The Sims

[daphnep]

Years ago I had the Sims, and I liked it very much. I used to play on a laptop in bed, before going to sleep...yes, I know that makes me a dork.

The highlight of my Sims gaming was when one of my main characters fell in love with another marginal character I'd created, who lived in the neighborhood. They were both women. I loved playing my lesbian Sims character the best, until the day she asked her girlfriend to move into the house with her. (There were husbands involved, but they didn't seem to mind.) So the girlfriend came walking down the street to "move in", and then the game realized what it had done and froze, completely. Over and over I reverted to a previously saved game, watched my Sims girl walk down the sidewalk to her lady love's house, and over and over the game jammed right at the same point.

The game lost a little of its luster after that; I could create new stories but never find out where that particular one would ever go. Then I switched around computers (PC to Mac, or something) and never bothered to buy the new Sims for the new one.

Now there's a new updated version of the Sims, and zophine mentions playing it, and all of a sudden, I want my little imaginary world all over again. I start to think fondly of old games; one big house in particular, full of people that I tried to manage (keeping as many adults as possible in one household for maximum money-earning potential, running a little virtual sweatshop) where one character was so disagreeable and caused so much strife (not to mention being a lazy bum who wouldn't ever catch his carpool) that I murdered him. I did it by building a swimming pool, luring him into it, and then deleting the ladder when he was in there, swimming around. He swam and swam and swam until he died.

I miss that game.

But I also know I don't have time in my life for any of that.

One reviewer on Amazon puts it well: "This game makes you forget that you yourself have needs -- to go to the bathroom, go to work, go to sleep, to eat something. I can play this game all day long and not care about the time gone. It's mind boggiling how fast six hours can go by."

I want it so badly. I put in my Amazon cart and hovered over "place order" with my mouse. But I have too much to do, projects to finish, things to create. If I get The Sims2, I probably will lose the next six months of my life, and my life is too good right now to risk any of that.

But still, I am happy to note that in the new version, same-sex relationships are perfectly acceptable. It makes me glad to think that in the digital alternate universe, my lesbian characters went on to live happily ever after.

Comments

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

You're much nicer than I am - my sims toon went all Patrick Bateman, would throw parties and then doom guests by removing pool ladders or sealing them in a room to expire. I also mastered creating the kind of conditions for appliance fires but that's more a decorating issue.

[ernunnos.livejournal.com]

Sims 3 they can climb out of pools without a ladder. But you can still put walls around the pool to keep them in. There are five ways to die: fire, electrocution, drowning, starvation, and old age. Each method of death results in a different color of ghost. Some people make a point of killing off their characters in each way, then bringing them back as ghosts so they have a whole rainbow family.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I really got a chuckle out of your comment - I think the varied ghost colors may be just the motivation I need to check out Sims 3.

I remember playing Sim City and trying to build Old Detroit, ala Robocop. I like open-ended games.

[artemis77.livejournal.com]

OMG I'm crying from laughing so hard at what you wrote.

(I don't think I've played anything since SimCity back in the 80s on my cousins' PC. I remember there being a Godzilla-like creature. Not much at the individual people level.)

[daphnep.livejournal.com]

Hilarious how the game turns us all into murderers...and also, how I'm envious of the creative ways people have come up with to off their Sims.

[artemis77.livejournal.com]

Yeah - it sounds like fun, but I'm scared I'd waste way too much time. I don't even think I'll look into it - too tempting!