You and The Sims

So I haven’t played many video games throughout my life but the ones I’ve liked I played a lot! I don’t like to destroy and kill – but create and build – so simulations have always been fun to me. The Sims (all of them….), Myst, Pokemon and Harvest Moon are probably the only ones I played over and over again; just ask my dad.. Myst was the only game my grandpa would play and my dad just likes flight simulators and fighting games – but I, whom copied everything they did, spent countless hours on The Sims. Hours spent building virtual houses; creating relationships and families; and basically designing their life. Now I ask myself why – why did I spend so many hours on that? It seems kind of pointless now – and expensive.

However, when we were assigned to read You – a title which by the way I find a little misleading (sounds more like a self-help guide) – I was reminded of The Sims and how much I love(d) playing it.  Still, the book was not as fun as maybe I had hoped and I most of the time I just felt like playing an actual video game (which hasn’t happened for a couple of years now).. it just brought back my urge to build wild buildings and obstacle courses for my sims. And though I hope I never will spend so much time on something so little constructive again; I found out that The Sims actually have given me a lot of things back. I still kind of wish I had spent those hours on making something with my hands instead… but but. I will now tell you what the Sims actually gave me. For one, it gave me English. Two, it rewarded me for my creativity and made me want to do more. Thirdly, it made me consider a career within architecture, game arts or just design in general.

There was two conditions from my dad before he would buy me any The Sims games – that I would limit my time and take breaks with the game, but also that I could only play it in English. The first time I played it was at the age 10 or so and not long after I owned my first one. We have ten years of English education starting from we are 8 – so for two years I already had learnt the basics in English (or I was supposed to). However, what eventually elevated me from the rest of the class in (especially) writing, and reading English, was simply playing The Sims in English. All the things that happen in the Sims are a consequence of you deciding out from a range of options – or not deciding at all. And for every action there is a commando-line that I had to learn and understand – by me trying and failing and remembering that for example “dive” means (most of the time) to jump head first in the water. Over several years and after several editions – I had a pretty broad English vocabulary solely based on The Sims. Which, now that I come to think of it, is kind of ironic since Sims actually speak Simlish, not English.

Anyways; since I became quite advanced in this game I just wanted to get further. I learnt to cheat; make as much money as I wanted or succeed in any career – to design my own wallpaper textures and skin tones (pink with blue dots, anyone?) and hairstyles – create my own pets and plants. Basically, I became creative with the game – it challenged me; I challenged it. Just like in the book You. Still I think playing The Sims would have been so much more fun – if not productive – than reading the book.