After some initial problems accumulating Mysterious Mr. Gnomes, I finally was able to pick up a few.  Hooray!  But then they started misbehaving and disappearing.  What's the deal?

Gnome behavior changed after the World Adventures expansion pack.  Suddenly people reported that their Mysterious Mr. Gnome would move a few times, and would then stop moving.  I had this happen, as well.  One of my gnomes has been standing on the kitchen counter for several weeks!

Sometimes if you (the human player) move the gnome somewhere new, he starts moving again.  And sometimes if your Sims kick Mysterious Mr. Gnome and stand him up again, he will start moving again.  But typically people report that he only moves a few more times before stopping.

Was this a planned change by EA, or just a glitch?  It's hard to say.  There are a lot of quirks of gameplay which the EA developers clearly considered to be problems that they later solved.  For example, you used to be able to gradually build up enough relationship with the Grim Reaper to "Try For Baby," but this is no longer the case.  After an early patch, the Grim Reaper apparently got a vasectomy, because he can no longer father children.

On the other hand, expansion packs and patches do tend to break things as much as they fix them.  So it's hard to say!

Some players report that after installing Ambitions (and the associated recent patches), their gnomes started moving again.  If your gnome has stopped moving, try patching your game!

More mysterious still are the gnomes which go missing.  The first question is, is your gnome missing, or just hiding?  Mysterious Mr. Gnome is notorious for teleporting himself to strange places.  If you can't find your gnome, be sure to check:

• Inside the fridge (have your Sim go get some food, and peek over their shoulder when they open the door).
• Inside the oven (if you have a model with a glass front, you can scoot the camera up and look inside)
• In the car (this takes some finesse with the camera as well.  Try hitting Tab to enter camera control mode, then using the arrow keys to slide the camera forward gently).
• On the roof, atop pillars, inside the foundation - basically, any strange location that could be due to a quirk of your housing construction.
• Hidden in the weeds.  Some patches of weeds are pretty tall, and can easily hide a gnome.

I checked all the usual places, and I still can't find my gnome!  I have lost about five gnomes since installing the Ambitions expansion pack.  The funny thing is that, unlike the gnomes' usual movement, I actually saw their last move.  

Usually the gnome moves when you aren't looking.  But in all five cases, I happened to be looking right at him!  With a "schloomp" sort of sound effect and a big burst of golden light, the gnome disappeared.  Never to return!  

Are they stuck somewhere?  Did EA start a Gnome Recycling Program?  Did they go on an adventure together, or all return to the Gnome Country?  I can't say, but I'll let you know if I find anything out!