Cogwheel Gaming

I’m new to the Sims series, and picked up Sims 4 when it was being offered for free. It is a game that I’d been curious about for a while. My assumption was that I could create some Sims, build them a place to live, and watch what happens. I thought it would be like watching one of those cheesy TV shows where celebrities have to live in the same house and figure out how to get along with each other.

Unfortunately, it turned out that my Sims lack social skills. If left to their own devices, I’m certain they would either starve, die of loneliness, or (as one did) die in a fire. My Sims desperately needed help learning how to interact with other people.

My first Sim died in a fire while trying to cook himself dinner while angry. I learned that deceased Sims can be memorialized with a gravestone marker. That seemed kind of nice, so I put the gravestone out behind the house that Sim once lived in.

The new Sim I created to live in the house (that I had to renovate due to fire damage) found the gravestone. He would drop whatever he was doing and sob uncontrollably. The new Sim had never met the first Sim! Eventually, I had to take away the gravestone so my new Sim could move on.

Once he stopped crying, this Sim was able to start making friends. His first friend was a little girl who wanted to talk about coffee. I’m not sure if she wanted him to buy her a coffee, or if another Sim had already done that.

My other Sim made a friend with a woman who liked video games. With help, I was able to get my Sim to invite her friend to the library. The two of them stood outside it for a while and talked about video games. The conversation ended in a super awkward hug.

The thing I dislike the most about Sims 4 is that the Sims have a tendency to avoid stopping an activity in order to go use the bathroom. The player has to remind them to go, and point them towards the nearest bathroom.

The same Sims are quite able to get up in the morning, get dressed, cook themselves breakfast, and get to work on time on a regular basis. There is a cognitive disconnect here that I haven’t been able to unravel.