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

Maybe I'm the odd one out but I never wonder about the player who occasionally does mean things to a Sim, kills them off or builds a jail in their basement. I do wonder about the ones who make the whole game into a virtual torture chamber and nothing else. Then again maybe it means that the small animals in their neighborhood are safe.

I never worry about the few Simmers who kill Sims for fun as in burn up an entire room of them. But sometimes, vampires have to die so yes, I have burned an entire kitchen down when they were all in there. My visiting Sim was a vampire hunter so you know, it had to be done. :D Especially after he learned everyone in that house was a blood sucker.

I'd be more concerned with the ones who create 'real people' and then torture them in their game. I can't ever bring myself to actually build my neighbor, my family, myself. Playing self is jus way too weird for me. Go figure. ETA: in fact to me building someone you don't like in real life then torturing them in your game is way beyond what anyone does who burns down or starves a pixel.

ETA: Number one rule when playing Sims..they aren't real. Playing self or creating self is more disturbing to me than anything anyone does others consider mean. Clarity. Projecting yourself into a game instead of playing a character outside yourself is more disturbing.

"Cinebar;15443525" wrote:
I never worry about the few Simmers who kill Sims for fun as in burn up an entire room of them. But sometimes, vampires have to die so yes, I have burned an entire kitchen down when they were all in there. My visiting Sim was a vampire hunter so you know, it had to be done. :D Especially after he learned everyone in that house was a blood sucker.

I'd be more concerned with the ones who create 'real people' and then torture them in their game. I can't ever bring myself to actually build my neighbor, my family, myself. Playing self is jus way too weird for me. Go figure. ETA: in fact to me building someone you don't like in real life then torturing them in your game is way beyond what anyone does who burns down or starves a pixel.

ETA: Number one rule when playing Sims..they aren't real. Playing self or creating self is more disturbing to me than anything anyone does others consider mean. Clarity. Projecting yourself into a game instead of playing a character outside yourself is more disturbing.

Yep - I technically hear someone is a simmer and my head automatically puts them in the "safe person" zone for some odd reason. Of course I am not the best judge of people in general - at least according to my mother anyway - but then my mother's opinions of my friends over the years are highly skewered. She's a snob sad to say and not really my own kind of person anyway - as I actually do not like snobs. But mom scowls at many of my friends, acts like creative people - artists, musicians, etc are dirt - tells you what she thinks of me. She hated my hubby - he was a drummer for many years - LOL. But anyway - just someone saying they are a simmer really does seem to set my mind to ease most of the time. Probably going to be the death of me one day then if they are as deviate as that writer insists they are. LOL.

I will admit, I have killed off Sims ever since TS1. However that was only when I was making a haunted house. I would make some Sims and dress them in period clothing from over the years, Victorian, Flapper etc. I would use whatever outfits, shoes and hats I could find to fit the feel of a long line of Sims who had died over a stretch of years.

Then, without playing them or getting to know them and their traits etc I would kill them off, drown them, burn them, starve them etc. I would then make a family plot somewhere on the property (usually a large lot with a mansion of some sort) and save the game.

At that point I would choose a family or some poor unfortunate lone soul to buy and live in the house. In this way I could have my haunted house lot. These days we can just use the new lot trait.

The very first Sim I ever made back in TS1 caught on fire (cooking) after about my first 5 minutes of game-play. It freaked me out, luckily I had saved before he died.

I remember when Cassandra Goth died in TS1 from a guinea pig bite I was crushed. I had only played them for about 5 or 6 real life days and they had really not advanced that far in the game so I asked for help from the Exchange (like our current Gallery). A kind Simmer uploaded an unplayed Goth lot with family and I started them over.

I remember the first time my husband (who I married near the end of TS2) saw me killing off Sims to make a house. He was absolutely appalled and wondered if I was really the kind, caring person he thought he married. LOL

I just don't think I would enjoy killing them off just to watch them die. I tend to get too attached to them. <3

"luthienrising;908341" wrote:
I don't have time today to read this, but I thought I'd bring it here for discussion:

Amelia Tait, "'I want to cheat on him and set him on fire': why are we sadistic towards our Sims?" New Statesman, January 6, 2017.

Off hand my guess is, in sims we are playing the part of a god ruling over an entire land, we can do whatever we want; "Power Corrupts" "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely".

May also be in some cases too that we do things and think the way we would if we would want them to happen if we were in our favorites sims situation. Like Playing our favorite lady sim and the sim she's involved with cheats on her we would/ might just want him to burn! And we can make it happen so we do; Sadistic to our sims due to rage over bad things that can/ do happen in life that we have little to no control over.
Can't always do or make things we want to happen in real life but in sims things are entirely different.
Besides, doing horrible things to our sims in sims 4 is challenging so can/ could/ does make it all the more fun to watch them die some horrible death. I believe that if EA hadn't had it such a challenge to kill a sim, it wouldn't (or might not) be topping the charts of most people's TO DO LIST.

Just my own opinion...

"Writin_Reg;15443939" wrote:

"Cinebar;15443525" wrote:
I never worry about the few Simmers who kill Sims for fun as in burn up an entire room of them. But sometimes, vampires have to die so yes, I have burned an entire kitchen down when they were all in there. My visiting Sim was a vampire hunter so you know, it had to be done. :D Especially after he learned everyone in that house was a blood sucker.

I'd be more concerned with the ones who create 'real people' and then torture them in their game. I can't ever bring myself to actually build my neighbor, my family, myself. Playing self is jus way too weird for me. Go figure. ETA: in fact to me building someone you don't like in real life then torturing them in your game is way beyond what anyone does who burns down or starves a pixel.

ETA: Number one rule when playing Sims..they aren't real. Playing self or creating self is more disturbing to me than anything anyone does others consider mean. Clarity. Projecting yourself into a game instead of playing a character outside yourself is more disturbing.

Yep - I technically hear someone is a simmer and my head automatically puts them in the "safe person" zone for some odd reason. Of course I am not the best judge of people in general - at least according to my mother anyway - but then my mother's opinions of my friends over the years are highly skewered. She's a snob sad to say and not really my own kind of person anyway - as I actually do not like snobs. But mom scowls at many of my friends, acts like creative people - artists, musicians, etc are dirt - tells you what she thinks of me. She hated my hubby - he was a drummer for many years - LOL. But anyway - just someone saying they are a simmer really does seem to set my mind to ease most of the time. Probably going to be the death of me one day then if they are as deviate as that writer insists they are. LOL.

I have read many times in forums how a player put their friend in the game (Sim) and then tortured them. Or they didn't like their mom so they put them in the game, and did bad things in society's view or hated their teacher so they put them in their game to torture them. I try to stay clear of players who actually admit that stuff. I don't even see Sims as people. Maybe I'm the odd ball, I often say 'it' instead of she or they or he when I speak about a Sim. Because to me they are totally not real in any shape or form.

It was funny, I played TSM again yesterday, and one of the traits available says / definition for it was 'they hate people, especially simulated people. Especially when they have to listen to their whining about their silly little simulated life'. LOL Gurus are also sadistic. lol

ETA: I'll add this on my thoughts about pixels and objects. Real or on the screen. There is a robot being built to make you like it. So you will have more empathy for it. It's a freaking machine. I think people get way too sensitive to pixels when society is trying to make me 'like' a robot.

I may be a bit sadistic, but I love my Sims like they're my children. :D I have never, in all my years of playing The Sims, killed a Sim out of utter boredom. I only ever do it to make their lives progress and to tell their stories.

Playing armchair psychiatrist, my thoughts as to why some people enjoy torturing their Sims is likely cathartic. There's so much in our lives we simply cannot control, so we play this game to have things, our way, if you will. Sometimes, that may include inflicting our Sims with some kind of unthinkable misery. Like a way to get 'even' with your co-worker who managed to stab you in the back by showing you up in front of the boss, and as a result you didn't get that raise you've worked so hard for.

Now, I don't work outside of the home. I'm a writer, with a writer's mind. So, this is merely conjecture. Also based on what some of my Simmer friends said was their reasons for such behavior. :open_mouth: Me? I tend to pamper my little Simmies. As in spoil them rotten. LOL

Personally, I am not actually Sadistic towards my sims but I do try to take easy routs when I can find them to kill sims before they hit elder. Til Sims 4 with the in game available Cow Plant, I only killed maybe five (give or take, not sure of the count) in several years (off and on) of playing Sims 3... I wont work hard enough to kill sims, never feels THAT important.

"Cinderellimouse;15443470" wrote:

"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.

Fair enough.