The Sims is often seen as a 'gulity pleasure' game.
The Sims is often seen as a 'gulity pleasure' game.
Siobhan Keogh unashamedly reveals her gaming guilty pleasure.
Shonda Rhimes, creator of hit TV shows like Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, once said in an interview that she hates when people refer to her shows as "guilty pleasures". When you call something a guilty pleasure, she says, you're essentially saying it's a bad show but you still watch it.
I tend to disagree. A guilty pleasure is something you enjoy that other people tell you is bad. It's nothing to do with the actual quality of the show, and everything to do with the social implications of watching it.
At least, that's how I feel about The Sims. See, when you hang out with gaming crowds, playing a casual game is often sneered at. It's elitist snobbery, to be sure, but effective enough that in some social situations I sometimes keep my mouth shut about games I genuinely believe are good.
I've been playing The Sims since The Sims 2, and whenever I run out of games to play I now pick up where I left off in The Sims 4. If you're not familiar with the franchise - which seems unlikely unless you were born in this century - it's a life simulator. You spend your time creating characters and helping them to succeed in life. That's about it.
Since I first started playing the series, I've bought many overpriced expansion packs, controlled the lives of probably 100 or more sims, made clothing choices I would never make in my real life, and bought houses I will never be able to afford.
Why do I spend so much time having sims shower, go to the loo, and go to work? I do all those things in real life, after all. But there are two things I love about The Sims.
First, it's mellow and constructive. There's virtually no pressure. Sure, sometimes your sims get a bit sad because they haven't been promoted in a while, or they would like to go for a jog. But even that pressure is easily resolved - and if it's not, sims' emotions don't tend to last too long.
A screen grab from The Sims game.
And the game is essentially about making people happy, which I find incredibly relaxing and satisfying. I am always trying to make people happy in my everyday life, because bringing joy to others makes me feel good.
Second, it's almost a perfect world. In The Sims, you can set your own goal and you will achieve it - likely within a couple of hours of playing - if you're focused. Want to be an astronaut? Cool, go do it. What about a big house with a pool? Sure, why not. Want seven kids? Easy - you just need to participate in a lot of, er, "woo-hoo". And if you don't want a character to die, there are potions and cheat codes for that. If a character does die, their family will mourn, but only briefly.
Real life is never that easy. Like anyone, I've got problems that just don't exist in The Sims' universe. Despite what we're told as kids (you can do anything you set your mind to!), some people aren't cut out to be astronauts. Some people are born into poverty and disadvantage that they'll never really be able to claw their way out of. Some people have fertility problems.
A screen grab from The Sims game.
And when a close family member dies, you don't just mourn for a couple of days and then get over it - the sadness follows you around for a lifetime. Most of the time you won't mind - you might even want it to catch up so you can remember when the world was a better place for having had that person in it. Other times, you want the sadness locked away in a concrete box and dropped into the ocean.
A lot of gamers say they use games to escape the outside world - well, The Sims is the ultimate in escapism. I've written before that in the darkest times of my life, I bury myself in games. They pass the time, they help you forget for a little while, they give you other problems to solve. The Sims is great at all of those things.
