You don't play Sims 3, Sims 3 plays you!

I've been playing the Sims franchise since round about the beginning of 2001.  I must confess that I did not start on the ground level.  I only got into Sims with the first expansion to Sims I, "Living Large."  So, I'm not as exulted as some simmers who have been there since Day One.

I'm seriously thinking of not getting Sims IV.  Although I have played each and every game and expansion since, Sims has always had a dark side to me. 

In Sims II, most of the item descriptions were very dark and depressing, very pessimistic, so that the effect of reading several of them in a row was to start feeling depressed.  I did like the overall idea of aspirations and personality types though.  I especially liked the Romance personality, not just because of the naughty implications (although that was fun) but because it was a movement away from a perfect world of runaway consumerism that the rest of the Sims franchise espouses.

Cold, lily white consumerism and secular humanism (secular simism?) has been with Sims since day one.  Its just something you have to live with.  They'll let you have a menorah but any other religious symbols will never be tolerated by EA Games (or Maxis before them).  I remember reading a post by an Islamic person wondering why they don't get any clothing or religious symbols fit for them and they got flamed for wanting religion on Sims.  They especially got flamed after pointing out what I just pointed out above, that there are menorahs in Sims but not crosses or crescents.

Now, we all know religion is a terrible quagmire but, as any anthropology student 101 knows, religion is one of the basic pillars of human culture.  Its one of the defining features of the overall basic idea of the word "culture."  Stick 100 humans on an island with no religion and they'll make one up really quick.  Secular Humanists like Richard Dawkins have ranted and raved for years to try and cure their fellow humans of this 'disease' of religion, what Karl Marx called "the opium of the masses."  Sorry guys, as much as it sounds like a good idea, its never going to happen.  It can't.  Its like telling people to stop using language.  Or stop using tools. 

Anyway, in Sims, the world of the secular humanist has been realized which many simmers have identified as a coldness in the game.  However, Sims Medieval showed how they could have integrated a religion for our simmies and it worked very well.  Very very loosely based on the divisions in the medieval Christian church (and even the later reformation), the Sims religion was based upon worship of the Watcher (the player).  Now, I don't think they meant that the player is their god, as they didn't worship The Watcher as a god, but merely as a superior intelligence they should honor.  I know that having computer people worship you as a god could cause some folks in more traditional religions a lot of trouble.  

But it showed how religion could have been handled.  But I digress way off what I wanted to say in the beginning...

In Sims III, things got even worse, in my book.  Control by the player has been eroding since Sims II and pretty much sets in in Sims III.  You no longer really have total freedom for roleplaying and doing what you want.  Sims are very limited in what they can do (a fact from day one in that any and all negative or antisocial actions are strictly controlled).  But with the inclusion of not only asperations but lifetime wants and wishes, you are basically playing a scripted game. 

Sims now tell you, the player, what they want and what they want to do.  Not doing this won't kill the sim but continue to give you annoying popups and notifications.  After awhile, you find yourself robotically doing what the scripted sim tells you to do through wants and wishes and not playing how you want to play.  So, in the end, you not only get a terrible feeling of ennui and boredom from Sims, but an empty feeling that you really didn't have any fun at all in the end.  A feeling that you just did a day's work for someone else and were sent on your own way at the end of the day.  I hate that feeling.  Its why I don't play anymore. 

There's also definate socio-political messages in the sims franchise.  Definatley a certain world view which is being espoused above all others.  For instance, why does almost every male outfit feature choker collars?  I never wear a choker collar and know very few men that do.  What is the meaning of this? 

Materialistic and secular humanist, the world of the sims is one I wouldn't survive in for long.  Not without some good old Room-101 reprogramming.   I wish we could have true freedom in Sims IV but I very much doubt that's going to happen.