![sims game no sims game no](https://s3.amazonaws.com/prod-media.gameinformer.com/styles/thumbnail/s3/2019/03/17/f5da79e3/sims4dlc.png)
This isn’t escapism.įrom time to time, little cravings (called ‘wants’, ‘wishes’ or ‘whims’ depending on your version of the game) pop-up based on your Sim’s fleeting desires. These tasks are their life, the stuff you set out to do isn’t. And you realise less of your Sim’s life is spent being the thing that ostensibly defines them – ‘astronaut’, ‘rock star’ or ‘fireman’ – and more plate-spinning these monotonous little tasks, maintaining enough of an equilibrium to keep them alive until they die.
![sims game no sims game no](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wTqKIOAviX8/maxresdefault.jpg)
And then another day is gone, and your dream has moved further into the horizon. As soon as they’ve done all this stuff, they’ve decided they’re not having fun anymore, and so they have to play video games for a few hours to unwind. As soon as they go to the toilet, they need to become clean. As soon as they eat, they need to go to the toilet. your dreams – they use up all the time needed to achieve them. You’re made acutely aware that, not only do your Sims’ stupid, boring, primal ‘needs’ get in the way of the good stuff – i.e. This wouldn’t be so bad if ageing hadn’t been introduced to the series. Each in-game ‘day’ approximately represents a year, and you only have, like, 90 and then your Sim dies. They outright refuse to come back from a 15-hour shift as a hospital janitor to immediately start reading the medical journals required to become a brain surgeon, and just crawl into bed without even eating. They become deeply unhappy and unwell if you make them lift weights for three days in a row without letting them shower. Your Sim doesn’t want to put the effort into becoming a piano virtuoso by continuously practising scales until their hands bleed, they want to ‘hang out’ with their ‘friends’. Then after a while, these Sim-needs become infuriating. Oop, my ‘hunger’ level is low! Better pop to the kitchen, get another load of Cheesestrings, haha! and Ahh, that piss will have replenished my ‘bladder’ meter, arf! The Sims isn't escapism, it's depressing as hell You create your Sim, set their lifetime wish, build their first house, choose their profession, make a couple of friends, even whisper enough sweet Simlish nothings into another’s ear to ‘WooHoo’ with them. In this honeymoon period, I find it amusing that I start conceiving of my own, real-world needs in Sims terms. You control their destiny in a way you can’t control your own. The Sims is a chance to live through someone else, to start over with a clean slate, to build their house from the ground up, to realise their career ambitions, to fall in love and to follow their hearts. But there’s nothing stopping your Sims achieving everything you couldn’t. There are external forces working against you in the real world, thwarting you and forcing you to give up on your dreams and to settle for less. The Sims promises pure, unadulterated wish fulfilment.
![sims game no sims game no](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/s96jxTuU66iLYEg7cRABNW.jpg)
The fact that you can, and inevitably will fall out with your nearest and dearest over non-existent properties is meant to serve as lesson in the corrupting influence and inherent unfairness of land-grabbing. Essentially, it encourages you to behave like a complete bastard in order to win. It’s derived from another board game, Elizabeth Magie’s ‘The Landlord’s Game’. Magie sought to demonstrate the exploitation of tenants by unscrupulous landowners through the frustrations and tensions the game would cause among its players. But the game is deliberately designed not to be fun. The guy on the box is one friendly dude, the tokens are charming, the idea of ‘building’ up an empire of streets seems innately pleasing, and you are seduced by the fantasy that you might turn out to be good at business, or at least better than your assembled friends and family. That’s why anyone ever agrees to play it.
Sims game no install#
And I thought: Let’s install and play the Sims for ages again, that’ll distract me from my own godawful life. Every so often, either wilfully or accidentally, I forget this too. If you actively enjoy it, you’re either a dangerous sadist, or you’re just playing it wrong. The Sims is the most harrowing game ever made.