La grande nouveauté de “Vivre Ensemble’, on nous l’a dit et redit : ce sont les groupes. Au début, comme beaucoup d’entre vous, j’étais assez septique sur cette annonce, me demandant si cela n’était pas réservé aux joueurs de moins de 16 ans, qui voulaient créer des clubs de pompom girls opposés à des clubs de scientifiques. Après avoir testé, je peux vous dire que les possibilités sont vraiment très variées et que les catégories d’activités contiennent plus d’une cinquantaine de propositions. Cela va de l’activité prendre à un bain, à celle d’aller contempler les œuvres d’arts, de faire crac crac (oui celle-là on ne peut pas la louper) ou même d’errer dans le labyrinthe… On peut aussi imaginer un groupe de malicieux qui adorent saboter des objets, une réunion de fantômes qui aiment posséder des meubles de cuisines etc … Toute une catégorie d’activité est réservée aux enfants, permettant de multiples possibilités comme un club de devoirs mais aussi une association d’enfants aimant jouer aux pirates et manger des gâteaux … Ce choix très important, m’a d’emblée séduite : l’add on peut s’adapter à la façon de jouer de chacun d’entre nous ; puisque nous pouvons créer le groupe qui correspond à nos besoins dans notre partie.
The Group button is located at the bottom right, it is a new menu in its own right. You can join up to 3 groups maximum. You will find in the add on, several pre-existing clubs that you may have seen in the promotional videos: "party" groups, cooking groups, supermodel groups, dance groups, dj groups, children's groups, etc... For each of these groups, you can ask to join them, provided you meet all the required criteria. In some cases, before being accepted, you will have to demonstrate certain skills or meet other various criteria (such as getting divorced if you want to join an unmarried party group).
You can also create your own group. In this case you can choose its name, symbol and meeting place. This location can be in pre-existing sites or can be created by yourself. You can even customize it with special doors and associated passwords. You will then have to define the characteristics to enter the group among 6 main categories: age, career, family, financial level, character trait, skill level. You will also have to choose his favorite activities and those that are forbidden (whether these occupations are forbidden with everyone or only with certain groups). As I said above the activities are very varied and fall into 9 main categories: Food, Artwork, Hobbies, Entertainment, Social, Outdoor, Mischief, Child, Indoor.
Once the group is formed, or as soon as you try to join a pre-existing group, a text message will inform you of a meeting to introduce you to all the members. Be careful, it's all about making a good impression! After the trial by fire, you'll receive regular text messages inviting you to your club's gatherings. Once you're in a place with your group, you'll also have the possibility of moving with your group elsewhere: in this case, if you wish, the members will follow you.
In-game, the sims in your group participate in the same activities as you do and indulge in their favorite pastimes. However, you can't ask them to do anything specific since you can't control them; but overall they go with the flow and in meeting places you can easily distinguish the different clubs present (they are also identifiable by the icon of their groups above their heads).
Finally, every time your group pursues their favorite hobbies you will earn points. This works in the same way as the aspiration points or the points for stores in "At Work". You can spend them with various group rewards like special handshakes, having more members in the group, social or skill bonuses, clothes, decorations, special moods.
