Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that teens can set up pretty odd businesses, such as a bar/spa/bubble-blowing hookah hang-out. Teens can create bars/nightclubs, and they can also place photo-booths where Sims can have sex. They can also get jealous and angry and fights can break out. This expansion pack requires The Sims 2 to play.
Families can talk about building a business from the ground up as well as dealing with customers and employees. This is also an excellent way to discuss time-management skills with teens.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Nikki Douglas
When Sims go to work, where do they go? THE SIMS 2: OPEN FOR BUSINESS attempts to answer that question.
The verdict: The game doesn't deliver on all its potential, but it does teach good entrepreneurial skills to teen players. Also, like all Sims titles, this game offers never-ending creative options.
Players nearly intuitively set up their first business. No manual reading required! Sims use the phone or their home computer to get down to business. They can purchase a community lot to build their store (even a new, teeny-tiny lot) or put on their bunny slippers and just work from home.
Open a flower shop, a nightclub, or even a lemonade stand -- the options are as open as a player's imagination. Players also enjoy a wide range of design options -- from what the business looks like to what employees wear. Go ahead and dress employess as ninjas or giant bunnies. There's nothing quite like tormenting your employees with funny hats, but be forewarned: If they don't get paid enough or get a break, they'll cause a scene and quit.
As in real life, it takes money to make money. Running a business is expensive. Building a brick-and-mortar location is even more expensive. Hiring employees is still more expensive. Since players decide the prices of services and retail goods, they may learn quite a bit about time and budget management. Training said employees is a matter of time and tenacity. Even though players tell employees what to do, they cannot actually control them.
The game awards talent badges to make it easier to discern who's good at what, but how well-trained employees are is anyone's guess. Players may wish the knew what employees would be best at before putting them on the cash register or having them hit the floor for sales.
Successful business owners earn perks, such as contact lists (to build the business further), cash bonuses, and better business relationships.
Also included are tons of brand new items to personalize Sims characters and their homes. There are new clothes, hairstyles, and new objects in this expansion pack. Players can buy a tiny new business lot and have the ability to lock doors and add elevators. There is also a new outlying area, a shopping district called Bluewater Village, where there are pre-made shops and home lots to buy.
Fans of the franchise may wish that they could build businesses that more closely matched Sims career tracks, so they could open an office, a medical clinic, a fast food place, etc. But, overall, the game does fill a hole in the Sims universe.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentSexual suggestions, situations (Sims can have sex), and some crude humor. |
 |
|
 |
|
ViolenceSims get jealous and angry and fights can break out. Also, Sims can die. |
|
|
 |
|
Language |
|
|
|
|
Message |
|
|
|
|
Social BehaviorThere is some crude bathroom humor. |
 |
 |
|
|
CommercialismThis is part of a franchise that encourages players to acquire wealth. The Sims universe continues to be full of tons of products to buy -- and to desire. |
|
|
|
|
Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDrinking and bubble-blowing that seems a lot like bong smoking (characters get the giggles). |
|
|
|
|
Educational ValueTeens may pick up some good business skills (like the importance of customer service). This is also an excellent way to discuss time-management skills with teens. |
 |
|
|
|
