The Sims – Virtual Life Addiction

My name is Matt, and I am a Sims-a-holic.  I first played SimCity on the SNES in the early 90s, but I didn’t really get into it.  I tried a few other worldbuilding games as well – SimEarth, SimAnt, Populous, etc, but it just wasn’t a genre for me.  The only city building game I really enjoyed was ActRaiser, which is sort of like alternating between SimCity and Castlevania.  I still kept giving these games a try though.  My wife was really into games like Theme Hospital and Rollercoaster Tycoon, so these games were already in my house, no point in not trying them.

When “The Sims” came out in 2000, I was skeptical at first.  It seemed weird managing a single family instead of a whole world.  It reminded me of an old game I had on my Commodore 64, Activision’s “Little Computer People.”  I used to love that program, though it was more like a fish tank than a game.  You just watch a guy living his day-to-day life.  You could make requests that he might or might not follow, like "Please play the piano", but you didn't directly control him.  It was a concept that was ahead of its time.

But money was tight and "The Sims" didn't have a demo.  I didn't want to shell out $40 for something we might only play once.  But then someone gave me a cracked copy.  We both loved it so much, we went out and bought the full game.  And later, every expansion pack.  And later still, The Sims 2, 3, and 4, along with most of their expansion packs.  Not to mention a few spinoffs like “The Sims Medieval” and “The Sims Online”.   We bought some of them twice, because we have separate Origin accounts and sometimes want to play at the same time. 

That one pirated copy led to us spending hundreds of dollars on the series.  I’m not trying to make a pro-piracy argument here, if anything it’s pro-demo.  I wonder how many other people would  have jumped into the series earlier if they’d been able to try it first.

It is honestly one of the greatest series of computer games of all time.  That said, I’ve rarely played any Sims game the way it’s meant to be played.  The first thing I do on any lot is use the cheat code to make them millionaires.  I play these games for wish fulfillment, to live vicariously through my avatars.  I don’t think I’d even like the Sims games if they didn’t have cheat codes.

Here are some random thoughts and memories about each game.

The Sims (released in 2000)

We played the heck out of this game.  We only owned one computer at the time, so sometimes we fought over it.  One of my fondest memories is that of my wife playing the Sims while I read a book nearby, looking up now and then to see what she'd built.

I loved how easy it was to mod the game.  I constantly downloaded user-made objects to improve (or sometimes crash) the game.  I found tons of great skins online, and learned how to make them myself.  I ended up making an entire neighborhood full of comic book and sci-fi characters.  I made a Resident Evil themed castle, in which lived Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield. 

Eventually I skinned myself.  I had a favorite shirt at the time, a souvenir shirt from the Dueling Dragons at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.  It showed the face of a dragon surrounded by flames.  I wore that shirt for years, until it was too ratty to wear in public.  I scanned a photo of the shirt and made it into a Sims skin, and played as myself.  Then my wife made a sim of herself, and we watched ourselves go on a virtual date.  Another one of my fondest gaming memories.

I spent way more time making female households than male.  I was still an egg at the time, and I thought I was just being voyeuristic.  My favorite Sim was sort of an idealized version of myself: Female, denim jacket, tie-dye shirt, wild red hair.  I must have made and remade that character a dozen times.

The Sims Online (2002)

We bought it and tried it, but it was a total flop for us.  It did teach us a lesson about reading the fine print, though.  The game promised that the first month was free, but it still required a credit card number to sign up.  We only played it for the first couple of weeks, and stopped logging on.  A few months later I looked at the credit card statement, and noticed we were being charged a monthly fee, despite never having agreed to anything but the free month.  Whoever I called got an earful, believe me, but they still refused to reverse the charges.

The Sims 2 (2004)

I didn’t play much of the Sims 2.  All I remember doing in it was making a college dorm, filled with the cast of Daria.  I don’t know if it was my computer at the time or a glitch in the software, but it had a texture loading problem.  Some objects just showed up completely white.  I don’t think that’s the only thing that kept me from playing, though; I think I was just more into other games at the time.

Various Console Versions

I’ve played The Sims on several different consoles and tablets, but honestly it’s a game that’s at its best on a computer.  In my experience, the console versions are either harder to control, or they sacrifice some of your freedom in favor of more mission based play.  I haven’t tried the more recent ones, however.

The Sims 3 (2009)

I loved the Sims 3.  By this point, I was fully aware of my gender issues, and my neighborhoods were full of lesbians.  I still enjoyed making Sims based on comic book characters, but this time I mostly used their secret identities instead of having them walk around the neighborhood in full costume.  The graphics in Sims 3 are about as good as I would ever need them to be, and I really thought I’d never want to upgrade to Sims 4.  Except… well, the load times were excessive, and it got worse the more expansion packs you installed.  It took about 8 minutes just to load up the game each time.  Creating a Sim took forever, because each time I clicked a new clothing group, it took several minutes for the clothes to appear.  This may have been partly because my computer was getting old, and partly because of the mods I used, but it’s still pretty slow on other computers and without mods. 

The Sims Medieval (2011)

This was a fun departure.  Like the console versions, it was more limited than the main series.  You can place furniture, but you can’t build houses.  You can’t even scroll completely around a building, they’re more like dioramas.  Every kingdom eventually looks the same, once you’ve placed all the buildings.  And it was more mission based than the regular Sims games.  Despite this loss of freedom, it was a blast to play.  The “quests” made it feel like “The Sims: D&D Edition”.  Unfortunately, these so-called quests mostly involved gathering seeds or writing plays, and it always felt like the most exciting stuff was happening off screen.  But it was enough to keep me entertained for a few months.  I still reinstall it now and then.

I will say, though, that Sims Medieval is one of the few games where the expansion pack actually makes the game worse.  Some of the new content was nice, but with it came new daily tasks that were just torture.  Literally – one of the new objects in the expansion was an interrogation chair, with which you would tickle captives into giving you answers.  It was incredibly irritating to use, and once the expansion was installed, it added the object’s use to the daily tasks of one of your Sims.  So you couldn’t just ignore the object’s existence, lest your Sim lose mood points or whatever.

The Sims 4 (2014)

I have to admit I did a double-take when I was looking up the dates for this blog.  I honestly thought Sims 4 was only about a year old.  Going by their usual release schedule, they’re probably already working on Sims 5 by now.  Anyway, I just recently started playing Sims 4.  Sims 3 had been running slowly lately, and I assumed Sims 4 would take even more horsepower.  But then I got a new laptop and Sims 4 went on sale for $5, so I had to give it a try.  It’s fantastic.  First off, it takes about 30 seconds to load.  (Note, I’ve tried Sims 3 on the new laptop, and still takes 8 minutes just to start playing.)  There’s no more lag when picking outfits for your Sim, either. 

One thing I always find interesting is seeing what each Sims game keeps in its memory.  The first Sims game only kept the current house in memory, and you would see a loading screen if you go anywhere else.   In Sims 3, you could travel anywhere in your city with no loading, but the downtown buildings didn’t have actual interiors.  Sims 4 decides to pace itself.  Each city is divided up into neighborhoods of about 3 to 5 lots each.  You can walk all the way up and down your current street, but you’ll get a loading screen if you actually want to enter a neighbor’s house, or visit a different neighborhood.  This is probably the smartest thing they could have done, and it really helps the game run faster. 

I love all the little tweaks you get from playing a game that has been remade four+ times.  The designers have been paying attention and listening to feedback all these years, and now character creation is a joy.  It’s so easy to find the clothing and accessories I’m looking for.  You can plan multiple outfits for each category.  You can uncheck the category boxes so that all clothing items can be worn in any category, and all clothing is unisex.  There’s some (somewhat hidden) gender tweaks, for those who want to play someone less traditional in that area. 

I'm back to my old tricks now.  Neighborhoods full of mostly female comic book heroes and sci-fi characters. My favorite trick?  You can run your basement adjacent to your swimming pool, and then put windows on the walls so you can see the pool from the basement.  You can create beautiful underwater houses this way. 

The game has its downsides, though admittedly what I consider downsides are upsides for some people.  I don't like how your Sims gain weight if you eat poorly and don’t exercise.  Realism is nice and all, but I play video games to escape real life.  Okay, it's actually a cool feature; my complaint is that there’s no way to turn it off the options menu (like I always do for aging).  Luckily, I found a mod to nix it.  Some of the aspiration paths have “become an adult” as one of the requirements to proceed.  I prefer to make Young Adults and keep them that age, so I avoid choosing those aspirations.

Sims 4 isn't perfect, but with the right mods, it's one of my favorite escapes.