"Why Are We Sadistic Towards Our Sims?" (New Statesman article)

Balanced, yes and no. The concept in the origins was "you can do anything", and anything includes doing the worst. It loses its morality as soon as you're given absolute power including power to do the worst.

"Uzone27;15438435" wrote:

"Candyd;15438422" wrote:
Not at all. Originally, you controlled everything, you could create as much misery for your sims as you wanted, you could be totally sadistic and it was part of the game's purpose, giving you this possibility. Now it's very different, the Sims has become a management game where extreme happiness is the purpose and other ways to play have become "deviant".

You could certainly interpret it that way, but I see no evidence for this in marketing or advertising.

To be fair, on the back of the very first Sims game the back of the box says:

From Will Wright, the creator of SimCity, comes a new strategy game that really hits close to home! Create an entire neighbourhood of Sims and then run or ruin their lives.
Help them pursue careers, make friends and find romance- or see what happens when you make a complete mess of things! Open - ended game play gives you the freedom to set your own goals and chart your sims destiny. It is your neighbourhood and they are your Sims. Whether they prosper or perish is up to you.

The official Maxis guides talked about interviews with the developers where they encouraged you to build a pool, remove the ladder to kill unwanted sims off, marrying a rich sim and then bumping him off. I have the guides here but I'm not keen enough to type out those parts! lol

The Sims 4 box just says:

Control the mind, body and heart of smarter sims with unique personalities full of emotions. Create their stories and play with life like never before in the sims 4.

So I think its very fair to say the marketing has changed drastically over the years.

I always feel a little bad on some level, playing sadistically (even though it's a game), so it doesn't have as much as a pull for me as some. But I'm glad the author talked to someone knowledgeable and emphasized the "it's just a way to blow off steam" perspective. I also like that they acknowledged the reality of the few who would be sadistic in RL, without making it into some fear-mongering piece.

Cause really, video games are fantasy. And power fantasies are, I think, the most common desire in relation to them. It's common for people to feel powerless in their lives in one way or another, as the world is very much a place that is out of one's control. And what better way to feel powerful than to play a dictator?

I suspect that for this game in particular, there's a sort of "break the matrix" effect going on as well, since it is a life simulator. This idea that you can act out a fantasy of tearing down rules of reality and social conventions of RL, allowing you to get even a fantasy glimpse of what lies underneath. Possibly related to the reason that apocalypse tv shows and games appeal to so many people. Animals don't like being caged and we are no different, but I think it's safe to say that most of us (if not all) understand implicitly that we have to be caged on some level for the overall health and survival of our species. Caged in this case really just meaning a kind of cooperation that we don't strictly desire to go along with every moment.

It's just a game. It's not that serious :D

When I started playing from the start with The Sims I used to kill off Sims frequently but now I get upset if one dies. Perhaps that comes as you get older and value life more.

Because I'm evil? Or sicko? Nope, it's what is in Phoebesmom's signature. I have to agree with Will on this one.

"People really love to explore 'failure states. In fact, the failure states are really much more interesting than the success states." ~ Will Wright

"Uzone27;15438508" wrote:

"Candyd;15438462" wrote:
Balanced, yes and no. The concept in the origins was "you can do anything", and anything includes doing the worst. It loses its morality as soon as you're given absolute power including power to do the worst.

Sense of morality is wholly individual.
"Grand Theft Auto" was embroiled in contoroversy from the very start because it's alignment was obvious.

So we are in agreement that what you do with your Sims is a personal choice but it was never marketed to be an "Evil God game"
If that's how you intepret it...that's fine, but you have to take into account there are other people who see it as a game where they have to try and avoid misery and tragedy.

At the end of the day, I see where you are coming from...I just tend to be a stickler for over exaggeration.

If you have absolute power and being sadistic and centered around death is one of the possibilities, it is by nature being an evil god, morally speaking. That simply makes players who don't really use these options (most of the time, because avoiding them all including culling random townies is practically impossible), and which include myself BTW, people who have taken another path. Being more "moral" (that's so weird to say with pixel things) is a given possibility, but the game in itself (not taking individual choices into account) is immoral by default.
I guess we're condemned to agree to disagree on a detail LOL.

"x_Always_Heart_x;15438531" wrote:
It's just a game. It's not that serious :D

Totally ! That's why the Sims are awesome <3

I like the Sims that I create too much to torture them. Pre-mades are a different matter. I don't really care about what happens to them. I think the only Sim that I was ever mean to was Brandi Broke. She was usually food for the Cowplant.

I remember one save where my sim fell in love with Travis Scott-named townie and they got a daughter named Amelia. But before Amelia was born i made Travis cheat on my sim with Summer Holiday. And when Amelia was a child she liked to visit Travis and Summer even though her mother didn't like that at all. :smiley: and then Amelia moved to a different neighbourhood with her mother so she couldn't visit Travis and Summer anymore. I honestly enjoy drama and tragic events! xD

I used to kill in TS1 when I was 8-12 years old. I would lock them up in a room with no doors and set off the rocket launcher. No real reason behind it other than I found it funny.

In TS2 I killed them only to make cemeteries. I tried just having an empty cemetery for when in game Sims died..... but the only EVER happened by accident ONCE. It was this really nice, rich Japanese family I made. Sister got heat stroke from playing on the beach and then I never cooled her down. It was upsetting. LOL And I played that same save for YEARS. I have it backed up somewhere.... oh man.

TS4 I've killed four or five Sims for story progression. First was a grandma, I waited for her old age honestly, but because of her altheticism she never plumming died. So I had the wishing well croak her. And I wanted a tombstone to wish her to the netherworld, but NOOO. Without a tombstone I can't. UGH so she's part of the household. -grumbles- The rest were drama related except the freakin' handyman who would just not GO. So he is in my little Church of Sayten. :)

Beyond mods to just flat out kill your Sims, this games seems WAY harder to do so. I know in TS2 a pop up would happen if I did that telling me the game was a LIFE simulator. Anyone had experience TS4 Sim killing without the aid of mods or cheats?