Whether you are a consistent gamer or an occasional game enjoyer, you’ve probably played or heard about The Sims. This game is considered one of the top life experience simulators and it has established an extensive franchise with a predominant fan community. It is very influential because it is a relatively realistic demonstration of the regular day-to-day of an adult person. Especially, since most of the time spent on the game is during their adult years, and your main sim would have to start off at that stage. Usually, the players start off at a young age; so, in a way, this game introduces many adult realities and indirectly prepares these players for them.
Decisions
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After creating a sim, the game will introduce them to the world. That sim will be starting with a completely fresh perspective, and won’t have any particular sense of direction. You will have to decide their future for them, and what goals they’ll be pursuing throughout the game. This responsibility can help with decision-making and security in your personal choices.
One of the big decisions your sim will face is choosing a career. If you have downloadable content (DLC), which most sim players use, you’ll also be able to take your character to college, but it’s not necessary if you don’t desire that for them. Whether you’re able to send off your sim to college, or straight into the corporate world, you might be left wondering about things that might interest you or what you’d like to do in the future. For example, when I was a kid I’d be more inclined to lead my sim into a writing-focused career like Journalism or book writing. Funnily enough, now that I’m a college student, I’m pursuing a degree in Journalism and interested in writing as a career choice. So, I truly believe kids or teens that play The Sims learn the importance that a profession entails, and could indirectly give them a sneak peek into what they might wanna do as adults.
Another realistic decision is choosing to make connections. In the Sims Universe, it is important to befriend coworkers and your bosses, in addition to implementing a good work pattern, to climb up the corporate ladder. This isn’t too far off from reality because you can be an excellent worker, but if you’re not charismatic enough or the bosses don’t particularly know you, you might end up stuck in the same job position. At the end of the day, you don’t have to choose this for your sim because you can create whatever narrative you’d like for them, but it is something that would be considered in a real-life scenario.
Management
Image retrieved from Sims Wiki
The player manages everything in the game from money, time, friendships, etc. This sim’s life is in your hands, and ultimately you choose how you will be managing it. So, in a way, management is an essential part of The Sims.
Once you have established a career for your sim and they start gaining traction, they’ll start gaining simoleons. Simoleons are an important aspect of the game because they’re the currency that will allow you to buy things that your sim wants, pay rent or bills, and go on outings. Now, this can be helpful for future money management because you have to plan out how much your sim can spend, and how much they need to save so they can obtain something they’d like without affecting their finances. Therefore, it shows you the importance of being responsible with money because, if you’re not, your sim’s basic needs won’t be met.
Additionally, time is essential in this game. The Sims revolves around a 24-hour system like the real world and, in this span, you have to fit in your sim’s meals, responsibilities, and leisure time. It’s kind of funny, though, because half of those 24 hours will be wasted on sleep. As a kid, I would often get frustrated because either time went by too fast, or my sim was always tired. Oddly enough, life is just like that because you spend half of your day sleeping or chilling, and the other half working, studying, or wishing you were in bed. So, days end up feeling like minutes, and the schedule you planned out usually isn’t completed. But, in a way, this presents how fast time passes by as an adult and how important it is to structure your day, especially if you have many things going on.
Another aspect of adulthood is losing friends, and trying to keep in contact with the closest ones. I feel like The Sims dealt pretty well with this, considering befriending other sims isn’t a walk in the park. Once you become friends with them, you have to nurture the friendship. If you don’t give them a little check up every so often, your sim will end up losing their friend. It’s interesting how it highlights the importance of maintaining friendships and how easy it is to lose touch because of the fastness of life.
Final Thoughts
As a person who grew up playing The Sims, I enjoyed so many aspects of the game precisely because I hadn’t experienced them yet in real life. In a way, these elements were ingrained in my subconscious and, once I reached adulthood, they were implemented. So, now that I’m older, The Sims has become something relatable and nostalgic.