Cultural Studies on 'The Sims'

Interesting topic for an essay. I hope you get some responses, but this section of the forum is a mess right now. You might get more interaction if you asked your questions in the general discussion section.

Why do you play the Sims?
It’s a creative outlet for me. I’ve always enjoyed storytelling and the Sims allows me to get the stories out of my imagination and into a more tangible form.

Why have you perhaps even created yourself, family and acquaintances and played with them?
I don’t play myself or my real life family and friends.  I tried that and it just seemed weird. I prefer to play fictional characters that I’ve created, or in the case of my current game, the game premades.

If you have deliberately killed Sims once (or even several times), why did you do it? How did you feel about it and why?
I haven’t ever killed a sim I’m playing. I did kill a townie once to test a mod, but my sim was so upset I restored the townie’s life. I play snapshots in time for my characters, so they don’t usually die in my game. Townies do, and I let that happen as the game dictates. I’m usually pretty upset if my played sim dies, and I usually reverse it.

If you had the opportunity in reality to determine your own fate and that of others, as is possible in the Sims, would you do it and why (not)?
No, I don’t have the wisdom or grace to be an actual god. I also just don’t have the right.

Thanks in advance!
You’re welcome.

That sounds a really cool idea for an essay!

Why do you play the Sims? To chill out after busy days at work and for a bit of fun and creative escapism. 
Have you perhaps even created yourself, family and acquaintances and played with them? Experimented with making a sim version of me once but can't get an accurate version without adjustable heights. Also I prefer to make up fictional characters and love making them as wacky and colourful as possible. The addition of occults with the Sims 4 really gave me some creative fun. I have been inspired with new ideas for stories for my writing and art outside of the sims from playing with my sims characters.
If you have deliberately killed Sims once (or even several times), why did you do it? I haven't done this since the Sims 2. I stopped doing it when they started making sims look and move more realistically because, for me, that killed the humour and made it more disturbing. I think I mainly did it to create a ghost or as an experiment to see if it could be done and how long it would take. Back then, I never saw my Sims as anything other than aspects of a game and felt no emotional attachment to them. I have more of a soft spot for my sims now because they help fuel my imagination for stories when I'm having a creative block. 
How did you feel about it and why? It's been a very long time since I have done this but I don't think I really felt much apart from the satisfaction of creating a ghost to haunt the lot. There were some deaths, such as starving, that I stopped doing after one go because the sound effects were disturbing to me. 
If you had the opportunity in reality to determine your own fate and that of others, as is possible in the Sims, would you do it and why (not)  It would be a very difficult choice (and it's also difficult to answer without knowing exactly what I have control of. Can I change people's bodies and my own? Can I take away people's pain or illness? And can I reverse the changes if I change my mind?) If I could control people exactly like the sims: yes to aspects such as being able to change my appearance to whatever I felt like (blue skin and pink hair one day, green hair with purple skin the next...) ; yes to being able to perform voodoo and ventrilo-fart on people who have wronged me; definite yes to being able to become a mermaid and for other merfolk to exist! (not sure about the other occults, those magical abilities might cause a bit too much destruction in the wrong hands). And absolute yes to being able to land any job without having to do an interview!

Being able to alter fate sounds very tempting but I feel there would be too much risk of the power corrupting me, even though I would use it for good in the first instance, so I'll decline. Even if I was able to alter my own fate to the life of my dreams, there could still be repercussions and consequences as a result of my intervention so I wouldn't want to take the risk. 

Good luck with your essay. I think it could be interesting. 

Why do you play the Sims?

It is a creative outlet as well as relaxing. I am a storyteller and like to come up with characters and story lines. It is a similar way to escape from life like reading a book or watching a movie. For a short time (a few hours) I can dive into a different world.  

 
Why have you perhaps even created yourself, family and acquaintances and played with them?

I have done so in the past, in the sims 1 and 2. I lost interest in this way of playing in the sims 2. I was a single young adult at the time. In the sims 2 with aging, as time progressed in game, my selfsim got married, had children and was about to grow up into an elder. At that point my simself and I had become so mismatched that it felt uncomfortable. I have sticked to fictional characters ever since. 

If you have deliberately killed Sims once (or even several times), why did you do it?
How did you feel about it and why?

I have done so, mostly because it was a plot line of a story. For example I had a story in mind for an orfin. I started by creating this orfin and the parents. Then the parents passed away. That way they were in the family tree and could appear as ghosts. I think I felt similar to an author who lets a character die in a book they are writing. I feel sorry for the character but at the same time I realise it is nothing more than a fictional character. 

If you had the opportunity in reality to determine your own fate and that of others, as is possible in the Sims, would you do it and why (not)?

Thank god that's not possible in real life. I don't think humans should be entrusted with the power to determine the lives of others. The presumption to think you know what's best for others can be quite dangerous. I suppose part of the attraction of the game is the illusion of another reality where I am in charge of characters. But at the end of the day that's the game, the illusion.