The Sims 2/Memories

In The Sims 2, memories are recorded as a list of major events in The Sims 2. This article discusses the mechanics of memories in The Sims 2.

Types of Memories

Functionally, there are two types of memories.

• Positive
• Negative

Sims like to brag about positive memories and gossip about negative. You can tell the type of memory by accessing the memory subpanel in the simology. Positive memories have green backgrounds and negative memories have red backgrounds. You can usually tell what the memory is by looking at the icon. Click on the memory for further information. The following list should give you an idea of what memories there are.

• Grew Up Well/Sim Grew Up Well (P)
• Grew Up Badly/Sim Grew Up Badly (N)
• Taught to Walk/Learnt to Walk (P)
• Taught to Talk/Learnt to Talk (P)
• Pottytrained/Learnt to Use Potty (P)
• Taught to Study/Learnt to Study (P)
• Got an A+/Sim got A+ (P)
• Got a D-/Sim got D- (N)
• Got into Private School/Sim got into Private School (P)
• Got rejected from Private School/Sim got rejected from private school (N)
• Sim got taken by Social Worker (N)
• Went Steady (P) (N for Romance Sims)
• Got Rejected for Going Steady (N)
• Got Engaged (P) (N for Romance Sims)
• Got Rejected for Engagement (N)
• Got Married (P) (N for Romance Sims)
• Got Married to a Rich Sim (P)
• Broke up with Sim (N) (P if Sim hated the other Sim)
• Was Left at Altar (N)
• Adopted sim (P)
• Had Child (P)
• Got Grandchild (P)
• Had Anniversary (P)
• Learnt to Cook Food (P)
• Sim Died (N)
• Burnt Food (N)
• Became a werewolf/sim became a werewolf (N) (P for knowledge)
• Became a witch/sim became a witch (N) (P for knowledge)
• Became a vampire/sim became a vampire (N) (P for knowledge)

• Fire (N)
• Roaches (N)
• Got a Job (P)
• Got Promoted (P)
• Became Overachiever (P)
• Reached Top of Career (P)
• Got Big Bonus (P)
• Got Demoted (N)
• Got Fired (N)
• Quit Job (P)
• Retired (P)
• Made $5000 (P)
• Made $10000 (P)
• Made $25000 (P)
• Made $50000 (P)
• Made $100000 (P)
• Repo Man (N)
• Maximised Skill (P)
• Maximised All Skills (P)
• Got Abducted by Aliens/ Sim Got Abducted (N) (P for Knowledge)
• Saw a Ghost (N) (P for Knowledge)
• Defeated Grim Reaper/ Was Saved From Death (P)
• Lost to Grim Reaper (P)
• Received a Shock (N) (P for Knowledge)
• Went on Far East vacation (P)
• Caught sim cheating/Got caught cheating (N)
• Obtained a pet (P)
• Saw first snow (P)
• Learned new massage (P)
• Learned local greeting(P)
• Learned hula dance (P)

• Met New Sim (P)
• Made Best Friends (P)
• Lost Best Friend (N)
• Had 2 Best Friends (P)
• Had 3 Best Friends (P)
• Had 5 Best Friends (P)
• Had 10 Best Friends (P)
• Had Great Party (P)
• Had Lousy Party (N)
• Had Accident (N)
• Had Accident at Party (N)
• Passed Out (N)
• Fell in Love (P)
• Had First Kiss (P)
• Kissed New Sim (P)
• Made Out (P)
• Had First WooHoo (P)
• WooHooed with New Sim (P)
• Did Public WooHoo (P)
• Had Two Lovers (P)
• Had Three Lovers (P)
• Had Five Lovers (P)
• Had Ten Lovers (P)
• Had an Affair with Sim (P)
• Won fight with sim (P)
• Lost fight to sim (N)
• Went on island vacation (P)
• Went on mountain vacation (P)
• Was robbed (N)
• Bought vacation home (P)
• Went to college (P)
• Got food tray dropped on Sim (N)

Recent Memories

When a new memory is gained, you'll generally know instantly because the icon will hover oven the sims head for a while. Recent memories affect sims more than distant memories. In a way, sims can forget about memories although there won't be any indicator. For example a popularity sim has a bad party. For the next few days he or she will waste time crying over the memory. This behaviour, however, desists as time goes on. After a memory is gained, sims can talk about it for a while. However as time goes on, sims will talk about it less and less until they forget about. Eventually, they forget about it. If you've played a sim from toddler age, you'll never see that sim, as an adult, talk about their potty training. Sims can also learn about memories and talk about them to a third party sim. Learned memories cannot be seen, though, and like other memories, they can be forgotten. Finally, memory icons can appear in thought bubbles during the day and while their sleeping. In a sense sims can dream about their memories.

Memory Socials

Plenty of socials draw upon memories.

• Brag. First-party sim uses a good memory and talks about it to another sim.
• Chat. Memory is random.
• Congratulate. Autonomous Social. Second-party sim chooses learnt positive memory and talks about it to first-party sim.
• Console. Autonomous Social. Second-party sim chooses learnt negative memory and talks about it to first-party sim
• Gossip/Tell Secret. Second-party sim chooses negative learnt memory and talks about it to third party sim.
• Tease. Autonomous Social. Second-party sim chooses negative learnt memory and talks about it to first party sim.

Different Memory Types for Different Aspirations

Certain aspirations will have a different memory type than other aspirations for certain memories. For example, if a Sim has the Knowledge aspiration, and if they get abducted, struck by lightning, see a ghost, etc, they will like it, when others will not. Also, if a Sim has the Romance aspiration, and if they get married, go steady, etc, they will not like it, while other Sims will like it.