There’s something somewhat unpleasantly saccharine about this article, which is sort of expected, but ultimately unnecessary. I’m only linking this here because my research into playstyle, particularly with regards to The Sims, goes ever onward, and this article hits on one way to play the game that seems to be pretty common. Creating self sims is mostly a given. The instinctive human need to mirror oneself seems pretty common, although I have come across players who swear that creating tiny simulated doppelgängers is creepy, and has never crossed their mind. Sometimes those self sims live in world designed to reflect reality, but I’d hazard a guess that more often than not, those sims are living out the imagined perfect life of their creators, with small, pixelated versions of non-existent boyfriends, non-existent friends, non-existent children in non-existent neat and tidy houses.
The sad stories float around on the internet: “In The Sims, we’re still together.” “In The Sims, we never stopped being friends.” “In The Sims, you lived to be a toddler”. These are bitter reminders of what could have been. But more often than not, these fantasy lives hint at what can still be, or function (without resentment) as cathartic outlets to explore a road not traveled (and that, in all likelihood, never be traveled).
Of course, one shouldn’t put much stock in The Sims 2 genetic randomizer… in my game, my digital son inherited blue eyes (expected) and blond hair (extremely unlikely). Only one thing is certain: if I ever do end up having a kid, it will, at some point, wear KISS facepaint, just like its virtual brother.
