While I really like the idea of social groups in the sims, they did it poorly in sims 3.

To me social groups should not be reward based, but more focused on how other sims view them and used to decide where they will go and who they prefer interacting with when you are not controlling them.

It annoys me greatly that when I make a classy place, all kinds of sims are there to class it down. Or when I make a cheap bar, my snobby millionaires are visiting it.

So for this I would like to see clothes, furniture, jobs and other items being associated with social groups. Also including items that arent associated with any group since it wouldnt make sense for everything.

Heres some ideas for social groups:

Poor/lower class.
Poor sims would not have the money to be doing crazy things, and due to shabby clothing could not be allowed to enter certain places.
Clothing associated with it would be dirty, torn and bad fitting clothes, and also a few generic cheap clothes.
Worn furniture would be associated with the group too, as well as old cellphones, an old car that barely works, a rusty bike, etc.
Wealthy sims would not associate with them unless affected by their traits.
Generally, the poor social group would not be a pleasant one but one great for playing out stories. it allows sims to hit rock bottom, and allows players to work themselves up from poverty.

Wealthy elite.
The other end of the scale is of course the wealthy elite. They prefer the finest things in life and hang out at the most exclusive shops, bars, clubs, etc.
Expensive jewelry, fine suits, exquisite dresses, expensive furniture, rare art, luxury cars, its all part of this social group.

Gadget enthusiasts.
Not the best name for the group but I cant think of anything better right now.
These sims enjoy technology. wether it be the most advanced phone, shower, dishwasher, car, TV, stereo, etc. They just want it.
Not much clothes would be associated with this aside from anything futuristic looking.

Outlaws.
This covers anything from rebellious kids up to dangerous criminals.
These sims are not seen as trustworthy, and authority figures keep a closer eye on them. Of course some sims might feel drawn to such people if they have a trait for that.
Leather jackets, many kinds of tattoos, employment in the criminal career, certain bikes, and various furniture and objects would be associated with this style.
Kind of a fun social group to toy with. Parents might not want their kids to hang out with such sims.

Sports fan.
Pretty simple, these sims are into sports. Wether it is their career or they just like watching it, they tend to be busy with this in some way.
decorations of sports themes, sport outfits, employment in this sector, sports themed furniture, its all part of it.
Possibly they could be able to pick a prefered sport which they could then watch or participate in when they arent played.

Nature lovers.
Being vegetarian, working as a gardener, using biological products and such, its all part of this.
Enviromental friendly cars, furniture and clothing is what is associated with this, as well as various art decorations.
They will often be found outdoors and could perhaps have unique group activities here.

Slackers.
Of course some sims are lazy and arent putting much effort into anything. they just try to do as little as possible in their lives.
Having this reputation could make it a bit harder to get and keep a job since they really wouldnt put much effort into it.
Comforteable loose clothes, various beds, couches and chairs, its all part of it.

This is all the groups I can think of for now.

Once your sim has enough items associated with a social group, you could get the option to make them part of that social group. Having a higher number of things associated with it could take it a step further and enable the ability to make the sim a fanatic of the social group.

A fanatic nature lover would be the kind to expect everyone to live as they do and would lead protest rallies and stays away from gadget enthusiasts.
A fantatic of the wealthy elite would not even speak with the poor and the same for outlaws.
A fanatic outlaw would very much be a criminal, and would steal things when an opportunity presents itself. They could even steal cars and other items, and rob other sims.
A fanatic sports fan would be the kind that would neglect everything in favor of watching every sport event of his prefered sport. They'd get a negative effect when not seeing it.
A fanatic gadget enthusiast would mock those with lesser technology and would grow unhappy when they see someone with a better they want to have.

By making all of it optional and simply rewarding you with the OPTION to make them part of the social group and take it a notch further when having more stuff associated with the theme, players keep complete freedom over this.
If your sim is a wealthy baseball player who enjoys being outdoors, you could choose between making him a nature lover, wealthy elitist or sports fan. Or you could even make him an outlaw or whatever you like if you provide him with enough items associated with it.

A hell of a step up from the basics of the Sims 3's fashion system where a hobo could leave the house in couture gown. We really do need some more restrictions to fashion. Low End + High End are fine for the base game, and Couture later down the road. From there, items aren't flagged as random, but for social groups, like you said. Similar to how objects have flags for their behavior.

That would enforce class into the game, say for example, Bikers would be lower class citizens, while Techs would be Upper Class. Those group members would also get certain sub jobs in certain career chains, have their job enforce their social groups. It's a nice loop of gameplay. I like it.

While I love the idea behind this, I can already see the ugly social stereotypes that would ensue.
For instance 'Bikers would be lower class citizens' is a stereotype, and if owning a motorcycle and wearing 'biker' clothes would be restricted to only 'lower class' citizens, I would not be able to make a Sim of my husband's boss, who is both a biker and a business owner and millionaire.
I do very much like the idea of having flags for what clothes can be used randomly by which Sims, but I'd want that to be fully customizable so I wouldn't have to play by someone else's idea of what is appropriate attire for any subgroup.

Yeah, plenty of weekend Dentist biker clubs out on the roads by me now that the weather is getting better.

There would need to be some way for folks to move through the social groups. You wouldn't want them to be stagnant. The poor can become rich, and the rich can slip and become poor. Granted, in TS3 only the first ever happens (several hundred simoleans for a picked wildflower? Come on), but the ability to have a downwardly mobile family might be a nice addition to the game.

Just throwing this out here, but, I see a lot of complaints about how the Sims franchise has been moving away from the sandbox model and closer to RPGs. Restricting a character's abilities/skills/clothing according to a class is actually a very RPG game element, and it does limit your sandbox game ability to create the world the way you want it to be.
I don't thinkI'd want to play in a game that enforced these rigid social restrictions on my Sims, especially if they were going to be based on stereotyped ideas about how a 'criminal' dresses, and what objects they like to own vs. how a 'wealthy elite' dresses and what objects they like to own. What happens when a criminal becomes a wealthy elite and buys a mansion?

Life is ugly and full of prejudices. While the sims should not delve too deeply into the more dirty sorts of things (aka racism, religion), it should definitely take into account some more immediate opinions people have of each other.

The clothes should not be what solely impacts sims' opinions of each other, but be weighed along with other things to form opinions. Things like wealth, prestige (celebrity), interests, skills, how your sims treat others, clothes and age should fit together to form some pretty interesting mixes of social groups.

Therefore, you can have:
- A millionaire biker- (big opinion boost through wealth, some negative impact by attire, unless your sim is interested in that group, which in case a boost is warranted)
- A poor preppy student- (negative opinion impact due to wealth, slighly tempered by age, medium opinion boost through clothes, age selective opinion boost/impact through age (older people look down onto this sim, sims of same age may look up)
- Washed-up celebrity (opinion boost through prestige and wealth, negative opinion impact through your sims' actions and age)

And even these will have unique impacts on each sim because interests vary, as does their opinions of your sims' actions. Therefore, even though your sim might not like that preppy sim on sight, if he acts nice towards your sim and your sims reveal that they both share interests like guitar and grilled cheese, those immediate opinions will be negated.

I think something like that would be handled better through a more complex traits systems, with likes/dislikes expanded from the TS2 system. Having special clothing categories for 'preppy', 'biker/outlaw' would be something of a pain when it comes to CC. I'd like to think all CC creators would choose categories carefully, but we all know that's not the case. And even if they, and EA itself, put thought into it, their ideas of what fits into a category might differ from a player's ideas.

While I love this idea and have wanted better social groups since The Sims 2 Apartment Life, why not just have lots/areas of the world be customized to allow whatever social groups would exist in the game? That way, if your Sim is a biker and not allowed to enter a socialite-infested boutique, then, it would've been because that Sim is part of the biker group and not because of having been trashy or not trashy. This, in turn, avoids unnecessary stereotypes. Basically, social groups should only judge by the fact that their members prefer their own. Of course, the only dilemma would be if the game would allow for certain social groups to "prefer" or "tolerate" other groups more or less than the others. Then, that will definitely be crossing stereotype territory.

I do really like the idea of clothes actually costing money, so that fancy clothes and accessories were for richer sims, and poorer sims would only have simple clothes (although it'd be great to have a skill where sims could make their own for much cheaper!!). I think all thos social groups is a bit too much though, social groups are very fluid in real life so it would probably be better to make it more individual. The clothes only matter to those who care -sims who are snobs or rebels (maybe rebels like cheap clothes, or clothes sims made themselves).

I actually don't agree with this idea at all. It feels way too limiting and would probably be insanely glitchy.
What if I want to make a Sim version of me? I have wealthy parents, but most of my friends don't - including my boyfriend - so would we not get along as well? And I'm a fan of gadgetry, I love nature, and I tend to dress in black while listening to death metal. I have to choose one social class from that?
What about my room? I have my laptop and iPhone, which are fairly high-tech. I have my electric guitar, my black leather jacket and combat boots, my music collection (again with the metal. Also classical and blues.) I have my lava lamp, various candles and incense. I have posters of Arch Enemy, Pantera, Iron Maiden, and Jimi Hendrix, alongside artwork - some of which is my own, and depicts everything from natural scenery to sci-fi. Pray tell, where do I fit in with your classifications? And if I don't fit in at all, why should my Sims?
The game gave traits such as "Computer Whiz," "Snob," "Couch Potato," etc. That should suffice for your social groups. As for socialite Sims coming to rundown bars, I recall Late Night having different types of bars to attract different people. Pigeonhole your venues, not my Sims, thank you.

Basically The Urbz?

The urbz had just what your asking.

Have to say I don't like the idea of Pigeon holing sims either, for the reason indiesine gives, I wouldn't want to be that restricted. However having said that, I love the idea of being able to choose which clothing is appropriate for, I don't know, maybe traits? From a system like this it could, in theory, be possible to figure out a way to have 'classes' of sims by assigning certain appropriate traits to the groups. It would also give us greater control over what clothes are worn in the world generally, and that is one of the things that interests me.

I would like to see three buttons under each item of clothing and hair, 1) Assigned Traits, 2) Allow in World yes/no, 3) hide item from CAS, and perhaps an allow for random check box, it would be great to have those functions right in CAS (I'd like them in the build/buy menu too)

You could simply be "undecided" in a social group, or make it like the rep feature in university life.

You can be in more than 1 group.
Say, for example:

10 Rep with high class
5 rep with middle class
6 rep with lower class


If they go the urbz rougt and possibly make "Gangs", then they could do the same:

(Names are placeholders)
Richies (Rich Sims) - You get rep the more money you have and more rich friends you have.

Streeties (Lower class hipster sims) - You get more rep the more streeties friends you have and more saggy clothing you wear. Additionally you get more rep if you live in an apartment. Your rep will also increase if you throw big parties with hip hop music.


Something like that...
Also more features could be:
You can sort parties and have bouncers.
Make a party for say, streeties, and they will all come. The bouncer will not allow any other group to pass the door.

I did say it would be optional to join such a group. Getting a bike and a leather jacket could open up the option to be seen as a rebel. It would have to be enabled first. No social group assigned would mean the sim is seen as an average person.
The entire system could even be ignored this way if you dont like it, since its all optional. It simply provides the means so that your sims will befriend people that would share their interests when you dont play them, and visit places that make sense for them.