I know it sounds weird; just bear with me.
The premise is exactly what you’re probably thinking it is. Download The Sims 4 from Origin (I’m 80% sure it’s on sale right now because they’re milking the quarantine) and have 100 babies. Yeah, you heard me right.
It’s not as easy as you think it is. These 100 babies all have to be from different men, and your goal is to do it as quickly as possible. And it’s not just about birthing the babies – you have to raise them through toddlerhood, through childhood, even through adolescence, and only then are they out of your hands. If they get taken away by whatever the CPS of the Sims 4 is, then that baby’s off your tally to 100.
Subtract cheats from all that, and having to get a job from home? It’s kind of a nightmare, but it’s also a blast.
It’s the most mindless enjoyment ever. Just trolling around, seducing men, getting pregnant, raising the kid, etc., etc. It starts to become a habitual cycle of actions, clicking and doing things in a specific order to get a specific reaction. Moms will die, or they’ll go into menopause before they can birth more than 27 kids. I got to 80 kids, if I remember correctly, before my hard drive got clogged and I couldn’t get my laptop working. In the midst of this self-isolation and Zoom University, I’ve gotten back into the swing of things.
For the sake of indulgence, I’ve conducted a revised version of the game to make it as stress-free as possible – I use mods. I get a pretty house, HGTV that sh!t. I let my family be effortlessly, filthy rich. And – gasp – sometimes, I even age up the toddlers before they get up to the Level 3 potty skill (sometimes meaning always).
I don’t know why I’m so hooked. Occasionally, I’ll try to do a feminist read of the whole shabang. After all, if Republicans and their politics make me feel like a baby vessel, as opposed to just a regular human woman, why not have a woman be that weird fetus pumping machine? Using men for their DNA, creating a massive matriarchal society of daughters just churning out children?
Okay, this is getting weird. I’m sorry.
Honestly, it’s probably because it’s soothing. Not the baby-popping part. Just the cycle of children, of customization, adding and subtracting beds and slowly populating the Sims town with offspring. Creating little miniature storylines for the family dynamics, letting my mind drift off to the automatic clicks. I know this game so well I don’t even have to think about it. For a mind that works non-stop, the 100 Baby Challenge is an absolute blessing.
I promise, it’s not as weird as it sounds. I’d love to compare notes. The link to the original challenge, with the massive book of rules, is here if, for some reason, this article was alluring to you and you want to try your hand.