Don’t know which option in life to take? Ask, “What would my Sim do?”
So often in life, we live in our heads, thinking about the things we want to do instead of doing them because doing them might seem impossible. It’s almost as if we run a simulation of the many different outcomes of whatever it is we want to do in our minds that ranges from worst case, to best case.
“Are you living the life you desire?”. A loaded question to say the least, but it’s one that Hyungjun Kim, Producer and Director of the upcoming life simulation game inZOI, recently revealed at Gamescom, is asking players. It’s a question I ruminated on myself as I watched the latest trailer for the game, as I observed all its little HD people fighting, kissing, having babies and whatnot.
Watching that trailer brought me back to my younger years behind my abuelo’s desktop playing a very slow version of The Sims 2. I never gave it much thought back then when I was playing, but to view a sim game as a sort of ”test drive” for life is a pretty interesting perspective to analyze at 26 years old.
Personally, I don’t know if I’m living the life I desire right now. I think I always want more in some capacity, and there’s a little thorn in my side that’s like a dull ache, poking me to live more life. Whatever that means.
For the queer gamer specifically, The Sims (or any life simulation game) is a safe form of experimentation. I remember the rush of making two of my male Sims kiss. It was dangerous, and I can still recall the excitement sprinkled with slight paranoia from the thought that my mom could walk in any minute and catch me in the act. My life would obviously crumble and I would have to destroy the computer and the memory.
For the queer gamer specifically, The Sims (or any life simulation game) is a safe form of experimentation.
There was this poster on the wall of my 6th grade religion class that read “Who Are You When No One Is Watching?”. It used to send a chill down my spine, because there was so much of myself that didn’t feel safe enough to be expressed, so I settled for virtual reality and dancing in my room. A deal that a good amount of queer boys sign off on as to not completely lose themselves in the perceived harshness of real life.
Today, I’m not the same sexually repressed boy I once was, but rather, just a normal young adult coming out of his regularly scheduled existential crisis. In some ways, I’m starting to understand that little boy who pulled up to his grandpa’s office desk with a liter of Dr. Pepper ready to do the absolute most in The Sims.
In gaming, there are no perceived risks. There is no real threat when you’re behind the screen, which is why in a day like today, we’re very much aware of how social media can be manipulated to project something that may not be accurately reflected in the real world. A facetuned photo, a notes app apology, or half-baked poetry that was written by AI. I love to play devil’s advocate, and I think that sometimes this form of manipulation can be alchemized into experimentation, especially for closeted kids everywhere, and anxiously paralyzed young adults.
Life sim games, as opposed to Instagram or Roblox, are single player experiences (for the most part) that have you play god by creating your own little humans and helping them live out their days. You could choose their ambitious dreams, define their weaknesses, and even set up their personality. I would always make my Sim-self (Sim-CAP) a charismatic hopeless romantic with a fat ass (some true, some not AS true in real life). It was always fun to watch my virtual self live out my dream of being a performer, owning multiple homes, and having an affair with everyone in the neighborhood.
The unserious nature of The Sims is what always balanced out the more realistic aspect of the game. It made so much of the mundane seem grandiose in nature. The struggle to pay your bills, taking out the garbage, having to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes. I, of course, used cheat codes to stop my Sim from running to the toilet every time I sent him on a date, but there are no cheat codes for life (except holding your pee in this case… I guess?).
Throughout years of playing The Sims, I watched Sim-CAP get rejected, fired, and even explode without batting an eyelash. Without obviously caring about the repercussions, I never hesitated to send Sim-CAP into the unknown when I had a desire. Because it wasn’t me, but a fantasy version of myself, I could do anything, and it felt safe to play with that for hours on hours.
To me, it’s interesting that the head developer of InZOI is spinning the upcoming life sim game as an invitation to introspection. Never did I really think about the psychological implications of playing The Sims, but here I am, feeling a little scared to live life and finding myself redownloading The Sims 4.
It’s nice that gaming can be a sort of window into possibilities if you see it that way. There are pros and cons, but there might be some truth hidden in the actions you take with the Sims you create based on yourself. Of course, I’ve made many Sims that aren’t me and had them do things I would never dream of doing (being a doctor for example). But when I look back on all the times I’ve made myself in The Sims, I always see him chasing the same occupation, taking on the same style, and acting as this actualized version of myself that I always had living comfortably in my head.
When I look back on all the times I’ve made myself in The Sims, I always see him chasing the same occupation, taking on the same style, and acting as this actualized version of myself that I always had living comfortably in my head.
Maybe it’s by playing in the fantasy that you can begin to understand what it is that you want to actually bring into your reality. What’s feasible and what’s not. Whether it’s living life openly queer or changing careers, life simulation games might actually be a valuable resource for mining the 8-bits of gold buried somewhere deep inside of you.
So next time you don’t know what to do with yourself, it might be worth asking, “What would my Sim do?”.
(Unless it’s setting something on fire, burglarizing, etc, etc…. Please don’t do that)
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