I know that most people are not like me. I love the taste ofbroccoli, I tend to avoid things when they are on sale and I putthe toilet seat down after I'm finished. But one seeminglyinsignificant thing I seem to have in common with at least thepeople reading this column is that I have heard of "The Sims."
For those of you who haven't, "The Sims" is a video game that issupposed to resemble a real world where you decide what eachcharacter does. You can play pool, be a contestant on a dating showor remodel your house. The object of the game is to keep all ofyour vitals (hunger, hygiene, fun, etc.) at a stable level whileliving and contributing to your family and community. The videogame has grown in popularity and now clearly has reached itsmaturity as millions of fans await the next edition.
"The Sims" has been the topic of many philosophical discussions,primarily because of its implications of the American voyeuristicobsession. Though the esteem of reality television shows andcelebrity sex tapes certainly reflects negative things about ourtaste in entertainment, I wasn't convinced that a video game couldsay that much about the society that plays it. "The Sims" proved mewrong.
There are two solid arguments that can be made about "The Sims."The first is that it is the most realistic game ever released. Manygamers use their Gamecube or PC as a means of escape -- to avoidtheir own problems. It is impossible to take "Grand Theft Auto III"seriously in the context of rural Indiana living. "The Sims,"though still impractical, is as close as we will ever get torelating to a video game (and it's as close as some players may getto ever going on a date).
The second argument about "The Sims" is that it is awful. It isone of the most boring video games ever made. Each character has aset amount of objectives, and the choices of tasks these characterscan take part in are limited, cyclical and very dull. The idea isvery creative, but the repetitiveness kills me.
Wake up, eat breakfast, take a shower, go to school -- wait ...this is my schedule. As I played into my fourth hour, it becameapparent to me that video games have possibly become too real, orat least real enough to show me how terribly uninteresting Iam.
Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but let's compare notes:Bill Sim can sit in front of a TV for hours with no solidobjectives, and so can I. Bill sleeps way too much, and I'm halfasleep right now. I go to parties just like Bill does, and here'swhat we do: We stand around for a while (click), grab a drink(click), chat with our friends (click) and we'd "better go use therestroom." This is not stimulating.
When we were kids, we dreamed of a life of excitement, buteventually you forget about that and have to do the best with whatyou have. And that's okay, maybe it's even better than what wehoped. If "The Sims" has done one thing, it has brought us alltogether to celebrate our own monotony.
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