Sort of...I usually just use the attend holiday ceremony during Christmas and Easter. I would have liked something more fleshed out when it comes to religion but I just deal with what was given for now. I would like to go into more detail but I don't want to hear the drama of we can't talk about religion but we can talk about everything else under the sun. I have already been down that road.
Good question...
If I think about it while playing, in my game my sims would be Christians even if one or 2 are kleptos, or in the criminal career, because well they have issues. There is definitely a story going.
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As an atheist I can really appreciate that the default setting of Sims not being religious and that there's no religion in the game. Or that the religious themed things you can choose to add. This is also why I never incorporate faith in my games.
The only exception is for vampires, I created my own "story" for vampires which includes their religion. I use some statues to make a shrine etc. I do really enjoy that.
I personally think this is a very good part of the game, that it leaves the choose to do what you want, this makes it more enjoyable to play for people regardless of their religion!
I didn't but I wanted it when I was playing The sims 1 and 2, but they never had all religions in the game (or proper enough), until Seasons recently came out and I saw your sims could also fast. We had a Christmas tree, Chanouka candles, but that was it. Im glad they have incorporated something from all religions now. I posted on another thread recently that they would also include something from Hinduism or maybe just a little Budha statue or the powder festival. That would be nice too. I don't think it should be left out in a game on purpose. The left-out, I see that more as something bad. It is a big part of life, our history, science and many more and it is up to the player to play with it or not, just as most other things. There is no reason to make it into something bad, cause it simply isn't and in it brings people together when done properly.
Hello, I'm here to ask the community an interesting question: How do you handle religion/faith in your games, if you have any? How many do you have? What are some traditions? Do you take the time to change your game to suit these religions/faiths? They can be either mirrors of RL religions or completely made-up.
In most of my games, there are a mix of religions and mythologies that are familiar in the real world, but they are actually intertwined and interconnected to a chiefly primary religious order called the Order of Zenith, where there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of entities represented but are chiefly presided over by 14 Divines (13 depending on who you ask) that form the majority of the spheres of influence represented on the world. Each of the Divines has at least one holiday dedicated to them and that's where I use the holiday system to showcase the religious traditions usually associated with each.
The Creator:
Zenith - God of Creation, Time and Space, Fire and Water, the Moon, and Just rule
AKA Chaos, The Watcher, and many other names; Zenith is everything and nothing all at once. There is nothing higher above it.
The Elders: The first primordial beings of creation, borne out of Chaos itself
Aatar - Elder God of Light, Absolution, Order, Defender of good, patron god of Elves
AKA the Light of Zenith; Aatar is the personification of all Light. It also administers all the affairs in Heaven and is Zenith's right-hand.
Gwynn - Elder Goddess of Balance, crystals, mysteries, fertility
Gwynn is the personification of all Matter and Energy; she is also considered the 'First Mother' excepting Zenith, and the only Elder with an established gender. Considered Zenith's left-hand, and is also a patron goddess among Witches.
Alithia - Goddess of Mercy, Light, Healing, patron goddess of the Order of Zenith
Technically a Sub-Elder, created only partially from Chaos; while the other Elders can be considered 'children' of Zenith indirectly, Alithia is the first true 'child' directly created by Zenith itself. A long time ago, she was known as the Dark Goddess after The Fallen One had corrupted her pure nature and waged war on Heaven; after thousands of years, she had returned, was re-purified of the dark influence, and returned to being what could arguably be Zenith's 'favorite child'.
The Divines: These are the gods that cover most of the other major spheres of influence; most of them are 'children of Zenith'
Hannai - Goddess of Wisdom, courage, knowledge, patron goddess of magi
Verloren - God of Death, Justice, Reaper of souls, the Life cycle, patron god of Reapers
Only a grandchild of Zenith; the fourth child of Zenith's son Masayoshi, the first god of death. First wrongly cast out by his father after a grievous mistake in Heaven, Masayoshi eventually turned evil and corrupted himself, to which Zenith had no choice but to dispose of his own son. Verloren was pardoned immediately and eventually found his way back up to Heaven, but going the long way round. All soul reapers work under him; Grimmy is just one of many other Reapers.
Arashi - God of Storms, nature, life, patron god of hunters
Anankos - God of elemental mastery, Pure willpower, Serenity, Peace
Only a grandchild of Zenith; the first child of Zenith's son Drakon, who was unfortunately captured outside of Heaven and devoured by The Fallen One. After experiencing struggles of his own, he was redeemed and became Drakon's natural replacement, living the life of a divine monk.
Rhiannon - Goddess of the Family, the hearth, guidance, flight, guardian of the tree of Alcaire (The World Tree)
Aesir - God of New beginnings, rebirth, freewill, Time (present)
Also a general mischief-maker and trickster, but only means well.
Jubilea - Goddess of the Arcane, summoning, sorcery, humanity, Darkness, and Celestial record keeper
Depending on who you ask, she can be considered a Divine or not whether they go by the old pantheon or the new one; that would bring it down to 13 (or 12) Divines instead.
Abraxas - God of the Sun, crafting and enchanting, god of Labour
Lydia - Goddess of Love, the arts, the Oceans, and the Moon
Controversial:
Fenghuang - God of Heroes, justified war, patron god of Imperanese (a special race I developed)
Fenghuang is controversial as a Divine in the fact that his story pertains to that of a mortal king who ascended to the role of a Divine, and many doubt the veracity that a mortal being could ascend into Heaven and become a Divine, let alone even a deity of any kind. Secondly, because he's considered partial only to a specific race of people and not to all of mortalkind.
The Fallen One:
Zarthon - Elder God of Corruption, Shadow, controller of the Old Ones
AKA the Shadow of Zenith; Zarthon is the personification of all Shadow. It became the Fallen One after Zenith cast Zarthon out of Heaven after favouring Aatar, since they are 'twins' of each other and despise each other to boot. Zarthon has felt jaded and has made its mission to ruin Zenith's creations ever since.
It depends on what I am doing in the game for the scenario and objectives. Usually, I don't add in religion. When I did my Turn the All scenario I added in religion because I took into consideration human nature and added in religion to add to the gameplay. Normally I don't have scenarios in which I want to eliminate as many human sims as possible by having them become vampires or having them die.
Playtesting - not just tabletop games and card games any more. Really that should have been playtested in Beta and not [img]just with accounting and marketing but actual players. https://i.imgur.com/t48COW6.jpg[/img]
Not to interfere with anyone's vision of their game, but I'm surprised at seeing so many comments along the lines of: "I'm an atheist, so of course I don't have religion in my game."
I'm not religious myself, and there are many other things that I am not - a man, a mother, a lesbian, a vampire, black, Asian, good at maths - yet I still have sims in my game who are. Granted, religion is not an actual feature there, but imagination has always been part of the deal with The Sims, and I would get bored rather quickly if all my sims were basically me.
But never mind, I'm glad we can actually discuss things like this on the forum without anyone getting angry.
I'm a little bugged that holidays and traditions are universal, so one family won't want to light a menorah for their holiday while another family lights a kinara. (I mean, I guess I could juggle the holiday traits depending on who I'm playing, but that sounds like a lot of extra overhead.)
Otherwise I've made some very insular clubs, but my default playstyle tends to be more about time management optimization over in depth role play. Unless worship affects your game statistics in some way, I put it off in favor of something that does.
Not to interfere with anyone's vision of their game, but I'm surprised at seeing so many comments along the lines of: "I'm an atheist, so of course I don't have religion in my game."
I'm not religious myself, and there are many other things that I am not - a man, a mother, a lesbian, a vampire, black, Asian, good at maths - yet I still have sims in my game who are. Granted, religion is not an actual feature there, but imagination has always been part of the deal with The Sims, and I would get bored rather quickly if all my sims were basically me.
But never mind, I'm glad we can actually discuss things like this on the forum without anyone getting angry.
I am not surprised at all actually. Playing the sims you incorporate things in your game that you find important in your own life, but also the things that you encounter in your life. So even if I am a woman, I do see a lot of men in my daily life. But with religion I feel like it's different, depending on where you live. For me, the country in which I live, religion doesn't play an important role, majority of the people in this country, and especially in the area I live, are not religious. So I do not "miss" it in my game. This is why I do not add it in my game. For people living in the US this might be different, or people who have religious family member/friends.
Also, people tend to create characters that are "similar" to them in some way (not always of course, sometimes its fun to make sims that are the complete opposite of yourself!). So if you're not religious chances are that the sims you make aren't either.
Also, even if I wanted to add a religion in my game.... its already difficult to fit all the activities I want my sims to do in a day, let alone if I had something more to worry about . That said, I am considering to play around with religion in my game, maybe download some mods and cc.. but oh well, I'll see
It is actually a holiday my Sims celebrate every Sunday. They attend the holiday ceremony then return home to have a grand meal and be thankful. The entire family dresses up a bit and later in the day they play games or watch movies together. Those were very special days for me as a child and teen. It was the one day we set aside every week to come together to celebrate our faith and be thankful. And it continued on as we siblings married and had children of our own. Hubby and I go to our church at least twice a month. And to see Maxis/EA add small but adaptable, traditions that could be applied to many different faiths is heartwarming. And I imagine there were a lot of discussions about the feasibility of taking the risk of adding anything related to religion to the game. But I think it's a good thing. I imagine the Simmer community is divided on this subject though. I can understand that. Not everyone has religious beliefs so I can see how those holiday traditions might not appeal to them.
Not to interfere with anyone's vision of their game, but I'm surprised at seeing so many comments along the lines of: "I'm an atheist, so of course I don't have religion in my game."
I'm not religious myself, and there are many other things that I am not - a man, a mother, a lesbian, a vampire, black, Asian, good at maths - yet I still have sims in my game who are. Granted, religion is not an actual feature there, but imagination has always been part of the deal with The Sims, and I would get bored rather quickly if all my sims were basically me.
But never mind, I'm glad we can actually discuss things like this on the forum without anyone getting angry.
I am not surprised at all actually. Playing the sims you incorporate things in your game that you find important in your own life, but also the things that you encounter in your life. So even if I am a woman, I do see a lot of men in my daily life. But with religion I feel like it's different, depending on where you live. For me, the country in which I live, religion doesn't play an important role, majority of the people in this country, and especially in the area I live, are not religious. So I do not "miss" it in my game. This is why I do not add it in my game. For people living in the US this might be different, or people who have religious family member/friends.
Also, people tend to create characters that are "similar" to them in some way (not always of course, sometimes its fun to make sims that are the complete opposite of yourself!). So if you're not religious chances are that the sims you make aren't either.
Also, even if I wanted to add a religion in my game.... its already difficult to fit all the activities I want my sims to do in a day, let alone if I had something more to worry about . That said, I am considering to play around with religion in my game, maybe download some mods and cc.. but oh well, I'll see
I'm not religious and don't know religious people, so it has a really small role in my life. I still have made up religions in my game, because I think it offers an interesting perspective on how the society is built and also explains the behaviour of some sims. Since the game doesn't really support having religious or even political systems, it takes a lot of work and planning to create some. Like @GrumpyGlowfish I'm still a little bit surprised how many people are saying they completely skipped religion.
I don't mean to argue with your point @Miss_Lestrange just explaining some reasons to add religion beyond its personal meaning in life
From the other side, I would say I am pretty religious - I spent 4 years studying the Bible and Christian History, and work for a church - but I have no religions in my game. Never thought about it with Sims 4, although did in Sims 2 when I built a church, etc. I am fascinated with the idea of the OP religious festivals and holidays. I may have to add a little Celtic religion to my game because of this thread!
I modify the religion of sims in sims medieval into their modern counterpart. I like the use of Watcher as the god meaning that I'm kind of the god when playing, and sometimes I have a god complex when playing sims.
I don't tend to, it's actually never occured to me before. @paradiseplanet diseplanet , I absolutely love how you've developed your religions so much, sounds like you've got a good story going on there!
An average simmer wasting her life away
--just kidding, will find a photo of my fave sim soon--
I'm religious, but my Sims aren't. When I was a kid I felt a little bad that my Sims didn't go to church on Sundays, since that's what I did and that's what was right to me. But now that I'm older it doesn't phase me. It's just a game, like how there are books I read that include nonreligous characters, or characters of different religions. I like that religion isn't forced into the game, but now that you've brought up the topic, I do wish there were more base game things you could use to get a religious effect. Or I just might not be very creative.
All my Sims have general morals though, however you might define where that comes from.
Shout-out to you @PlayerSinger2010 ! Also a Catholic and it's always fun to find each other in unexpected places (I don't know why the forum was unexpected for me but anyway nice seeing you around)!
As with so many of you, how I do sims is a reflection of my core beliefs (mere Christian in this case). What we believe flows out one way or another. I forget much about TS1 days, but TS2 gets the chapels & churches, finding what I need in 4 has been a chore. Overall, it can add depth to our gaming experience, and sometimes pause to think.
Not to interfere with anyone's vision of their game, but I'm surprised at seeing so many comments along the lines of: "I'm an atheist, so of course I don't have religion in my game."
I'm not religious myself, and there are many other things that I am not - a man, a mother, a lesbian, a vampire, black, Asian, good at maths - yet I still have sims in my game who are. Granted, religion is not an actual feature there, but imagination has always been part of the deal with The Sims, and I would get bored rather quickly if all my sims were basically me.
But never mind, I'm glad we can actually discuss things like this on the forum without anyone getting angry.
You got a great point here. I am religious, but not a Christian, but I still build a church in my game and let my sims have their religious traditions as well as the chanouka candle that I recently used. I don't feel weird to play this, cause I feel harmony with this is real life too and there is nothing wrong with it. On the other hand, I do not like to play super evil or kill off my sims, cause it disturbs me to be honest. I can not enjoy this while playing and I want to feel happy when i play the game.
I also play with gay sims and i have a very different opinion about that in RL, but that doesn't mean I don't want to see how it turns out for my sims. I think the lack curiosity or interest is mostly why people abandon it from their game But then i see them playing a serial killer or ladies man while in RL they would not be so happy with those characters, but they might be curious to see how that turns out in their game.
I bought Seasons specifically so I could have my sims celebrate the Jewish holidays. Was disappointed by the lack of variety in icons, and the lack of certain Judaica-- mezuzahs, kippot, Jewish foods, etc., but it's nothing new. I added the High Holidays (merged into one), Hanukkah, Purim, and Passover, and got rid of Winterfest.
Before Seasons came out, I made a club for my mom's simself called the Lions of Judah, and would put menorahs in my sims' houses.
@Hermitgirl I love that you made a cult. I would have never thought of that, but that's an awesome idea!
I don't really incorporate religion other than having marriages or funerals in a religious building sometimes. It could be interesting to do, especially if I researched the various religions of all the City Living sims, but I already have so many things I want to accomplish in a sim's life that I'm too lazy to add that in, too.
On EA forum Stories and Legacies board and on QueenOfMyshuno.tumblr.com
This thread is so interesting!!! I see there are plenty of ways to incorporate religions and that simmers that want them find (very creative) ways to do so.
I personally do not incorporate any religion whatsoever in my game and I am very glad that the game was designed like that actually.
Origin ID is: AlbaWaterhouse
All my creations are CC free.
I actually haven't really conceptualized a formal religion in my game as I'm more into building than gameplay. However, as my simtown is a hedonistic paradise, I draw a lot on ancient cultures when building so there's a bit of a spiritual component I guess to my designs. Even though I'm agnostic, I do have some sims who are named after deities or myths -id est: I have a sim couple name Narcissus Envi and Echo Rebound. I think I made up some holidays that I guess could be religious or spiritual -my sims have an R.I.P. day for all the sims unfortunately too stupid to live, but mostly I don't think about my sims spirituality. Now, given it a moment to do so lol, I would love to have a zealot of sort in my town who spent all day meditating and telling my sims they are going to the bad place if they don't obey my every whim (maybe then my sims would do something other than mix drinks and grill cheese).
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If I think about it while playing, in my game my sims would be Christians even if one or 2 are kleptos, or in the criminal career, because well they have issues. There is definitely a story going.
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The only exception is for vampires, I created my own "story" for vampires which includes their religion. I use some statues to make a shrine etc. I do really enjoy that.
I personally think this is a very good part of the game, that it leaves the choose to do what you want, this makes it more enjoyable to play for people regardless of their religion!
It depends on what I am doing in the game for the scenario and objectives. Usually, I don't add in religion. When I did my Turn the All scenario I added in religion because I took into consideration human nature and added in religion to add to the gameplay. Normally I don't have scenarios in which I want to eliminate as many human sims as possible by having them become vampires or having them die.
I'm not religious myself, and there are many other things that I am not - a man, a mother, a lesbian, a vampire, black, Asian, good at maths - yet I still have sims in my game who are. Granted, religion is not an actual feature there, but imagination has always been part of the deal with The Sims, and I would get bored rather quickly if all my sims were basically me.
But never mind, I'm glad we can actually discuss things like this on the forum without anyone getting angry.
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
Otherwise I've made some very insular clubs, but my default playstyle tends to be more about time management optimization over in depth role play. Unless worship affects your game statistics in some way, I put it off in favor of something that does.
I am not surprised at all actually. Playing the sims you incorporate things in your game that you find important in your own life, but also the things that you encounter in your life. So even if I am a woman, I do see a lot of men in my daily life. But with religion I feel like it's different, depending on where you live. For me, the country in which I live, religion doesn't play an important role, majority of the people in this country, and especially in the area I live, are not religious. So I do not "miss" it in my game. This is why I do not add it in my game. For people living in the US this might be different, or people who have religious family member/friends.
Also, people tend to create characters that are "similar" to them in some way (not always of course, sometimes its fun to make sims that are the complete opposite of yourself!). So if you're not religious chances are that the sims you make aren't either.
Also, even if I wanted to add a religion in my game.... its already difficult to fit all the activities I want my sims to do in a day, let alone if I had something more to worry about
I'm not religious and don't know religious people, so it has a really small role in my life. I still have made up religions in my game, because I think it offers an interesting perspective on how the society is built and also explains the behaviour of some sims. Since the game doesn't really support having religious or even political systems, it takes a lot of work and planning to create some. Like @GrumpyGlowfish I'm still a little bit surprised how many people are saying they completely skipped religion.
I don't mean to argue with your point @Miss_Lestrange just explaining some reasons to add religion beyond its personal meaning in life
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@paradiseplanet diseplanet , I absolutely love how you've developed your religions so much, sounds like you've got a good story going on there!
--just kidding, will find a photo of my fave sim soon--
All my Sims have general morals though, however you might define where that comes from.
Shout-out to you @PlayerSinger2010 ! Also a Catholic and it's always fun to find each other in unexpected places (I don't know why the forum was unexpected for me but anyway nice seeing you around)!
You got a great point here. I am religious, but not a Christian, but I still build a church in my game and let my sims have their religious traditions as well as the chanouka candle that I recently used. I don't feel weird to play this, cause I feel harmony with this is real life too and there is nothing wrong with it. On the other hand, I do not like to play super evil or kill off my sims, cause it disturbs me to be honest. I can not enjoy this while playing and I want to feel happy when i play the game.
I also play with gay sims and i have a very different opinion about that in RL, but that doesn't mean I don't want to see how it turns out for my sims. I think the lack curiosity or interest is mostly why people abandon it from their game
Before Seasons came out, I made a club for my mom's simself called the Lions of Judah, and would put menorahs in my sims' houses.
DBClayton's Superhero Mod Pack v. 1.1
I don't really incorporate religion other than having marriages or funerals in a religious building sometimes. It could be interesting to do, especially if I researched the various religions of all the City Living sims, but I already have so many things I want to accomplish in a sim's life that I'm too lazy to add that in, too.
On EA forum Stories and Legacies board and on QueenOfMyshuno.tumblr.com
I personally do not incorporate any religion whatsoever in my game and I am very glad that the game was designed like that actually.
All my creations are CC free.