Thinking of Sims

I’ve had such a hankering to play the Sims again recently. It’s been a favorite of mine since my middle school days, but unfortunately, my Sims 3 disc isn’t reading correctly and I’ve been unable to play it. Until I can get it working or find a new copy, I guess all I can really do is write about it.

A childhood friend of mine introduced me to the game when we visited her library together. It was Sims 2, and I was in the process of creating my Sim family when we had to log out. I didn’t want to go, but they couldn’t just leave me at the library- no matter how much I begged. I had my first taste of Sims life, and I knew I wanted more.

While out at Costco, I came across the game for an affordable (for a middle schooler) copy of The Sims 2, including the nightlife expansion pack (which I never figured out how to use). My mom saw the box cover and questioned whether it was a good idea whether or not I should be purchasing a game with skimpily dressed women on the cover of it. I explained to her that you choose what the people wear and that I wouldn’t make the women dress like that, and she trusted my judgment enough to allow me to buy the game. I may have accidentally starved, burned, and drowned my Sims, but I assure you, they were all dressed appropriately.

My first few families were all based on Nintendo characters. I spent hours upon hours building families from the Super Mario Bros to the Legend of Zelda. When I finally got to play with them, though, I should have started off with a basic family of three. Instead, I started off with my Kirby family, which consisted of Kirby, a child, and Meta Knight, an adult. I thought it would be easier with only two people, but I didn’t know how to hire a Nanny or even take care of a toddler character. I had no clue what I was doing, which resulted in Kirby being taken away by the social services and Meta Knight starving to death.  I was pretty traumatized by Kirby getting taken away, and I hoped that maybe he would be brought back if I took good care of Meta Knight, but he died, and I assume Kirby did eventually as well, considering I accidentally starved him too, which is why he got taken away in the first place. I’d make a great parent.

After a while, I started getting the hang of things, and less of my Sims died over time. Of course, I learned my lessons on what to do and what not to do, like microwaving a TV dinner. The first time I sent one of my Sims to make a TV dinner, the microwave burst into flames, and the idiot Sims wouldn’t go to the phone and call the fire department like I commanded them to. They’d just panic and point at the fire, which eventually caught onto their clothing, burning them to death. Never made anything in the microwave again after that (or the oven either). I also learned not to place the couch in front of the fireplace, though I suppose I should have known that. I think I might be a hazard to society.

Well, moving on from all the disasters that happened in my early Sims days, why don’t I talk about some of my more successful families? One of my favorites was one of the silly families a friend and I came up with together. I had introduced her and her brother to The Sims, and instantly they were hooked as well. I was sitting at their computer, creating a random man, and decided to name him Sir Kibblekabob. Sir Kibblekabob had a wife, Lady Kerflog, with their daughter, Chiniste, and son, Totollertod. Sir Kibbekabob also had a brother, Professor Nawasaki. It’s really a miracle that I can remember any of these ridiculous names. They were a millionaire family (because I had just discovered the motherlode cheat code), and everyone wore suits, even the infant, Totollertod. They had a huge mansion property that took forever to build, only to have it robbed a few Sims days later. I even built Professor Nawasaki his own laboratory, not to mention 5 flat-screen TV’s in the bathroom, with a hot tub included. It was difficult for anyone to actually use the toilet in that room, no one ever wanted to leave.

Another time I made a Sim of me and a harem of boys that my Sim could potentially marry. This was before I was introduced to Shojo anime, by the way. I quickly got bored with that scenario though and scrapped the entire map. I did end up making a Sim of me again though, or rather my Naruto OC, and Kabuto Yakushi, who I- I mean “she” married.

Speaking of Naruto, eventually, I got really good at customizing Sims and creating outfits to import into the game. I first made Naruto characters, then Legend of Zelda, then Fire Emblem and eventually Hetalia. The Fire Emblem outfits took FOREVER to make because of all the detail, and I didn’t even go all out in full detail. When I made Radiant Dawn’s Geoffrey, by the point I got to creating him I was so tired of making the armor, I just made his hair blue and gave him a sweater that spelled “Geoffry”. I forgot the “e”, but I didn’t even care. He was just there so that Lucia wouldn’t get lonely when Elincia moved out to marry Ike.

The Zelda characters were my favorite to play with; probably because I got to live out my ZeLink fantasies through this game, but this can also be said about Fire Emblem. I had written an entire games worth of Fire Emblem fanfiction, which was a next-generation fic, so I finally got to see my favorite characters raise their children. I would have done the same for Link and Zelda, but their house was too full to raise children. Also, I believe they were all teenagers and I killed off– I mean, deleted all the adults. If I recall correctly, there was Link, Zelda, Saria, Ruto, Midna, Ilia, Malon, and Impa. Wait, never mind, Impa was the only adult that survived. I always tried to keep the other girls away from Link because they would always try and hit on him, even though I specifically made their “turn on’s” everything that he wasn’t, and their “turn off” blonde hair so they wouldn’t fall for him, but I guess having only one guy in the house will do that.

I spent a ridiculous amount of hours playing The Sims, and I would sometimes get in huge trouble for missing dinner or staying up until one in the morning playing. Now I stay up until one in the morning writing stories like this (it’s 1:37 AM now. I regret nothing), but I don’t get in trouble now because I’m an adult. Yay. Either way, The Sims was a really fun way to pass the time and to help my creativity flow. Even though I used a lot of copyrighted characters in my games at first, I eventually started creating my own people and writing stories for them. I loved making up their personalities, their backstory, and watching how their lives played out. It’s really similar to being a writer, now that I think of it, and I think maybe that’s why I liked the game so much. I hope that I’m able to play again soon!