If there’s one thing I’ve been doing during quarantine, it’s playing games. I’ve always casually liked games, but lockdown definitely made me into a bit of a gamer. I’ve had a steady rotation of Animal Crossing, Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda and, most importantly, The Sims. I’ve been playing The Sims for 10 years now, and have enjoyed titles 2, 3 and 4 with obsessive tendencies.
I loved dolls as a kid, so naturally, this virtual dollhouse became one of my favorite games from a young age. There was something about the endless people and buildings that I could create that made it so enticing. All of the characters around town had fun little backstories that made the game 10x more fun to play with. I learned to build elaborate houses that would take me hours and leave me feeling ~so~ satisfied when I was done. My families would range from totally normal to off the wall crazy, and the customizability kept me coming back to see what else I could do.
As I grew older, The Sims became something I would research about daily. Middle school afforded me the freedom to binge YouTube videos about the game for hours, and even after that I would read blog posts and find tutorials on how to build any kind of building I wanted. Once I got my first job, the world of expansions was opened. Anyone who plays The Sims knows how easy it is to fall down the rabbit hole of expansions. For as little as $20 (although now expansions are $40), I could unlock a whole new aspect of gameplay! Needless to say, I’ve spent an amount of money that will remain undisclosed for the sake of my dignity. I was obsessed.
In high school, my interest in The Sims tapered off as I grew busy with school and all its responsibilities. I still found the time to play every once in a while, but I didn’t really have the time to play like I used to. College was no different, and it got to the point where I would go many months in between without playing the game at all.
It wasn’t until quarantine that I really had the time to sit down and revisit the game that I was so obsessed with as a kid. Now, as we settle into our 8th month of quarantine, I can say that I’ve spent almost as much time on The Sims as I would have in middle school (although college keeps me much busier than 8th grade ever did).
Something about building a cute little cottage at the end of a long day helps me calm down, and I know many other people out there feel the same way. The Sims is a wonderful outlet for stress that I have loved for a decade now, and I highly doubt that love will ever end. I don’t obsess over the game as I used to as a young teen, but quarantine has given me a chance to revisit those tiny virtual worlds and escape all the craziness of reality. If you’ve never played The Sims, I highly recommend it. You might just become as obsessed as me.