The Sims 3: World Adventures Guide and Walkthrough

The Sims 3 World Adventures Walkthrough

The Sims 3 World Adventures Unofficial Guide by CM Boots-Faubert for SuperCheats.com

Before we get to the proper Introduction to the game in which we discuss its history and the wonderful nature of its expanded sim-ply fun elements I want to address the matter of the game itself and what it means to the writer who created this Unofficial SuperCheats Guide and Walkthrough for The Sims 3: World Adventures -- me.

The first time I played a Sims game it was not actually a Sims game at all, it was a game from the very successful Sim-series that came before The Sims -- SimCity to be precise. At that time I was still in University, the world (and I) were much younger, and I distinctly recall thinking at the time how neat it would be if we could play that game on a more personal level, interacting with the simulated population in a group fashion or, even better, one-on-one. At that time while I had access to PC's in addition to the Mini-and-Mainframe computers at school, at home my personal computer of choice was a very heavily modified Commodore C=64 upon which I played Little Computer People...

Little Computer People was, in essence, partly what I had wished for when I thought about how neat it would be to have a more personal simulated people experience ala SimCity. It was created by David Crane and Rich Gold (legends in the game design community of the 1980's) and published by Activision -- you have heard of Activision, right? A lot of my mates who owned other computers also played it, so it was a popular topic of conversation among us and, considering that there were versions for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, and ZX Spectrum as well as the C=64/CBM64, it got wide play and a lot of attention at the time.

Welcome to The Sims 3: World Adventures!

Will Wright, in writing about what motivated him to create The Sims as a game series, refers to Little Computer People as part of the inspiration, though clearly he took the entire concept of simulated life inside of computer games to a whole new level -- even a whole new universe for that matter -- but still what you had was a game in which you interacted with a little man who lived in your computer in a house that was warm and comfy, and who would often communicate with you by writing notes and acting out his emotions. There was no end-game, it was an ongoing thing, and while he certainly had a regular daily routing, each day was different.

There was actually very limited interaction between you and your little computer person, though he was aware that you existed and could be convinced to play games with you -- but this is not about the game Little Computer People -- it is about The Sims, and specifically The Sims 3: World Adventures. I mentioned LCP in the hopes that you will understand just how much impact that The Sims had on me as a gamer, back when it first came out...

I remember thinking that someone had simply ripped-off LCP when she first told me about it, but when I sat down at her computer and played it for the first time I instantly understood three important things: the first was that it was not a rip-off of LCP, but a new and special game in its own right; the second was that I very much liked it; the third was that if I was not careful it could easily disrupt my life in very negative ways because it was (and remains) a highly addictive hard-to-stop-playing game.

In the darkest part of the night, when sleep is just about to arrive and I lay in bed looking at the ceiling I think about my old CBM64 and the fun that I had on it playing LCP, and sometimes I wonder how cool it would be if I could have played The Sims on it...

Introducing the SuperCheats, Tomos and Katya

-- And Now the Proper Introduction --

World Adventures was the first expansion pack for The Sims 3, and was announced on The Sims 3 website in August 2009, with its North American release on November 18, 2009 and world release quickly following. An expansion pack that focuses on travel to various areas in a manner similar to previous expansions The Sims: Vacation and The Sims 2: Bon Voyage, the Sims are able to travel to simified versions of China, Egypt, and France where they have adventures, collect objects, and interact with the locals as well as acquire new skills.

While on holiday your Sims can earn rewards and benefits of travel, while they level up new skills like photography, martial arts, and nectar (wine) making. There are additional social wishes, desires, and tasks that have been added to the expansion, both for rounding out the use of new skills and abilities and to add to the different available activities.

The Sims as a series is now in its third revision -- and when I say revision I mean just that, since the original series progressed from establishing its base game and then its expansions, eventually settling out into a well-accepted and loved game. And then The Sims 2 came out, and gamers were confused... The base game did not contain all of the activities that were present in the original series, so why should they upgrade to what was perceived as less game play in a new version?? Ah, but then as the screens and videos began to emerge as The Sims 2 grew closer to its release it all became clear -- the game world and its graphics were better. Not only that, but the Sims themselves were now smarter and more interesting, so hey, bonus! Of course gamers would want to update. And the aggressive expansion plans for the new series quickly regained all of the activities and added new ones, so again, bonus!

After a few years of Sim-fun and the world of PC tech constantly improving it did not take a brain surgeon to realize that a newer, better, and more interesting world of simming was just around the corner -- and the announcement of The Sims 3 and its release made 2009 the year of Simming all over again! But again, the base game lacked many of the activities that were part of the previous series, and again, gamers wondered if they should upgrade or not? The answer was clearly oh yes, yes they should! Because once again the basic sim-ness of being a Sim had changed, and the underlying engine that made the game work, and the Sims more interesting -- and independent -- made it a no-brainer. The fact that yet another aggressive expansion program was planned alone was enough to make the switch away to a new version that much easier to manage.

It seems that having the game boxes for your previous Sims versions on your game shelf is, for Simmers, something of a badge of honor, and I know more than just a few gamers who regularly revisit their old Sims, so keeping those games is not really a status thing for them at all... Mastering the game is not accomplished through following one set path, because there are so many different ways that this can be accomplished that it is really based on the preferences of the player, from jobs to recreation.

This guide provides a road map to making the most of the new activities, skills, and opportunities, with a focus upon identifying each, because some are not really obvious, while others are worth pursuing because their rewards are more meaningful than you might suspect!