What I learned from playing The Sims 4.

The only setting I changed on the gameplay made my Sims lives longer. If I kept the Lives on normal then I would have eight days until my Sim became an adult and I had more things I wanted my Sim to accomplish before they became an adult. My Sim was only on their third promotion and I wanted them to reach at least halfway through their career before becoming an adult because once they become an adult, then the next stage is old age, and life just isn’t as enjoyable (at least in the Sims game) as an elder.

In reality, many Americans want to achieve success real young. Most of us want to go to college before the age 21 or join the Army before 21. I remember when I was a 23-year-old senior in college I judged 25 and older freshmen as people who just “kicked it” before they decided to get serious about their lives and enroll in college. Immediately after college I joined the Army. I told myself if I didn’t do it then then I definitely wouldn’t have joined after 25 because no one wants to be a grown junior soldier. I knew a Private First Class in their 30s, and people teased that soldier about being old with a rank that most people had at 21 or younger.

Lately, my Sim has been coming home from work stressed out. I feel like I could send my Sim to work in a better mood if I could focus on their moodlets only. My Sim is a young adult and married with two boys. I only married my Sim to impress my real life girlfriend, but I wish I moved my Sim higher in their career and reached some other goals before marrying them and having children. In reality, I am glad that I am achieving goals before starting a family. I see many people struggling to focus on what they need to do to get promoted because they have a family.

Productivity plays a big part in the Sims. I rarely allow my Sims to watch TV or play games because I feel like it is a waste of time. If they are watching TV then it is a cooking channel or another channel that can progress a skill. I bought the most expensive game so that if my Sim fun mood is low then they can raise it quickly and get back to boosting a skill. I wish I were this productive in real life. Sometimes when I binge a TV show or play a video game for a long time, I think that I could have done something productive instead. I could have written something, or read a book, or study how to write computer codes.

There are many things I want my Sim to accomplish with a fast pacing life span, and the scary thing is humans have so many goals in such a short life span too. Even if you live until 80+, there are things that you can only accomplish in your teen ages, your young adult life, your adult life, and your elder life. But, I can’t pause my life, and I can only hope that I am prolonging my life by taking vitamins and not hanging out in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now that I think about it, all those hours I thought I wasted playing the Sims, I learned valuable, realistic lessons.