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Why I’m Obsessed With Sims and Why You Should Be Too

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at VCU chapter.

For two decades, “The Sims” has dominated the gaming industry and defined our formative years, creating a haven for our perfect imaginary world. For those of you who didn’t spend their childhood monopolizing the family computer to play god, “The Sims” is a video game that reflects the world and allows you to control life. The user can create a character or a sim that resembles the user or is randomized. The user can then create and control the character’s life.

 If they want the sim to attend university to obtain an acting degree and become a movie star, “The Sims” can make it happen. Over quarantine, while everyone was having another “Harry Potter” or “Twilight” phase, I was stuck watching Sims “let’s plays” and staring transfixed as Youtubers created mansions in the sims. I even bought two new expansion packs to download on my Mac and play while my computer fan dies from the effort of running “The Sims.” Here are some reasons as to why you should also have a Sims phase even if you’ve never played the game before.

Playing God

I feel like this reason encompasses the essence of “The Sims,” and if you disagree, then you’re not playing correctly. “The Sims” gives users the option to create a perfect life or create ultimate chaos. It’s a control freak’s dream, and because of that, I thrive in “The Sims.” Users can choose how their characters look, act, feel and love. The possibilities are endless. 

Creating Your Dream House

Creating your dream house is probably one of my favorite things to do in “The Sims.” I can spend hours working on a digital house completely disregarding my homework. Of course, the one downside of “The Sims” is that to get interesting and fashionable furniture or decor, you have to purchase all of the stuff or expansion packs.

Almost every four months or so, “The Sims” release an addition to “The Sims” base game; this can come in the form of an expansion pack which can expand “The Sims” world and creates more activities. Users can also obtain more decor or furniture from stuff packs. However, you have to pay for each pack individually, and it can get costly.  

Creating Sims

My other favorite aspect of “The Sims” is the ability to dress your sim however you want, and the possibilities are endless. A user can create a goth sim, a hype beast, or a preppy sim all while adding them to the same family. One downside of the game is that in order to receive better clothes or hair, users have to invest in stuff packs, as I mentioned before.

However, fans of the game created free downloadable decor or clothes that users can download to improve their experience. While it’s always good to be wary of downloading strange things from the internet, I recommend researching the reliability of custom content. 

“The Sims” is great for gamers who can’t get into a first-person shooter or “Animal Crossing.” “The Sims” provides users with a world that is yours for the making. Play wisely.

Sarah is a junior at Virginia Commonwealth University and is majoring in Mass Communications and minoring in Fashion Merchandising. Sarah enjoys reading, writing, and discussing sustainable fashion brands. Sarah spends most of her time, and money, on Depop fueling her shopping addiction. Follow her on instagram @Sarah_parker9 and Twitter @_parker_9
Mary McLean (née Moody) is an avid writer and is the former Editor in Chief of Her Campus at VCU. She wrote diligently for Her Campus at VCU for two years and was the Editor in Chief for three years. You can find her work here! She double majored in Political Science and History at Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated in 2022. She loves her son, Peter, and her cat Sully. You can find her looking at memes all night and chugging Monster in the morning with her husband!