Saturday, July 02, 2005

::sim::

i'm painfully hooked on the sims thanks to last week's visitors. though i find myself persistently frustrated in stage three of the game, where my sim "jean" is rooming with "mimi", a lazy slob who brings in a wussy $110/day (actually not that bad for real-life standards, however, since sims work 7 days/week and bills come in the mail every few days for around $1000, it's pretty much pocket change). not only is "mimi" a free-loader worthy of jerry springer, she only cooks on the grill (can't blame her for that--i love my bbq), and frequently throws her food on the floor instead of in the trash. this morning she started a fire on the grill which burned our beverage cooler into ashes and "jean" arrived home from work just in time to catch all this. of course this results in complete panic as both sims hop around frantically and their little thought bubbles with pictures of fire hop right along with them as they wave their arms in panic. it's actually funny, but not at all realistic because the only possible response for "mimi" is calling the fire department. there is no hose in the yard and you can only wash your hands in the sink (as opposed to, say, filling a bucket with water--but we don't have those either). what a predicament!

so, if you're not familiar with the game, there are some key quality of living things that need to be cared for. the ones i will focus on (and my gripe about the game) are: hunger, bladder, social, and fun. your job, as the player of this game, is to insure that all these aspects of your subject's well-being are "in the green". as time wears on, an indicator bar will gradually become more red and then you have to make your sim do something to take care of this. when "jean" goes to work from 9-3, I have noticed that things pretty much don't change, which concerns me. it would appear that she doesn't get a lunch break, is not allowed to use the bathroom, and can't enjoy herself the least bit since she doesn't socialize with her coworkers or have any fun while at work. i wonder who to file a complaint with? after all, if i don't get "jean" to the toilet in time, she'll pee her pants and start crying. and that just isn't pretty.