The Sims

The Sims

Obsession Level: We Have A Love/Hate Relationship.  I Love It And It Hates To Let Me Get Anything Done

Whoever invented this game is a bonafide genius.  Seriously, you created a game that is absolutely addicting yet you really do nothing in the game.  I mean have you ever tried to explain to someone how you play Sims?  You build families and you live their lives.  Period.  Still there's something absolutely fascinating about the game.

I got the original Sims for Christmas one year and I was immediately hooked.  It was like a pixelated Barbie game in my opinion (I don't think that I played Barbie games like normal people...there were far too many affairs and murders in my games).  I could create any kind of people that I wanted and manipulate their lives.  Some I created merely for experimental purposes to see what would happen if I did things to them.  I ended up with a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde type individual that drank crazy potions and went nuts on a regular basis, I have had characters that I wanted to get rid of so I put them in a room with a fireplace, removed all the doors, and started a fire (I think this game brings out a lot of your inner darkness) and I've lost countless kids to Social Services because they don't do their homework and they don't go to school.  Life was really good when I learned the money cheats.  My Sims are always rich and they never have to go to work.  I hated the money situation when I didn't know the cheat.  Now everyone's a millionaire!  

This is one of those games that you can easily stay up all night and all day and play like a zombie in front of your computer.  Once you start, it's terribly hard to stop.

That's why I have to frequently delete the game from my computer.  Whenever I have a lot of work to do or a tight deadline, I have to delete the game.  Otherwise it taunts me and tempts me with the idea that I'll just play for a few minutes.  That's never the case.  It's like eating one potato chip, it absolutely cannot be done.  So I give in for a few minutes and then it's suddenly three in the morning and I've done nothing but play Sims all day.  That's why the game has to be deleted from time to time.

If it's possible, Sims 2 is far better than the first one.  The graphics are better and the game has more detail.  I'm still a failure as a parent, though, and my kids are constantly being taken away.  Children in this game are very difficult to manage and they never want to do their homework.  I've figured out the only way to successfully raise children in my Sims households is to make sure that there are at least two adult women.  They have to be joint mothers so that someone is always after the kids to do what they need to do, eat when they need to eat, and sleep occasionally.  Realistically the homework that the kids have to do is ridiculous.  It takes all their time so they get depressed, and then they don't want to do the homework.  If you've got one kid you can handle it, but after that it's out of control.  I have also found that it's handy to have one genius child that create to love school work.  Then that child can spend all their time doing the homework that the other children leave scattered around the house and yard.  

There's only one thing on the second game that I don't like as much as the first.  The Sims on the second game age and eventually die.  The ones on the first game don't age.  Once they are adults they are just adults.  I like that since I get attached to my Sims and when they die I have to delete that family and start all over again by building back the original Sims that I was playing with before.  I'd like to be able to freeze them.

I haven't tried any of the other Sims games.  Frankly I just haven't ventured into it since I really don't need anymore Sims distraction in my life.  The copy of Sims 2 that I keep by computer already keeps me busy enough when I allow it to entice me to play.