Monday 25 August 2008

Pic of the day: People can relate to things like these.

My sims ate my homework

You might believe from yesterday's entry that I have developed a hate of games, and especially computer game, since last we met. This is far from true. I merely point out that everything has its price, including games. If we immerse ourselves in games (or books, or movies etc) with a high degree of wish fulfillment, then it will over time get harder to accept the challenges of ordinary life, not to mention extraordinary life. This is a price we should be aware of before threading that part, but which I think is easy to forget.

I am still playing computer games myself, and in particular The Sims 2. In fact, it has kind of taken over the space which the Chaos Node used to have. I mean that also in the sense that it has become a form of communication, a letter to the world, albeit in a very different format.

The fact is, my sims are much closer to ordinary human life than I am. They have ambitions of career or love or family that I do not share, but which most people will identify with easily. Even the knowledge sims tend to fall in love (and often madly so), and even the most shy sim will despair if left without company for as long as I consider a minimum of solitude. People will understand that. But they will not understand that I prefer to memorize Japanese writing signs and would rather please not date a friendly and fun-loving woman in her 40es if I can avoid it, which is amazingly easy to do. The distance between me and the humans has grown so wide that my sims are my middlemen.

My neighborhood of sims illustrate the conservative values (in the non-Bush sense) that I believe are right and true and good. They achieve their goals through my gentle and subtle assistance: I am their "angel" and help them live to their highest potential. I do not use "magic" (cheats) to make their life easier, but simply urge them to make the right decisions to reach their goals. These happen to be largely the same decisions that are right for humans. So while it is a kind of wish fulfillment, it is a wish fulfillment through following the laws that lead to such fulfillment. It works in their world and with some more randomness it still by and large works in this world. It just so happens that I don't share those goals.

It is a bit strange to realize that my sims are more relevant than I am. I have certainly gone further and further away from the main road, and I cannot help but think that these thousands of pages are relevant or meaningful only to a few people. In contrast, I think a lot of people can identify with my sims.

See for yourself: My Sims announcement journal is at itlandm-sims.livejournal.com. Follow the links there to the richly illustrated stories of their lives.