Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

sim me

More than a year after its release for PC, The Sims 2 for Mac finally came out last week. And last night, I purchased it, knowing full well that having this game means that, for the next few weeks at least, my life will be consumed with running the little sim-lives of my Sim families, sacrificing sleep so I can make sure they’re sleeping, avoiding snacking because I’m glued to the couch, trying to make sure my Sims are well-fed (or at least educated enough to be able to cook for themselves).

When I played the original version of The Sims, I remember that I started thinking of my own needs according to the green level bars of the game. Hmm … My social meter’s a little low. But I think I’m good on hygiene and hunger for now.

I don’t play video games very often anymore, but for some reason, the Sim games — particularly The Sims, though, to a lesser extent, SimCity — have a way of sucking me in and before I know it, it’s 4 a.m. and I’ve been at it for more than six hours.

Like last night.

I installed the game, and off I went, totally absorbed. My favorite part of the game has always been the very beginning, where I get to design my characters and the space they live in. Must. Find. Cheat. Codes. Otherwise, my Sims are going to run out of money very fast.

Narcissist that I am, the first character I built was a Sim version of … me. A teenage me.

I probably spent 45 minutes fussing over the finer details of the character design, as the program allows an insane amount of control over Sims’ facial features — from curvature of the upper lip to how deep-set the eyes are, and more. Picking Sim Aly’s wardrobe brought on another mini-crisis, as I thought back to the clothes I wore back in high school and compared the memory to the clothes the game offered me. Paging through screens upon screens of outfits — no, that won’t do … ugh … cute, but my mom would never have let me out of the house with that … exposed midriff. definitely a no-no — I finally settled on a green polo and cargo pants with cute sneakers.

(One funny element of the character design process: When I assigned Sim character traits, I accidentally set the “grouchy” meter way low, and suddenly Sim Aly pulled out a teddy bear and started punching it angrily.)

I decided to go ahead and design my whole family, as they looked around the time I was in high school.

But that quickly turned in to a morass of squick and guilt-ridden obsession, as my attempts to recreate my family went a bit sour. They didn’t offer the right kind of hair for my Sim mom. I couldn’t remember the details of my sister’s facial features when she was in elementary school (and couldn’t be bothered to find a photo). And despite the game’s prompting, I didn’t really want to think about what kind of underwear my Sim dad would wear.

Actually running the family was quite another challenge. It was enough to have lived it. Now I was in charge of making sure all six of my Sims were happy and living in harmony, on top of having all their basic needs met. Sim Mom wasn’t getting enough sleep and was getting progressively grouchier. Sim Aly refused to do her homework because her “fun” level was super-low, and everything I tried to do to cheer her up only made her angrier. Sim Dad was proved surprisingly good at schmoozing when the headmaster for a local private school stopped by. Meanwhile, Ryan was “Mr. Popular” at school, and Ashley was an academic superstar. Not having mastered the ability to talk yet, Ross was doing a pretty good job of staying out of trouble. (I’d decided to make Ross a toddler, even though he was older when I was in high school, so I could try out some of the new age levels in The Sims 2.)

I think I’m going to start from scratch with a new, smaller family tonight. One with far fewer personal psychological implications. One family in the real world is quite enough.