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Apr. 27th, 2002 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaRecently I've started playing a lot more of The Sims. Probably this has something to do with the temporary cessation of epic instant-message conversations with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
therealjae, but I've also discovered that I can happily play with my Sims for half an hour and then go do something else - as opposed to the hours-long Sims immersion sessions I used to think were required.
There are all kinds of cruel things one can do to one's Sims, I'm told. Run-of-the-mill cruelty, like putting the fireplace too close to the gauzy drapes and burning the house down. Building a swimming pool, luring the Sims in, and then removing the ladder so they drown. Refusing to let them go to the bathroom until they have an embarrassing public accident. And creative cruelty, like the guy in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
thesims who posted about the Sim cult he'd created: a pack of cult members lived in a spartan, concrete-floored barracks and spent their time marching up and down on the tarmac outside - when they weren't obsessively cleaning the lavish, luxury-crammed home of the cult leader, a weepy alcoholic.
I can't do any of this stuff.
I've had a lot of Sim families over time - especially when I was having problems running the game and had to install it a couple of different times on a couple of different computers - and they've had different life situations, different family structures, different goals. The poor couple who started out from scratch and advanced through life by hard work and perserverance. The independently wealthy gay party boys who lived in an elaborate mansion, developed no skills, and did nothing but entertain. The three GenX geeks who did nothing but work and play with their high-tech toys. The triad going through poly hell because they just can't seem to get past their jealousy. But with all of these families, I've had the same essential goal: I want my Sims to be happy and live good lives. I work to make sure their needs are met. I devise treats for them. I worry when they don't have enough friends. If I tried the various cruel things I've heard about, my Sims would be sad. They might die. I couldn't cope with that, not when it's in my power to keep them happy and flourishing.
Sometimes I worry about my sense of responsibility.
therealjae, but I've also discovered that I can happily play with my Sims for half an hour and then go do something else - as opposed to the hours-long Sims immersion sessions I used to think were required.There are all kinds of cruel things one can do to one's Sims, I'm told. Run-of-the-mill cruelty, like putting the fireplace too close to the gauzy drapes and burning the house down. Building a swimming pool, luring the Sims in, and then removing the ladder so they drown. Refusing to let them go to the bathroom until they have an embarrassing public accident. And creative cruelty, like the guy in
thesims who posted about the Sim cult he'd created: a pack of cult members lived in a spartan, concrete-floored barracks and spent their time marching up and down on the tarmac outside - when they weren't obsessively cleaning the lavish, luxury-crammed home of the cult leader, a weepy alcoholic.I can't do any of this stuff.
I've had a lot of Sim families over time - especially when I was having problems running the game and had to install it a couple of different times on a couple of different computers - and they've had different life situations, different family structures, different goals. The poor couple who started out from scratch and advanced through life by hard work and perserverance. The independently wealthy gay party boys who lived in an elaborate mansion, developed no skills, and did nothing but entertain. The three GenX geeks who did nothing but work and play with their high-tech toys. The triad going through poly hell because they just can't seem to get past their jealousy. But with all of these families, I've had the same essential goal: I want my Sims to be happy and live good lives. I work to make sure their needs are met. I devise treats for them. I worry when they don't have enough friends. If I tried the various cruel things I've heard about, my Sims would be sad. They might die. I couldn't cope with that, not when it's in my power to keep them happy and flourishing.
Sometimes I worry about my sense of responsibility.
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Re:
Date: 2002-04-27 08:47 am (UTC)Nope. I just play Sims. I'm not much of a gaming person at all, actually, but I used to be passionately devoted to my dollhouse, and the Sims seemed essentially to be the same thing.
Except that, when I was a kid and had a dollhouse, horrible dramatic things happened to my dolls all the time: kidnapping, child abuse, natural disasters, everything I could think of.
The dolls didn't react the way the Sims do. That's probably what the difference is. My Sims seem so real.
no subject
Date: 2002-04-27 10:03 am (UTC)I especially miss the entire neighborhood I built over several months and populated with Sims equivalents of me and my circle of theater friends, right down to trying to duplicate our houses, family structures and personalities. The eerie thing was that, except for a few aberrations (as in when my "Alan" Sim drank a potion and fell in love with the Sim representing my sister Toni), they behaved remarkably like their real-life counterparts. Spooky ...
The computer issues seem to be sorted out, but I haven't reinstalled (too busy with the play I'm directing to get in any serious Sims time).
I have "killed off" a few Sims who just got off on the wrong foot, but it kind of creeped me out ... and besides, you wind up with all these gravestones and funerary urns that make everyone else in the neighborhood sad..