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

"v12creator;15472665" wrote:

"PHOEBESMOM601;15472653" wrote:

"sweetbluekiana1;15472577" wrote:
This game brings out our true colors tbh. What we want to do irl but we can't. I don't kill my sims I don't like to, but to those that do y'all need some saving

I don't see a huge difference in preference between what can be done in the game and the genre of movies and shows we like to watch. Just because I watch a murder mystery or set one up in my game and kill Sims off doesn't mean I need 'saving'.

Right ? Its just a cartoony videogame.

They're just pixels. I can feel attached to them at times but when it all comes down to it they're just pixels.

"PHOEBESMOM601;15472633" wrote:

"Pary;15447179" wrote:

"PHOEBESMOM601;15443507" wrote:
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.

No you're not the odd one out. I wonder about this too. What makes it more disturbing for me is when those types of players put Sims of real life people into their "nothing but torture" game.

I am with @Cinebar when it comes to self sims and / or sims of people I know. I find the very idea of self sims and playing a self sim somewhat creepy. I've handed out Pary sim in the past for folks to toss into their games, but she is a representative of me, she is not meant to BE me.

I couldn't ever imagine playing sims just to torture any sims, let alone sims of people I know.

Edit - What I also found disturbing about that article is that the author seems to equate unconventional play styles as only killing and torture, without noting that playing outside of convention can also include a range of other ways to play.

When playing TS3 I once filled a town with just friends and family. I'd never done a Sim self or people I actually knew. I played with it for about an hour and it all just felt too creepy and voyeuristic to me. I just deleted the game.

I really like playing with my simself, because it makes the game more immersive. It's fun to imagine what would happen to me if I were a sim, especially if there is the perspective of crazy stories and supernatural stuff. I've made it some sort of RPG. And so many people create sims with similar traits to themselves so they're still simselves but with a different physical appearance. I even enjoy to give my simself her own family and make her a character in my stories, although I give her a different name to truly separate her from the real me. But it's just a character made for fun and I find it a bit disturbing when I see a few people using their simself as a pretext for serious fantasies... To each their own but it's just too weird for me.
Friends and families, however, I just can't. I could create their sim if they asked, but I'd never play with them even if they asked. It's just much too creepy. Even pets. I tried a bit in the past but I don't even want to control my pets, I just like to create them in CAS but it doesn't go beyond this.
Same thing with celebrities or historical characters. Fictional characters, fine, but not real people. I just can't.

I've never intentionally killed off a sim and if I have, I didn't save the game because I'm always attached to my sims. Lol However my games are FULL of drama, and scandals. It keeps it interesting for me. I do feel like the sims 4 is missing the dark humor aspect of the game. The random creepy calls with the intense music from sims 1, seeing figures look through your window, creepy noises, and of course burglars. It needs that edge back.

"Jerrello;15472817" wrote:
It needs that edge back.

https://media.tenor.co/images/c18b0c121d4b850ea8d54906adc2bc9f/tenor.gif

In the first game, I was pretth sadistic. It was a great game, but limitations meant no aging. Families were static and I got easily bored. I also didn't get attached to sims.

In 3, there was a lot more to do. With an abundance of self-callenges, actual aging and the ability to see families chsnge over generations, deviant play started to lose its appeal for me. It got lost among growing options.

In 4, I find myself getting attached to sims really, really easily. Deviant play's appeal feel even more sharply for me after witnessing heat death. That animation makes it look excruciating!

I stopped that 100 gen speed challenge before I even hit halfway because the constant adoption-death assembly line was just too much for me.

I guess my change in playstyle does say a lot about me, but changes in game tech is a big part of it, too. Nothing to do with maturity or morality, really. Just changing interests.

I like to play as myself too in Simland. With my SelfSim, I can do all the stuff I can't do in person, like going camping, having a pet dog, and windsurfing. To be honest, my SimSelf has a far more fulfilling life than me. I'm quite jealous. I also make Sim versions of my online friends (none of which look anything like the real people) and having them all hang out together.

"Candyd;15472789" wrote:

"PHOEBESMOM601;15472633" wrote:

"Pary;15447179" wrote:

"PHOEBESMOM601;15443507" wrote:
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.

No you're not the odd one out. I wonder about this too. What makes it more disturbing for me is when those types of players put Sims of real life people into their "nothing but torture" game.

I am with @Cinebar when it comes to self sims and / or sims of people I know. I find the very idea of self sims and playing a self sim somewhat creepy. I've handed out Pary sim in the past for folks to toss into their games, but she is a representative of me, she is not meant to BE me.

I couldn't ever imagine playing sims just to torture any sims, let alone sims of people I know.

Edit - What I also found disturbing about that article is that the author seems to equate unconventional play styles as only killing and torture, without noting that playing outside of convention can also include a range of other ways to play.

When playing TS3 I once filled a town with just friends and family. I'd never done a Sim self or people I actually knew. I played with it for about an hour and it all just felt too creepy and voyeuristic to me. I just deleted the game.

I really like playing with my simself, because it makes the game more immersive. It's fun to imagine what would happen to me if I were a sim, especially if there is the perspective of crazy stories and supernatural stuff. I've made it some sort of RPG. And so many people create sims with similar traits to themselves so they're still simselves but with a different physical appearance. I even enjoy to give my simself her own family and make her a character in my stories, although I give her a different name to truly separate her from the real me. But it's just a character made for fun and I find it a bit disturbing when I see a few people using their simself as a pretext for serious fantasies... To each their own but it's just too weird for me.
Friends and families, however, I just can't. I could create their sim if they asked, but I'd never play with them even if they asked. It's just much too creepy. Even pets. I tried a bit in the past but I don't even want to control my pets, I just like to create them in CAS but it doesn't go beyond this.
Same thing with celebrities or historical characters. Fictional characters, fine, but not real people. I just can't.

I don't have a problem playing with celebrity Sims....my problem is familiar Sims. If I want the Sims in the game to have families I have no problem with that....but when it came time to have familiar Sims have a family it was just too creepy. It's just voyeuristic to be watching familiar Sims woo hoo.

"MingYangYo;15472966" wrote:
So let me get this straight. Killing sims makes us sadistic and in need of some kind of saving? Hmm no wonder the devs turned the death rates down the simming community turned into fluffy marshmallows. And they can't die if we take the ladder away ugh that's what made the Sims well the Sims!!! The fun is so gone with this generation.

Yeah, the whole "child friendly" and "Political correct" has done a bad service to this series ever since Thesims3.

"PHOEBESMOM601;15472996" wrote:
but when it came time to have familiar Sims have a family it was just too creepy. It's just voyeuristic to be watching familiar Sims woo hoo.

Never thought about this, so true :s

"MingYangYo;15472966" wrote:
So let me get this straight. Killing sims makes us sadistic and in need of some kind of saving? Hmm no wonder the devs turned the death rates down the simming community turned into fluffy marshmallows. And they can't die if we take the ladder away ugh that's what made the Sims well the Sims!!! The fun is so gone with this generation. I would never harm anyone nor do I want to in real life that's ridiculous and judgemental.

I mean it's not my style of gameplay personally but I don't think differently of someone who does. It's your game, play it how you want. I think it's good for everyone to have the option and some of the stories I see on here are actually funny in a twisted way. At the end of the day it's a game and it's always had dark humor which is a big part of what attracted the fanbase it has.