The Sims 2 was released earlier this week. I bought the first Sims game but never any of the roughly ten thousand add-on packs that were released subsequently. I could never get into the micromanagement aspects of the game. You can only watch your Sim take a dump so many times before it loses its charm. The game also raised some rather uncomfortable existential questions for me. My Sim, a single male, pretty much did the same things I did in real life. He got up, went to work, came home, maybe played on the computer or read for a bit, and then went off to bed. Other than the necessities of bathing and eating, that was pretty much it. Sometimes a female Sim would show up, but I could never convince her to stick around very long. I found myself getting really depressed while playing the game and soon I abandoned it completely. While I’m interested in picking up the sequel, I worry a little that it might cause another melancholic bout of self-reflecting on my own life. What if I start playing and this time my Sim has a more interesting life than I do? I’m not sure I can handle that kind of juxtaposition. I might be forced to start a kitchen fire and kill the bastard in a fit of jealous rage.
