Imaginary Friend

Imaginary Friends is a feature included in The Sims 3: Generations. The Imaginary Friend is a character that a child creates after a relative sends it as a birthday present right after they are born.

Methods of Obtaining an Imaginary Friend
There are two primary ways to obtaining an imaginary friend. One is to move a family with a toddler into a neighbourhood. There is a chance when you start playing a new family that the toddler(s) will have a doll in their inventory. The second method is to have a baby in-game. There is a 75% chance that, when a new baby is born, a mysterious relative will send the Imaginary Friend Doll in the mail. The doll will immediately appear in the baby's inventory when an adult goes to the mailbox.

When naming the doll, players can set which gender it is by choosing whether its name is a boy's name or a girl's name. If a toddler Sim plays with the doll frequently, it will grow into a child-sized playmate who will happily hop onto the opposite end of a seesaw. An Imaginary Friend may even run minor errands for the child if they have a decent enough social relationship with it.

Simology
Only the Sim that made an Imaginary Friend can see it. For example, if the Sim who made the Imaginary Friend hugs it, and a another Sim sees this interaction, that Sim will think the kid is hugging the air. Interactions with an Imaginary Friend can only be done on the active family's lot. Once the kid leaves the property or goes to sleep, the friend becomes a doll in his or her inventory.

Imaginary friends come in a variety of patterns, with either spots, stars, or stripes. There are twelve possible patterns in total. Imaginary friends can act as private helpers, cleaning and fetching for their creator Sim.

Playing with the Imaginary Friend fills up the social motive in the same way as socializing with real people would. Even as children grow into teenagers and young adults, they can keep their Imaginary Friends around, and can even develop a romantic interest in their make-believe buddies once they are turned into a "real sim." If the Sim is good with the Chemistry Set, they can create a potion that will turn their Imaginary Friend into a real Sim. This can also be accomplished through an in-game opportunity if the Sim's relationship with their Imaginary Friend is sufficiently high. The Science Facility will offer to create a potion which can, though not specifically worded, turn their imaginary friend "real." The Sim must find a Rainbow Gem and deliver this to the science facility at which point the Sim will be given a potion and the option to 'Offer to Make Real' will no longer be greyed out.

When turned into a real Sim, they will wear unusual clothing that resembles their original appearance. Although they have become "real" Sims, they can switch back to their doll mode at will. Sims cannot WooHoo with Imaginary Friends unless they have been transformed into real Sims and are not in their doll mode. Other Sims can see them in their doll mode if the Imaginary Friend has drank the potion that allows them to turn into "real Sims." When using a Ghost Potion, an Imaginary Friend ghost will be white, with an purple glow on the ball of their head.

Imaginary Friends cannot have their own Imaginary Friends, nor can they even see other Imaginary Friends. They can also teleport to different locations in rare occasions, or if they get trapped. Also, an Imaginary Friend cannot be turned into a vampire even if they have been turned into a "real Sim."

Once the Imaginary Friend is turned into a real sim, they will have to go to school just like a normal child or teen. In addition, the Imaginary Friend that was turned into a real sim will get new experience moodlets such as the first time he/she slept in a bed, ate food for the first time, etc.


 * If resetsim [name of imaginary friend] is used on an Imaginary Friend (should they get stuck etc), they will disappear, but they won't be gone. Eventually they will return to the Sim house, in 'real' form, though they will still be invisible to other sims on the property. This is likely a bug which will be patched with the next patch for the Generations EP. The official Sims 3 website forum has a more comprehensive list of bugs players are currently experiencing with the Imaginary Friend.

The Sims: Makin' Magic
In The Sims: Makin' Magic, there is a children's charm called "Invisible Friend" that creates an imaginary friend, although that name is not used. Invisible Friends in this game look just like normal female child Sims. They follow the Sim that created them wherever they go, (except for school). When their creator is at school or is asleep, they will wander around the lot, and have no needs. The child Sim who created the Invisible Friend can dismiss it, and the Invisible friend will eventually disappear.

To make the Invisible Friend charm, the child needs to get 1 Toadstools & 2 Faerie Dust. Like all children's charms, it has six uses. The invisible friend may act badly towards the child Sim if he or she is in a bad mood when casting, or if his or her Social bar is full at the time of casting. If this happens, the child may not be able to dismiss the invisible friend, and would have to wait for the spell to run down. It is possible to have multiple invisible friends, but they all look the same.