I really have it all…

Two of my friends trusted me enough a couple of weeks ago to house-sit their place while they were away on holidays. I had a great time and really enjoyed looking after myself, keeping house and being a ‘grown up’. The best and worst aspect of this time I had was The Sims 3. I love video games and as I hadn’t ever played any version of The Sims the shiny box compelled me to have a go. So have a go I did.

To begin with I was on and off the game – I had to get used to the gameplay and how I was actually meant to progress over time. It was cool to make the house and before long I was living quite vicariously through my charater. She was a young woman, aspiring writer and a complete loner. Trying to deal with fitting everything she needed into the short day was hard and it distracted me from the ‘immersion’ I felt like I hated the game, I was very aware of its drawbacks yet I still continued to play.

Over the next few days I spent more and more time playing and I adapted new goals. Getting my little version of me sexed up and married. My character happened to meet a really rich guy and I moved on in with him into a three story house with everything all put together already. (Out of all the saved games mine was clearly the most elaborate)

My character then got preggers and had twins (I was regretting buying the ‘firtility treatment’ perk) for three whole ‘days’ all they did was feed and change nappies. This completely turned me off parenting and it seemed like such a long slog before I could start teaching them things and reaping the rewards.

Perhaps the knowledge that I would soon have to leave kept me playing and made me determined to make real progress. I soon put all my time and effort into making sure these people maxed out skills and achieved lifetime goals. I had two characters all done and dusted (almost dead) before it was the last day and I had to clean and tidy and look longingly towards the computer. That night I stayed up until 2am playing. The effect the next morning was that my brain had reset itself to follow the patterns of playing the game. In my half sleepy state I was queing actions, my brain was aware and commanding my body to do things without putting in the effort that I actually required. A few minutes later I was all reset and working properly again. Glad that the world wasnt like the sims.

Overall I would have to give the game 3 out of 5 stars. Not that I actually talked much about gameplay.

Salamander