Neighborhood

$$ A neighborhood in The Sims series is a place that consists of lots. Initially, neighborhoods were small (10 lots in The Sims base game) and consisted of only residential lots, but later expansions for The Sims allowed community lots. This pattern was continued into The Sims 2; with Open for Business, Sims could buy community lots and establish businesses there. Residential lots could also be rezoned as dormitories (with The Sims 2: University), hotels (The Sims 2: Bon Voyage), and apartments (The Sims 2: Apartment Life).

The Sims 3 introduced a new alternate term for neighborhoods, 'worlds'. Neighborhoods now consist of more than just lots, they include accessible terrain. The Sims 3 also introduced rabbit holes, public buildings where Sims work, shop, attend class, eat, or attend events, that the user cannot see into.

Traveling in neighborhoods
In The Sims and The Sims 2, Sims traveled from one lot to another, with nothing in between. The player would see them leave the lot they were on and disappear, then after a loading screen, see them reappear on a new lot. With The Sims 3 ' s open neighborhood concept, players could see the Sims moving between the lots without a loading screen, as well as be able to access those areas.

Traveling between neighborhoods
Traveling between neighborhoods is not possible, however, traveling between a neighborhood and its sub-neighborhoods is. In most cases this is as easy as traveling from lot to lot, while vacationing, traveling to more exotic sub-neighborhoods, requires more planning.

The Sims neighborhoods

 * Neighborhood 1 is the first and only neighborhood in The Sims.
 * Neighborhoods 2, 3, 4 and 5 are added in Livin' Large and The Sims Deluxe Edition. Every neighborhood is the same as Neighborhood 1, except that the next neighborhoods (after Neighborhood 2), Sim Lane will be empty.
 * Downtown
 * Vacation Island


 * Old Town is introduced in Unleashed. It is a bigger and much wider version of Sim Lane.
 * Studio Town
 * Magic Town is introduced in Makin' Magic. It is the only other neighborhood that Sims can live in, but its lots must be bought with MagiCoins.

There is a technique that makes it possible to have an infinite number of neighborhoods, which involves copying an empty neighborhood folder from the Sims folder in "Program Files" and renaming it "UserData(any # &gt; 8)

The Sims 2

 * The three neighborhoods that ship with The Sims 2 are Pleasantview, Strangetown, and Veronaville.Pleasantview_97ea8acd.jpg


 * University allows you to add a university sub-neighborhood, Sim State University, La Fiesta Tech, and Académie Le Tour onto one of your base neighborhoods.


 * Nightlife allows you to add a Downtown sub-neighborhood.


 * Open for Business allows you to add a shopping district sub-neighborhood, Bluewater Village.


 * Seasons added a new neighborhood, Riverblossom Hills, which was added to help the player explore Seasons.


 * Bon Voyage allows you to add the vacation sub-neighborhoods, Twikkii Island, Three Lakes and Takemizu Village.


 * Freetime added a new neighborhood, Desiderata Valley, created so the player can learn more about hobbies.


 * Apartment Life added a new neighborhood, Belladonna Cove, with many apartments.


 * The Sims 2 allows for players to create all-new neighborhoods from scratch, coming with neighborhood terrain templates that can be used by players. Also, SimCity 4 can be used to create custom terrains.

The Sims 3
Neighbourhoods/Towns/Worlds:
 * Neighbourhoods are now being officially referred to as 'worlds', possibly due to Electronic Arts' use of the Create a World tool.
 * Neighbourhoods are now 'seamless', open to exploration between lots.
 * Neighbourhoods are now affected by a new game mechanic called story progression.

As of Late Night, worlds are divided into "Sims 3 Towns and "Late Night Towns". There seem to be important differences between the two, like the sims they can spawn, etc. Up to now, Bridgeport is the only pre-made world to be catalogued as a city. The rest, including the exotic destinations from World Adventures, are considered suburbs.
 * Sunset Valley is the only neighborhood shipped with The Sims 3.
 * Riverview is a free downloadable town offered from The Sims 3 store.
 * World Adventures allows players to travel to exotic sub-neighborhoods, Al Simhara, Champs Les Sims and Shang Simla.
 * The Sims 3: Ambitions features a new neighbourhood called Twinbrook.
 * Barnacle Bay is a downloadable town offered at The Sims 3 store for 1650 SimPoints.
 * The Sims 3: Late Night features a large city world called Bridgeport.
 * A game patch, released in conjunction with the release of Ambitions, allows players to manipulate premade neighbourhoods to a limited degree, such as adding or removing lots and scenery.


 * Create a World tool allows you to make your own neighborhoods with custom terrains similar to SimCity 4.
 * While Sunset Valley and Riverview feature younger versions of living The Sims 2 Sims, Twinbrook´s returning families are up to two generations behind their The Sims 2 counterparts, and Barnacle Bay even acts as a sequel (Dina Caliente´s bio states that she wants to break hearts as she did in Pleasantview), this evidence suggests that the different worlds may also be located in different times. When a Sim hits a Hot Spot in Bridgeport, a tag may appear stating "This is hotter than Hank Goddard when he catched on fire", meaning something of the sort might have happened in between the timelines of Sunset Valley and Bridgeport.

The Sims Stories

 * In The Sims Stories series, only one Sim is playable in the neighborhood until that Sim's storyline is completed. After that, every family in said neighborhood becomes playable.


 * In The Sims Life Stories, the neighborhoods are Four Corners and Bitville.


 * In The Sims Pet Stories, the storyline neighborhoods are Garden Heights and Mesa Flats, and the free-play neighborhood is Arbor Falls.


 * In The Sims Castaway Stories, the storyline neighborhood is Felicity Island and the free-play neighborhood is Wanmami Island.

The Sims console games

 * In The Sims for console, The Sims Bustin' Out for console, and The Sims Bustin' Out for handheld, the neighborhood is named SimValley.


 * In The Urbz: Sims in the City for console, the neighborhood is a city named Urbzville.


 * In The Urbz: Sims in the City for handheld, the neighborhood is a small city named Miniopolis.


 * In The Sims 2 for console, the neighborhood is not named, but it consists of three districts, Pleasantview, Strangetown, and Melbourne.


 * In The Sims 2 for GBA, The Sims 2 for Nintendo DS, and The Sims 2 for PSP, the neighborhood is Strangetown.


 * In The Sims 2 Pets for console the neighborhood is Whiskerton and The Sims 2 Pets on GBA is Barkersville.


 * In The Sims 3 for console the neighborhoods are Moonlight Bay (Xbox and PlayStation 3), Vista Beach (Wii), and Beacon Bay (Nintendo DS)