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

I never kill Sims and unless they die of old age - I even go out of my way to bring them back - well at least in former games. I have not had any Sims deaths in Sims 4 as I don't play it enough I guess. But in Sims 3 I seem to be forever bringing back the dead. I can't stand a Sims dying until they have lived a full life. In both Sims 2 and 3 I have brought back every sim that died before elderly.

I am definitely not a member of torture your Sims clubs.

I am not a fan of sadistic play at all. Although I do laugh my head off at coward sims passing out from fear of ghosts - especially the Liam character in Sims 3. I know - not very becoming of me - but it's funny. Of course he has never died of fear anyway. Then I would be forced to bring him back.... LOL.

"Loudon_Wainwright;15439957" wrote:
Woohoo and torture are the two main reasons I play TS4. I get far more joy out of locking broads in the basement than helping a kid with homework.

Different strokes for different folks. I don't kill or torture sims and sims woohoo is not really as awesome as the real thing. Kinda sad really that would be a reason for playing the game. duh

What worries me about that article is that someone could read that, be horrified, and think every simmer is a psychopath. If I met someone who had just read that article and said 'I'm a simmer' then what would they think of me?

Fifteen or so years ago, I did kill Sims in TS1 in some kind of morbid fascination. 'OMG... can this actually happen?!' But that was a very short-lived phase and I quickly got over it and started exploring the creative side of the game. Then I got weirdly protective over my Sims to the point where I'm really upset if anything bad happens to them. I made a ton of 'No Death' mods for TS3 because I got so scared of using any object that would cause death, so I modded the chance out. I play with aging off. And in TS4 I can't even bring myself kill a Sim for a story-line! I had to move them into an unplayed lot and pretend they were in prison instead. :D

Yes, some players do make torture chambers or kill their Sims for fun. And it's a computer game so if they want to play that way, it's fine. It's no different to thousands and thousands of other computer games. Or movies. Or plays. Or even that different to kids playing cops and robbers in the playground. It doesn't mean those kids will literally grow up to be cops or robbers anymore than they'll grow up to be a dinosaur.

I think it's a way of exploring the world around us. When those kids play cops and robbers they are acting out a scenario to better understand real-life. To learn right from wrong. When people go and watch a Shakespeare tragedy or a horror movie, they go to feel certain emotions. It's cathartic. It purges us of thoughts and feelings we wouldn't normally experience in our everyday lives. It can actually be healthy.

However, I do not kill my Sims. I'm fiercely protective of them. Which is kind of weird too.

What I do not appreciate is a badly researched, one-sided article, that explores a very small section of our community and paints us all in a negative light. The author completely ignored the thousands of positive Youtube videos, blogs, and stories which show how much many simmers love their Sims.

And to end on an anecdote. My mum used to play the Sims 3. She made our family. My granddad accidentally died and she was distraught. We don't all play the same way. Make of that what you will, New Statesman readers.

Without reading the article, I'm going to say it's about control.

We can use sims as the underdog. Bad stuff happens irl, and it's beyond our control, but with sims, we can make bad stuff happen to them, and take out our frustration on said sims. When you make sims of irl people, you're sort of using them as voodoo dolls.

"Cinderellimouse;15441914" wrote:
What worries me about that article is that someone could read that, be horrified, and think every simmer is a psychopath. If I met someone who had just read that article and said 'I'm a simmer' then what would they think of me?

Fifteen or so years ago, I did kill Sims in TS1 in some kind of morbid fascination. 'OMG... can this actually happen?!' But that was a very short-lived phase and I quickly got over it and started exploring the creative side of the game. Then I got weirdly protective over my Sims to the point where I'm really upset if anything bad happens to them. I made a ton of 'No Death' mods for TS3 because I got so scared of using any object that would cause death, so I modded the chance out. I play with aging off. And in TS4 I can't even bring myself kill a Sim for a story-line! I had to move them into an unplayed lot and pretend they were in prison instead. :D

Yes, some players do make torture chambers or kill their Sims for fun. And it's a computer game so if they want to play that way, it's fine. It's no different to thousands and thousands of other computer games. Or movies. Or plays. Or even that different to kids playing cops and robbers in the playground. It doesn't mean those kids will literally grow up to be cops or robbers anymore than they'll grow up to be a dinosaur.

I think it's a way of exploring the world around us. When those kids play cops and robbers they are acting out a scenario to better understand real-life. To learn right from wrong. When people go and watch a Shakespeare tragedy or a horror movie, they go to feel certain emotions. It's cathartic. It purges us of thoughts and feelings we wouldn't normally experience in our everyday lives. It can actually be healthy.

However, I do not kill my Sims. I'm fiercely protective of them. Which is kind of weird too.

What I do not appreciate is a badly researched, one-sided article, that explores a very small section of our community and paints us all in a negative light. The author completely ignored the thousands of positive Youtube videos, blogs, and stories which show how much many simmers love their Sims.

And to end on an anecdote. My mum used to play the Sims 3. She made our family. My granddad accidentally died and she was distraught. We don't all play the same way. Make of that what you will, New Statesman readers.

So true. I found this article disturbing for the exact same reasons. It sounds like the journalist is trying to use anything they can find to create scandal, as so many journalists do.

I dunno but this is disturbing on one level. Mainly due to the author wanting to make more out of the game than there is. I'm sure there are ill individuals out there that may use the game in a truly real life deviant way but that does not reflect the simming community as a whole at all.

If a townie annoys me I actually just go into manage worlds and delete them. I can't be bothered to go through the tedious process of trapping and drowning or whatever. Isn't my cup of tea at all. I've played through a Black Widow challenge and although I obvs killed the 8 spouses I didn't find it amusing to do, rather more annoying and tedious as killing sims in TS4 is such a long drawn out boring thing to have to do.

Fire in TS3 is actually amusing to watch mainly because it was so well... fiery! I love it when a fire accidentally breaks out at a party but more because of the mayhem and chaos that ensues not actually because sims might die.

At the end of the day they are simply pixels. It's the thoughts of the simmer as they play in whatever manner they choose to do that counts.

It's curious how perceptions vary. I interpreted the author as trying to explain that doing crazy stuff in a video game is actually pretty normal, as opposed to drumming up drama by insinuating that gamers are all crazy. I guess they didn't take into account all the people who don't do weird stuff, but it seemed to me that the goal was to talk about those who do and emphasize that it's normal, not imply that everyone does.

I guess if you don't buy into the author's argument and know nothing of the sims, you might think sims fans are crazy. But if that's your reaction, you might also think FPS players are all serial murderers waiting to happen, so I don't know that it's going to make much of a difference.

Once I killed some of the sims on my favorite family because I was bored. I felt so bad afterwards lol.

"Uzone27;15442533" wrote:

"Joel2810;15442531" wrote:
Once I killed some of the sims on my favorite family because I was bored. I felt so bad afterwards lol.

I'm placing you under arrest for pixelcide.
Put your hands behind your a head and step away from the mouse....slowly. :p

*quickly deletes the save* you can't prove anything!

"Triplis;15442458" wrote:
It's curious how perceptions vary. I interpreted the author as trying to explain that doing crazy stuff in a video game is actually pretty normal, as opposed to drumming up drama by insinuating that gamers are all crazy. I guess they didn't take into account all the people who don't do weird stuff, but it seemed to me that the goal was to talk about those who do and emphasize that it's normal, not imply that everyone does.

I guess if you don't buy into the author's argument and know nothing of the sims, you might think sims fans are crazy. But if that's your reaction, you might also think FPS players are all serial murderers waiting to happen, so I don't know that it's going to make much of a difference.

My issue is that it gives the impression all simmers are sadistic to their sims, it doesn't discuss different types of player:

'Why are WE sadistic to our sims?'

'StarSweetieSqueaker is probably not a deranged psychopath living out sick, twisted fantasies of murder and torture. They are, most likely, an ordinary person – or at least, an ordinary The Sims player.'

It's written as though this is what all sims players spend their time doing. It's just one of many types of gameplay.

I see the article as very one-sided and gives a bad impression of Sims players to the outside world. Especially where she talks about killing toddlers and children. It doesn't take into account that there's a social worker in most games to stop people doing that, for example. I'd also argue that some people enjoy reading those novels written by abuse survivors. But we don't point at them and call them sadists because they enjoy reading about someone else's pain. Idk... I read that as almost a vilification or scare-mongering article. Sensationalist. Click-bait. Not a well balanced or researched piece of journalism.