Game Theory - The Unsolved Lore of The Sims (Bella Goth Mystery)

Episode Date: July 6, 2023

Join Game Theory Host MatPat as he solves one of the biggest mysteries of The Sims Credits: Writers: Matthew Patrick, Hannah Malek (HgMercury73) and Tom Robinson Editors: Tyler Mascola, Jerika (NekoOnigiri), and Shannon (Bomb0i) Sound Editor: Yosi Berman

The Sim known as Bella Gough was a beautiful, engaging socialite, beloved by her family and all that met her. She led an elegant, active lifestyle, enjoying various pastimes from golf to miniature golf. Those who knew her best would describe her as Jalinen, Koojj, or even Ravashin. With her doting husband, intelligent and well-behaved children, and extravagant wealth, Bella truly had the perfect life until tragedy struck. Bella disappeared without even a dag-dag, leaving behind a broken and grieving family. Even today, the question of what happened to her remains a mystery. Where is she now?

Many suspect that she was the victim of foul play. But if so, who, how, and why? Ripped from the headlines, this is the Game Theory Files. All Soul Internet, welcome to Game Theory, the show that manages to find lore in games that we weren't even convinced had any. The day has finally come here, theorists. Today we're talking about one of the best-selling franchises of all time. A game series that's managed to sell an eye-watering 200 million copies worldwide, The Sims, the game that literally tells you to unleash your imagination. If somehow you have no idea what I'm talking about, the Sims franchise is a collection of games that originated as a spinoff of the Sim City franchise,

a real-time management and construction game. Yeah, it was fine. It was nothing inherently wrong with Sim City, but you know, there's only so hype you can get about city planning. Whoa, look at that sick traffic flow, bro! Public services are off the chain! Damn! That has some fine sewage treatment. The first game's wildly successful release was the foundation for a video game empire with four main games and a wealth of spinoffs, like The Sims Online, the Sims Medieval, and the Sims Busting Out, which, much to my dismay, was not about Sims busting out a prison. The games tend to be sandbox-style life simulators, where players can create the world and stories for themselves, letting their imaginations run free to create impressive mansions, have illicit affairs, painstakingly recreate their beloved family,

and then watch them die while making grilled cheese. Or, you know, you can just trap people in glass boxes and then watch them die. Slowly, slowly. Just embrace it. Let's just say this game can get dark. But if the story is so largely up to us, you can see the problem with me talking about it. There's no mystery to solve if everything is up to you, right? Well, well, most of the game is totally up to you.

The devs couldn't leave things completely in our hands. To round out the world, they added. several pre-made families for player-made sims to interact with. And if you have no imagination whatsoever, or you just don't feel like spend in several hours making your own sims, you can just choose to play as one of these families for yourself. They even come with their own backstory. Ah, backstories!

And now you see why this game caught our attention. Where there be backstories, there be lore. And wouldn't you know it, there's one family in particular that's surrounded by mystery. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Goths. The family's composed of Mortimer Goth, Bella Goth, and their two children, Cassandra and Alexander. Mortimer Gauth is a rather prestigious Sim. He's one of the first settlers of Sunset

Valley, the primary setting for Sims 3, and his father was also one of the founders of Pleasant View, one of the primary neighborhoods for Sims 1 and 2. Needless to say, the guy is kind of a big deal. But despite Mortimer's wealth and status, it's his beautiful wife, Bella, that immediately stole the spotlight. From day one of the Sims,

Bella became a firm favorite amongst the fans. And she would stay that way until she mysteriously disappeared. Out of the blue, poof, she was just gone. And not in a, oh, the game designers just didn't include her in the next game sort of way. No, this was baked into the game's canon. When booting up Sims 2 and selecting the Pleasant View neighborhood, players are greeted with information slides that give you a basic backstory for the pre-made Sims.

Mortimer Goth has made a fortune. Some newcomers are making trouble, and oh yeah, Bella Goth just disappeared. No explanation, no clear way to bring her back. She's just gone. Now, this was weird. Bella and Mortimer even had themselves a daughter, Cassandra. Like, this was an established family unit from the first game, and for some reason, a character just disappears with no explanation.

With Bella being a crowd favorite, of course the community was devastated. So it's only natural that theorists from far and wide had come together to try and solve the mystery. Unfortunately, no one's ever really been successful. A decade later, and we're still seeing theories pop up all over the place, even on our own subreddit, all providing good leads, but never a final conclusion that the community's been able to agree on. There are always holes that can't be explained away in puzzle pieces that don't fit in properly.

However, today is the day that this mystery finally gets laid to rest. I'm going to take on this gaming cold case and finally get Bella the justice that she deserves. So, what happened to Bella? Was it just a simple case of her leaving her husband and move into a new neighborhood? Or was it something more sinister? It's time to call our two main suspects to the stand. Starting first with her very own husband, Mortimer Gough. Even though his information slide says that he's struggling with Bella's disappearance,

when you start the game, it appears that Mortimer has already entered a relationship with Dina Caliente, the widow of his brother-in-law Michael Batchelor, which, gotta say, I raises some serious red flags off the bat. Oh no, my wife is gone. Guess it's time to date her dead brother's widow. Let's just say it's a bad look. It also gives us motive. You see, the Sims 2 made divorce into a game mechanic.

It was a way to punish unfaithful spouses. So if he was cheating and Bella caught him, suddenly Mortimer would have lost his house, his children, and his money, banished forever to the neighborhood's family bin. So, by making her disappear, he would get to keep all that luxury for himself. Now, this has been a popular game.

theory within the Sims community for a while. And while that motive certainly makes for compelling speculation, no evidence within the game seems to fit. Mortimer's relationship meter with Bella across the series is very positive. And the lack of negative interaction memories between the two characters means it's unlikely that any cheating occurred, or at least any discovery of cheating. So with no real evidence behind Mortimer, let's instead look at our next suspect, Don Lothario. Now, Don is interesting. In the canon of the game, before her disappearance, Bella and Mortimer had a daughter named Cassandra. And in Sims 2, Cassandra is engaged to Don.

But Don isn't exactly what he appears to be. It's hinted at in the game that he may have been a victim of accidental teleportation. Call the back rooms, my friends, it looks like someone is no clipping through reality again. But not only is he potentially responsible for breaking the laws of time and space, he's also known for breaking the hearts of women around him. Unlike Mortimer, Don has zero good reputation. Basically, this guy wants the woo-hoo. Lots and lots of woo-hoo, which, as you can imagine, makes him less likely to stay in monogamous relationships.

That's why, even though he's engaged to Cassandra, he's more than happy to invite other girls like Nina Caliente over for a date. Checking his relationship panel will reveal that he's also romantically involved with Dina Calliente and Kaylin Langarack, one of the maids in Sims 2. So, in total, he's looking for love with basically anything with two legs in this game. Cassandra Goth, Nina Caliente, her twin Dina Caliente, and Kalian. Except there's one more person to add to the list. By checking Don Simology panel, which lists out the traits of any given character, we can see that he's had a recent failed romantic interaction with none other than Bella Gauth.

Nothing says husband material quite like trying to make out with your bride's mom. But since it's listed as a failed interaction, we know that she rejected his advances. Could that then be the motive for him trying to get rid of her? A woman who scorned him, embarrassed him. Maybe. If you look at Don's family introduction, you can see that Bella was last scene scaling the deck of his condo. So there you have it. He's closed.

He's got motive and his condo was the last place she was seen. We got him, boys. But hold on. See, there's one key piece of evidence that all of this overlooks. Bella's disappearance has a very specific label in the game's memory system, the image of a UFO. She didn't just disappear from Don's roof. She was abducted by aliens from Don's roof. In fact, it says it right there, clear as day.

Bella got abducted by aliens. How can the Sims live with the awful knowledge they must have gained? But we can go even deeper than this. If we take a look at Don's family tree, we can definitively prove that he isn't an alien. In the game, aliens and Sims with unusual or something, supernatural appearances are given the occult tag. And not only does Don have two human parents, he's also not labeled as an occult sim.

So if Don's not an alien, he couldn't have been the person to abduct Bella. However, we've already met two sims that could have that power. It's time to take a closer look at Dina and Nina Caliente, the sisters that Don was having an affair with. Looking at the Caliente family tree, we can see that Dina and Nina's grandfather was abducted by aliens, and he then gave birth to their father,

which, I know, seems weird, but in the Sims, if a male Sim is a bird, there's a chance that the symbol become pregnant with an alien baby. Though their father appears human on the family tree, alien pregnancies result in fully alien babies 100% of the time. Considering that the Calliante sister's mother is human, Dina and Nina then are 50% alien, which would therefore give them the means to perform alien abductions.

So, they then have the means, but do they have the motive? The answer is a resounding yes. There's more evidence for their motive than anyone else, in fact. The sisters' family description implies right off the bat that these sisters, sisters might not be entirely what they seem. Remember, Mortimer begins dating Dina after Bella's disappearance, but then we're told this. Quote, was it just coincidence that the Kelliante sisters arrived on the eve of Bella's disappearance? And is their interest in Mortimer physical or fiscal? All of this is further cemented by playing the game as Dina, which reveals that she's digging for

gold. So it's likely the sisters got Bella out of the way so they could swoop in and marry Mortimer for the money. So we've got ourselves means, we've got ourselves motive, but is there one piece of definitive evidence that really ties all of this together? Yes! And it comes from Bella herself. My dear theorists, in the world of Sims, just because someone was abducted doesn't mean they're completely gone. Sure, Bella's nowhere to be found in Pleasant View, but if you go to the smallest of the Sims 2 neighborhoods, Strange Town, you'll find none other than Bella Goth herself. Fresh out of the alien abduction pipeline. This Bella goth was confirmed to be the same Bella from Sims 1 in an official promo interview posted on the Sims 2 Community Board for Sims Social, a 2006 Facebook game. And in this interview, Bella starts to bust the mystery wide open.

While she's missing a number of her past memories, she has managed to regain a couple. When I asked whether Dina was responsible for her abduction, she says this. Quote, When Dina and Nina moved into town, they were certainly very forward with my husband. In fact, it was almost insulting how openly they were trying to win him over, as if I didn't notice. I think someone sent Dina to town specifically to pull Mortimer away from me. I couldn't have possibly imagined that trying to create a life elixir that could help everyone would ever push someone to ruin our marriage. Even before Bella was abducted, the Caliente's

sisters were trying to pull Mortimer away from Bella. There are plenty of other wealthy sims around, but none of them are responsible for creating a life elixir, which is what the sisters truly want. Bella was standing in their way of learning the life elixir secrets. Meanwhile, Don's well-known womanizing made him the perfect scapegoat for the crime. Except there's one final wrinkle to the story. If Bella was able to resurface and start regaining her memories, why did she never return to the town?

Why wasn't she able to expose the Caliente sisters for the money-grubbing aliens that they were? Well, the girls had one last trick up their aliens. in sleeves, time travel. They sent Bella back in time to keep her quiet. And no, I'm not crazy. Hear me out on this one. The first two Sims games happened sequentially in the timeline. However, Sims 3 isn't a sequel, but rather a prequel, set 25 years before Sims 1 and 50 years before Sims 2. If you take a look around one of Sims 3's neighborhoods, Sunset Valley, you'll find two very young but very familiar faces, Mortimer and Bella, the young couple who'll eventually grow up to become the adult Goths that we know from the Sims 1. But if you travel to

another part of the map, Luter Lakes, you can find a grave site. Hover over one of the graves and you find that it belongs to none other than Bella Goth, who apparently died from old age. And yes, this too has been confirmed to be the same Bella Goth from Sims 1 and 2 by one of the former producers. So clearly some time travel shenanigans are going on here. But the Kellianti sisters couldn't possibly be responsible for this too, right? They can and they are.

By taking a look at one of the other neighborhoods, Riverview, you'll find another very familiar Sim, Don Lothario. But here, he's not a child. He's still his sleazy adult self. And unlike Bella, we actually get some explanation for how he wound up in this new location. His family biography states that he stepped, quote, onto a teleporter and magically wound up here. That, my friends, wasn't a teleporter. It was a time machine. And not only that, but him stepping onto it wasn't an accident. One of his last memories is of, quote, several women laughing as he stepped into the machine.

These women, the Caliente's, would know what was going to happen, and would have the ability to time travel themselves if they wanted to. And you want to know who we find. if we visit Barnacle Bay in this game? That's right, Nina and Dina Caliente. Just like Don, fully grown up. In fact, Dina's character biography specifically mentions her breaking hearts in Pleasant View, a city that, given that the Goths are still living in Sunset Valley, hasn't yet been founded.

This all proves that the Caliente sisters have not only been able to time travel, but have the technology to send both Bella and Don to the past to protect their secrets. For over a decade, Sims fans have tried to discover the truth behind Bella's disappearance, mostly focusing on Don Lethario's involvement because of his reputation. Though the Caliente sisters have occasionally come up as accomplices, they've never been the main focus. However, all the evidence that we've gathered paints a much different story. One where Don took the fall for Dina and Nina's crimes,

and the Caliente sisters got everything they dreamed of. Mortimer's money, a mysterious elixir, a life of fabulous wealth and fame, and absolutely no consequences. After all, they'd made sure that the only people who knew the truth were trapped in a place where they'd never get out, the past. It seems that they covered up their tracks so well, that even the fans were fooled by it. However, it seems like Bella might finally,

finally have been the one to get the last laugh. As we just saw, the original Bella is dead from old age in Sims 3, meaning that she was sent even further back to the past in this game. But that would then give her a lot of time unsupervised, finally able to tell her side of the story. That's why there's a children's book in this game called Where's Bella, similar to Where's Waldo, written by a character, I Am Right,

a character who also wrote predictions of the future. Bella is I Am Right. There's another book in here called Murder in Pleasant View by Alexander Gough. Alexander Gough is Bella's son, but he isn't even close to being born yet. Unless it's all a pseudonym once again for Bella, making sure that her story is heard. All of these books actually explain why the Sims with the Investigator professional make remarks like, this reminds me of when Bella went missing. I need to keep looking.

Sims in this timeline are aware of everything that happened. They've even set up a beneficiary that good Sims can donate to. Bella changed the course of history with these books, allowing Sims to try and and avoid the same mistakes from happening a second time and maybe just maybe the Calliante sisters will finally be thwarted so the next time a pair of attractive twins start showing interest in you just know that they're probably aliens looking to steal your money and then teleport you to the past but hey that's just a theory a game theory thanks for watching