Playing a good sim is like doing meditation You let everything else drift away and get lost in the calmness of repetition. The appeal of simulation games like PowerWash Simulator or Stardew Valley is that they make mundane chores feel meaningful and interesting. For some, it is the only game they play and will ever play. People who don’t identify as gamers or have never owned a PlayStation or Xbox in their life love The Sims. There is something special about The Sims that hooks in just about everyone. Since The Sims, I don’t believe either of them has played any video games. My sisters loved it and spent many hours watching their little worlds unfold, tweaking and messing with the lives of the digital avatars within. None of them were obsessed with video games enough to devote their lives to talking about it (they were sensible and got real jobs), but something about The Sims cut through that. I wouldn’t call any of my siblings capital “G” gamers.

I can’t remember whose desire it was, but we convinced our parents to purchase the original Sims for the home computer. It sat in a corner of the living room, reserved mostly for my parents to do adult things like check electronic mails and pay bills on the world wide web. There was only one computer in my house growing up.

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