all of these expansion packs within the Sims 4,
if they went to Sims 5, people will lose all that.
They would really kind of disenfranchise
all those people who have been their most loyal customers
and kept that game so popular over time.
- A lot of people play legacy games too,
where I said I don't have my character's age.

(40:37):
They'll have two people who have grow up together,
have babies and then they die.
And then like, you know what I mean?
It's like bloodlines that carry on throughout the game.
So I could see that being really frustrating for them,
losing all of that.
- Yeah, so they ultimately ditched Sims 5.
And now they are making, you know, it seems like

(40:57):
we don't know too much,
but project Reen ultimately is a somewhat of an expansion
pack, but they have said that it will give you
multiplayer versions, so you can actually like,
Seanan, I can meet up, our characters can meet up.
- And get a drink at the casual pint.
- No.
- And have relations with a green Mohawk man?

(41:21):
- Yeah.
Well, I'm gonna make you have relations
with a green Mohawk man, so you can see what it's like.
- Okay, that's fair.
- Yeah.
- Twist my arm.
- Ugh.
- I guess.
- Yeah.
- And so if you had one wish for the game makers of the Sims,
I've been listening to too much hunker games
of the game makers of the Sims, what would you ask for?

(41:43):
Like if you could say I want to be able to do this
in the Sims, what would it be?
- I think exactly what you just said,
multiplayer Sims, like an open world multiplayer
would be insane.
Like RPG where we're all just hanging out together
and going like, you know, store to store.
Like Sean and Olivia start at the bar
and then they're taking shots together

(42:05):
and then they go shopping and then they go eat food.
You're like, that would be amazing.
Just like, I don't know, open player multiplayer kind of world,
open world multiplayer.
- Yeah, I would say I just asked one thing,
but since you're asking for buying one thing,
I can fully agree.
I want to be able to like go to your town

(42:25):
and sabotage your town even if you're not online.
Like I think that'd be so fun.
- That's messed up.
- I really want to be able to, you know,
mess with other people's towns and like go there
and do things kind of, I guess in animal crossings
you can't go mess with people's towns unless they're online,
but I do like that version of it.

(42:46):
But then I also want them to make the mods into real games
where it's not cool to you.
- Yeah, so just break your thing.
And you know what, I agree, like they already know
that most adults are downloading wicked whims, right?
And so make it an 18 plus pack or something somehow.

(43:07):
I don't know.
- Yeah, video games still do that, don't they?
- Yeah, and make us buy it.
- Right, like 'cause we'll buy it.
- We have Grand Theft Auto.
Like let's get GTA,
- Exactly.
- And some to have a baby.
I think that'd be so fun.
- Oh my god, that's awesome.
- Yeah, I really like the idea of those two things.
And hopefully we will see some of that with the Sims universe.

(43:30):
While Sean and I could go on for hours and hours
talking about the Sims,
if you can't tell, it's one of our passions.
We have spent hours talking about this
even outside of this podcast episode.
But one thing that was announced shortly after the Barbie movie,

(43:53):
which if you've never listened to our Barbie episode,
it's one of our most popular episodes of all time.
- Hi, Miss, we love the Barbie movie.
- We go really, really deep into the movie,
the Barbie universe as a whole, things around that.
And it's just a great listen if I do say so myself.
But as soon as I do say so, too yourself.

(44:14):
- Yeah, myself, you too.
- Yes, me, so you too say so.
(laughing)
And one of the things that was announced right after the Barbie movie
was that there was a Sims movie in the works
and Lucky Chap Entertainment was the one
who secured the rights.
Now if you're thinking Lucky Chap,

(44:35):
that sounds super familiar.
I wanted only our queen Margot Robbie got her hands
on the Sims movie.
I wanna hear your thoughts on the Sims movie.
We obviously just spent a lot of time on it,
but really quickly, Amazon and GM Studios
is involved in the production.
Katie Heron, who directed Loki.

(44:58):
- Katie Heron, it's Kate.
- For me, girls.
(laughing)
- Kate Heron, who directed Loki,
the TV series, which you're a big fan of.
- I am.
- Is going to co-write the screenplay
with Breonnie Redmond.
And so it is kind of interesting because

(45:20):
from what I know about Loki, it's a multiverse, right?
- It is.
I'm thinking the only thing.
First of all, I'm sus of this, right?
- Oh, really?
- I am, but having it involved with Margot Robbie
makes me feel more confident about it
because I do like her work.
I think she's very talented.
Barbie was amazing.
So that makes me feel a little better about it.

(45:42):
I do also hope that it doesn't fall into this trap
of the emoji movie and, oh gosh, angry birds movie.
And like every, you know what I'm trying to say?
Every little video game and every little thing
needs a movie now.
Minecraft movie.
And then there are always just trash money grabs.

(46:03):
But then, you know, bar fee, bar fee, the bar fee movie.
(laughing)
It's gonna be the sequel.
The Barbie movie.
I think it was mixing Buffy and Barbie.
- Yeah. - So I came out bar fee.
- It's okay, we know, we know.
- Barbie was good.
It was based off of a toy and it was very good.

(46:24):
The Ouija porn movies have been good.
But then they're making, I don't know,
there's some other, oh, the Lego movies have been good.
I don't know, it could be very hit and missed with me
when it comes to turning a toy or a video game
or something like that into a movie.
Do you know what I mean?
So I'm nervous, but I'm gonna watch it.

(46:45):
And I think the only way that they could go with it
is doing all of this stuff that we talked about
this whole episode, all of the lore.
- Yes, so I think it go a few ways.
I think that it could be all about simulation theory.
And like what I said, whatever we're just people
and like where the sims and God is playing us.

(47:06):
- Yes, ultimately, like that is such a common theory
and belief now.
Like when the Matrix came out, that was a crazy idea.
But then now you look at kind of like where we are today
and being in a simulation.
Like people are just going for a show.
- Yes, much more open to that kind of thought and thinking.

(47:28):
And so I think that it could be that.
I also see it really living within the sims lore
that we discussed earlier as well.
And then just like crazy, funny, wild, like things like that.
- Yeah, it's gotta be funny for sure.
We have to have Don Lathario, we have to have Belagoth
and aliens, it's gotta be Goofy.

(47:48):
- Yeah, and it's like we're gonna have a ladder taken out.
There's gonna be like a lot of fan service,
but I think not.
Up until very recently, like video games turned into shows
or movies has not really gone well.
Like up until, I mean, there are some good ones.
I think the Last of Us, which comes out in a couple weeks.

(48:11):
- I don't know how excited I am.
- It's usually with like first-person shooters though.
So it's like Tomb Raider, Max Payne, The Last of Us.
There have been a lot of them,
but they haven't really been these like open world kind of games.
- But I would take people like hated some of those as well.
Like The Last of Us was widely received

(48:34):
and people loved it, but a lot of fans of The Last of Us
were like so afraid of it being turned into a TV show.
- Oh, for sure.
I was afraid too.
I'm afraid for season two to come out,
especially if you know what goes down.
- I don't.
- Oh my God, I will not spoil it.
I will not spoil it.
But yeah, but then like the Borderlands movie crashed and burned.

(48:54):
- Yeah.
- But again, that's like a first-person shooter.
So I'm interested and I'm hesitant,
but I think it's in good hands.
- It's in good hands.
- Yeah, I ultimately think that Margot Robbie
like would not stake her reputation straight out of Barbie
if she didn't believe that she could create a great movie

(49:18):
with Kate Herron and Brianna Redmond.
Like I think there's so much.
Like we just talked about like a few families within.
- Yeah, but there's so much.
One game, right?
And there's all these different things.
And it could be like, oh, I moved into this one.
Like it could even be like moving through the games

(49:40):
the way we play that.
- Yeah, there's like a whole haunted one.
There's ghosts.
Like you can summon the dead.
Yeah, there's so many things that they could do.
- I do.
Like my biggest hope is simulation theory
because I think that would be a really crazy
like psychological thriller.
- Oh my God, what if it's a psychological thriller?

(50:01):
I would love that too.
It's not a comedy.
It's just a straight up mind-fucked.
Just, oh my God, is any of this real?
I love that.
- Yeah, right?
I think there's so much stuff that that could ultimately happen
within that movie.
So when I was doing the research for this episode
and building everything out,
I feel like I was kind of like you

(50:22):
where I was like, that could be really, really bad,
but really going through the history of the movie
or of the movie, of the game itself
and all that lore within it,
I think that it can be really, really cool.
And we have our trust in Margot Robbie.
- We do.

(50:43):
I think we're gonna watch it no matter what.
- Yeah.
- We'll just do it and see I suppose.
- Absolutely.
We're gonna get little green orbs up of our head
and dress up-- - Pleboms.
- Pleboms. - Well, pleboms.
Pleboms. - Pleboms.
- Pleboms. - Hello, yeah.
- Pleboms.
- We're gonna be talking about Sims, all over.
- What's the, I feel like I always,
about in Grovy?

(51:04):
Oh, yes.
(laughing)
- So so. - Yeah, I mean,
oh my God, I feel like they're a bunch of famous artists.
I wish I would have pulled this that have done songs for.
- Yes.
- Yes, I do know Katy Perry re-recorded last Friday night,
but in Simlish.
And so it's just a bunch of gibberish.
And that is so funny.

(51:25):
So if you turn on the radio and the Sims for people
who don't know, you can turn it to different genre stations.
And sometimes if you turn it to the pop station,
you'll go, wait, I know this song,
but it is in the Sim language.
Simlish. - Yes.
- So some of them are last Friday night
by Katy Perry pocketful sunshine.

(51:46):
Don'tcha by the post-catch.
- Yes.
- Smile, shut up by the black eyed peas.
Nana, na, pressure need you more than alive.
So there's some really fun ones.
- Oh yeah. - Like, chemical romance did it.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- I love that.
I respect artists you can have fun like that.
- There's some really great Easter eggs within that.
And yeah, I mean, the Sims is an iconic game.

(52:08):
We love it.
And, you know, unfortunately, it is time to go back
to our real life now.
- No. - And we can't stay in Sim City.
I mean, I won't do this.
- Sim City is kind of your real life.
- You're too freaking weirdo.
By Shauna, what's the best way for people virtual
or otherwise to find you?

(52:31):
- You can find me, Shauna Trinidad, on Instagram
and Threads @shaunatrinidad,
S-H-U-A-N-A-T-R-I-N-I-D-A-D.
- And you can find me, Olivia, on Instagram,
@livimariez, L-I-V-I-M-A-R-I-E-Z.
And as always, you can find the Pop Culture Junkie podcast,

(52:53):
social media links, blog posts, and more on our website,
popculturejunkie.com.
From there, you can find our podcast on all platforms
and you can follow, subscribe,
rate, and review the show.
Tell us how you feel about the episodes,
how you play the Sims.
We would love to hear it.
Our DMs are always open.

(53:13):
We'd love to chat with you guys
and get to know you a little bit more.
Here's some feedback on our lovely Sim Play.
Tell Shauna she's weird.
And McDonald's orgies are not weird.
- Or maybe you say stop pulling her, Olivia,
I play the Sims in the same way, don't fall,
but you can dream.

(53:34):
- Okay.
- But also, like we mentioned at the top of the episode,
we do have a Patreon and ultimately,
reviews, rating us, really, really helps us
be, or joining the Patreon, whatever you can give.
And I hope so, I'll bring you more
of the best pop culture we can.
You can find us on Patreon at patreon.com/popculturejunkiepodcast.

(53:56):
Sign it for a sneak peek
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Say that five times fast.
- Super special shout out from us.
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- Yeah, so you can tell us.
I'm speaking similar, sure, already.
- And come back next time for another hit of Pop Culture.
(upbeat music)

(54:18):
- The Pop Culture Junkie podcast is produced by Jeff Markin
and Cheryl Lightfoot, for the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
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(54:38):
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