Having got into playing Electronic Arts (EA)’, The Sims after more than ten years I was glad to see that I’d advanced beyond setting their houses on fire and drowning my sims on purpose (by removing the ladder to the swimming pool), to actually “caring” about my little digital people now. With my sims now being creatures I actually want to succeed in their lives, it got me wondering if The Sims could also serve as an educational game for kids and teenagers. Rather than trying to summarise this into an article, read through the points below and see if you also think it could serve as an educational tool – Who knows, maybe EA might also get wind of this.

Relationships

While most of my sims tend to have happy marriages and they just happen naturally, this couple’s one turned out to be less than ideal. I was desperate to keep their family together, so since the mother had an unfortunate tendency to just be mean spirited, I had to take an active role in their relationships just to keep them happy with each other.

Finances

The Sims is also good at teaching you how to be careful with your spending. In other words, no you can’t buy that big-screen TV right off the bat. Just buy the cheapest coffee table, that small TV, and the cheapest sofa money can buy, because you still need money to have a basic kitchen, your bedroom, a dining table and chairs, and so on, and so forth. That $10,000 TV and fancy lounge suite can wait until your sims have high paying jobs where they can actually afford those things!

Don’t forget that you have to pay your bills each week too, and those increase with the fancy appliances etc, that you purchase as well.

Consequences of actions

Even though I never intentionally kill my sims these days, there are always the near fatal situations which have happened, which were entirely my own fault. Fire and Emergency may like this one, as my sims have twice caught their living room on fire from having their coffee table and sofa too close to their fireplace. Same goes for having lawn furniture, barbecues, and spa pools outside with no verandas or coverings. When summer comes along, along with it’s lightning storms, I found that my barbecue and spa pool had been struck by lightning, and therefore had to be replaced.

The reality of raising children

Imagine your sims being woken up at all hours when the infant starts crying because it needs a nappy change or needs to be fed? Yeah, just like in real life, the same thing happens in the Sims. There are certain ways you can get help, by hiring a nanny for instance, but that’s expensive. Otherwise, welcome to the reality of raising kids.

The base game of The Sims 4 is a free download at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1222670/The_Sims_4/

This article was provided by Ben Knowles – Editor @ The Upper Hutt Connection

21/11/23