The familiar

I believe they're called familiars because like the folklore of familiar spirits they are designed to help spellcasters (witches) with their magic/spells. I don't think it was intended to be dark but more so a helper.

They are called that in TS2 as well. It may be the customary term.

Traditionally, creatures that serve spellcasters are referred to as familiars. Every term in the game doesn't have to make absolutely every person who plays it 100% comfortable. If you lean more to a conservative religious world view and feel uncomfortable with overt references to witchcraft, maybe you shouldn't have bought the pack. That would be like me buying "Laundry Day" and then griping about the piles of dirty laundry that appear because I put a washer in my house. Most people who get a pack with a magic theme are cool with concepts like familiars and spellcasting and such. If you're not comfortable with that stuff, then maybe it's one of those packs you skip, just like I skipped "Laundry Day"...because doing chores sucks.

What familiar spirit is there in real life?

For ordinary folks, none. For those heavily involved in acutal occult practices things could well be different. To keep on topic, it's simply a common term used in simsdom for the cat or whatever a given magic user has.

Thanks for your insight guys - I guess I could just not play that part of the game. I really like the new world though and I wish there were swimmable spots there too just like in Britechester. (I wish all the worlds had swimmable spots)

And by the way, there is magic that just involves skill and distraction - so not all magic is dark. And I really wanted to explore that and see what tricks my sim would learn. But since it's all dark I'll just leave it alone and enjoy the new world. I wish Sixam was as developed as the magic realm with things to do and places to go. Okay lemme stop rambling.

"To7m;c-17390458" wrote:

"aujineh;d-971433" wrote:
Now I bought realm of magic (because I must have everything for the game) but I am a bit uncomfortable with the familiar just because of the name. I wish the name could be changed to something less dark. I mean there is such a thing as a familiar spirit in real life so if the name of that little pet like thing could just be changed I would feel more comfortable playing with it.

Oh, grow up.

—T

Really? Then I would have to stop playing...

Heck no!

"aujineh;c-17389536" wrote:
Thanks for your insight guys - I guess I could just not play that part of the game. I really like the new world though and I wish there were swimmable spots there too just like in Britechester. (I wish all the worlds had swimmable spots)

And by the way, there is magic that just involves skill and distraction - so not all magic is dark. And I really wanted to explore that and see what tricks my sim would learn. But since it's all dark I'll just leave it alone and enjoy the new world. I wish Sixam was as developed as the magic realm with things to do and places to go. Okay lemme stop rambling.

While I have nothing against preferring stage magic and illusion to Fantasy Magic involving spells and potions... I am curious what in the Realm of Magic trailer or info led you to think that it would include the former rather than/as well as the later?

I'm not trying to be insulting, I'm just curious. I'm always interested in how marketing (as a broad concept) communicates, especially across cultures, so I'm curious where you saw something in this that I did not.

Actually, I did not even look at the trailer - I only bought this pack to have a complete game with nothing missing and also to have the additional world for my sims to expand their lives into. So assuming it would have all different types of magic was just speculation on my part and well it's no big deal really - thanks for asking. I actually also love to watch and read fantasy - not all of it goes deep into the dark realms.

You don't have to play with familiars, simply make or adopt a pet and make it a companion. Half of the spells in RoM are skill spells. Just like in the base game you don't have to be evil or a mischief-maker/mean sim to play. There is nothing in-game that requires you to be dark.