You Won't Get This Unless You Play

This may be the nerdiest post I have ever written because I am going to talk about the Sims. I started playing Sims back in 2004 when they came out with Sims 2. Thank god because a few months later I got a bad case of mono and did nothing else while lying in bed for an entire month. But since then, I uninstalled it from my previous computer because it was taking up too much space, got a new computer and kind of lost touch with it all.

And then I moved back to San Francisco. And what did I find on Kamel's computer? Sims 3! With better graphics, more personality options for your little Simoleans, plus my unemployment for all the time in the world. The first evening we got into town I played it for 4 hours straight. This wasn't so impressive to me - knowing my need for decompression after long bouts of time with people, but to Kamel who had never seen me play computer games - he was mightily impressed. And so began my total melt into computer reality land. After two weeks of 6 day a week play I started to see the world differently. I suddenly wanted to line up all the things I wanted Kamel to do when he got home and then see them readily accomplished. I wanted to make sure the house was taken care of before I did my "fun" activities. Children playing outside sound like Sims, the weird dance you do when someone is in your way at a door and you can't decided who should go first = Sims, I started longing for the easy swirl the Sims do in order to get dressed. AND WHO WOULDN'T LIKE LOVELY HEART PETALS TO CASCADE FROM THE CEILING EVERY TIME YOU HAVE SEX? (woo hoo!) Was caps lock really necessary? The best part about that scenario - they magically dissolve after the fact. No messy cleanup. Anyways - I even started dreaming about Sims. And when Kamel played Dante's Inferno while I played Sims I dreamed about playing Sims in hell. I had 5 kids, two adults at the peak of their careers, $150,000 in the bank, and everyone was happy.

This week I'm kind of over it. But it's amazing how the creators of that game really nailed down the basics of human behavior. Fill all the ground level human needs and after that the more frivolous ones, add in some babies and a job, and boom! You have stress paired with fulfillment and therefore gameplay... as well as real life. I think I'll play that for a while in stead. Life: not just a board game.