Afterlife Game pack idea

@Aine

Some light pondering here :)

- I like the idea of a ghost staying because of unfinished business, there is some reason why they choose to remain.
- I like the idea of good and bad ghosts. But maybe it should be ghost and bad ghost. The word good comes with certain ideas on behavior, for me at least
- How will the need to scare sims play out for good and bad ghosts?

So this is just my take on it :) I like discussing things and trading ideas. Also, this is my first and only iteration of The Sims. There might be stuff that "everyone knows about ghosts" that I don't get.

If there was a really good sim, who always did the best for those around them. Why would that sim suddenly feel the need to scare all sims. I like your idea of unfinished business.

All ghosts have their own 'unfinished business' - it's the afterlife equivalent of an aspiration, and can be somewhat similar to the aspirations the ghosts had when they were alive sims, but is not directly linked. One ghost might want to witness a family grow and have a certain amount of kids. Or they might want to help sims find love. Ghosts can be either good-natured or bad-natured which is set by their trait, and they don't have aspirations as alive sims do, instead their unfinished business is directly linked to their ghost trait. When a sim dies on the lot, you will be able to choose a ghost trait that are added to their traits, which will in turn decide the 'unfinished business'. Bad-natured ghosts don't want to help sims as their unfinished business, but rather wreck as much as they can, haunt a wedding, scare the kids etc. When a ghost sim has achieved their goal, they are at peace and can move on, if they want.

Let's say that the hypothetical good and kind sim always wanted to "help sims find love". What is the motivation for scaring sims? Unless it is like that mischief-interaction when one sim scares another and they both laugh about it. Then it would be ok. Just thinking how the good ghosts are going to work as npc-sims. Your old neighbor "kind Bob" scaring your sim to death while floating about with a golden halo might seem a bit confusing. Since the ghosts are divided into good and bad it should feel different when you interact with them in my opinion.

I would be really happy about bad ghosts being able to scare sims to death! That would be interesting.

Hmm. Also, what decides if a dead sim comes back as a good or bad sim if they died and you were not there. Grandma died while you were playing the sister-in-law in Oasis Springs. What decides if a sim comes back to their family as good or bad. Hmm, how are those who are really invested in their legacy going to take that grandma "turned evil"? If they bought the pack because they wanted to be able to hold funerals for their beloved familymembers, are they onboard with the idea of them perhaps going dark-side. We have had Casper-the-ghost for quite some time now so I have no idea. Can't compare this with earlier iterations, I'm just thinking about it.

Would played ghosts not being able to turn evil unless it was chosen help out the players who doesn't read the fine print? I think I would be ok with my sim going dark and working it into the story. But I could see this potentially blowing up the forum.

I think this is fun! I would like to see something done with ghosts. I have to run now, they just brought out the cheese, crackers and marmalade. Hope it isn't too difficult to follow. If it is confusing forgive me but if I don't move all of it will be gone :D