Personally, I say it can be both; here's why:
Live like alive because what are you doing? You proceed with life as any other day occurance. Thus, the play button.
Ex: And we're live in 4...3...2...1... *Cues*

It COULD also be live like give because of LIVE mode having their slogan: "Live life." You're LIVING out the lives of your sims.
Ex: Live the way you want to in the sims.

This is why English is a confusing language for others. We have too many words that could be another.

it's live like give. 3 verbs. buy, build, and live.

Live, rhymes with alive. Liv mode just sounds so wrong to my ears >.<

Live, like alive.
Live, as compared to paused for build or buy mode.

Example: The news when they say "We're going LIVE to the scene!"

Never actually thought about it before. I tend to say 'live' with a long vowel. Live with a short vowel, just sounds wrong next to mode. Perhaps a different, and less confusing, word altogether should've been used.

I never thought about the way I pronounce it but I say live, like give. Possibly because I encounter the 'liv' version more than the 'lyve' version. I don't really care how people pronounce it though. It's like a potato, potato situation to me.

I have an opinion, but I also just like to click buttons! What should I do!?! I can't handle the stress!!!

Who cares? I don't.

[enters Superior Smartass Mode™]
Well, for all you grammar know-nothings, the correct pronunciation of Live Mode is of course 'lyve', because it is not the verb 'to live' that is used here but the adjective 'live' as in 'having life'.
You have been fooled by Buy/Build Mode and erroneous logic, thinking that 'buy' and 'build' are used as verbs here and therefore 'live' has to be a verb, too, but in fact these verbs are used as attributive verbs, which means they function roughly like adjectives. Another example would be 'no-go area'. The same can be done with nouns, btw, as in 'face mask' where the noun 'face' is not a full noun, so to speak, but an adjunct to 'mask'.
[ends Superior Smartass Mode™]

Edit: there's nothing to disagree with unless you come up with a proper explanation as to why 'liv' should be grammatically more correct.

Edit 2: changed the mode implied.

In computer programming, when you take a program out of development and into actual functioning, you go "live" (as in "alive"). Perhaps its my geek showing but I always assumed that the game designers had that in mind.

However, I don't give a rat's ass about how other people pronounce it. I say "melk" not "milk," so I figure I ought to be tolerant of other dialectical choices :smile:

I say "live" like it rhymes with alive. Because the game is no longer paused, it's now live, or running, or playing.

Proper explanation? Lol, okay. I pressed disagree because I don't appreciate being called a "grammar know-nothing", and the tone of your post generally annoyed me. I call it live mode, short i, in my head and will continue to do so, whether it's "erroneous logic" or not. However, that said, I frankly don't care what you and your fellow grammar know-somethings call it. *shrugs* To each his own.

/trying to embrace her bro trait

In my opinion is pronounced like "lyve"
(I'm not English)

When I read about the game in english, I've always read live (as alive) in my head. But in my language, "Live Mode" was translated to something like "Simulation Mode", soooo... guess that live (as give) would be correct '-'
*that feel when you've spent all your life thinking that something is A, and then you find out that it might be B*

[QUOTE=CatherineTCJD]WiFi. Of course.
If it were meant to be pronounced as you would hi-fi (high fidelity); then they should've used a "Y". Y-fi.
It's not. It's a "W". As in Wii.

So, therefore, live, as in "live"
[/QUOTE

My aunt lives in Australia and she says everyone over there pronounces it Wee Fee. So you are not alone, my friend.

Both pronunciations can be correct in terms of context, because when you go to live mode the game is "going live" (as in alive) but it's also the mode your sims live in (as in give).

But of course it's live like alive and my logic for this is irrefutable: it's because ummm I said so

This discussion is literally a joke, though... So there's seriously no need to be condescending over which one is ~grammatically correct~ or not. Can we play nice?

Personally, in my head I've always called it live, as in alive. But that doesn't mean that the other way is wrong, it's just how our brains read it. It's crazy how angry and offended people are getting over one little word. Seriously, chill out.

I always thought it was Live mode too. It just kinda made sence? But then you think about it and the other way makes sence too. Now I'm sittign here with a headace cause I'm so confused!! I might just never get off second speed so I don't confuse myself!

Not true, I'm from Aus and we say it Wi Fi the same as Hi Fi...

I have to agree with Don_Babilon, live as in alive, as it's the adjective describing the mode, not the verb (live as in give) - you don't 'live' the mode...

Prost!!

Lol. Just my aunt then. Bless her.

Okay, I edited the post to reflect the tone that was intended. Hopefully this now reads that while my grammatic reasoning still holds the condescension was not to be taken seriously.

I think we need a better poll with more demographics like age, amount of time playing sims, location, whether or not your first language is English. Then we can have some fun diving into statistics. (I have a weird feeling, that those who pronounce it as a verb are Brits and those who pronounce it as the adjective are Americans, just by posting style of the people who've replied already, but I could be wrong!)

Even better, let's have an entire sim community census and geek out on the stats.

It's the verb, to live, of course. To build, to buy, to live. If it was an adjective then the others would have been called "shop mode" and "construction mode"

I'm not native English and don't even see the difference between weefee and wi-fi. I call it live as in alive though, whenever I use that word, don't know if I do.