A fluffy, tongue-in-cheek piece written for Valentine's Day 2003, posted here for Thanksgiving 2004, and dedicated with much love and gratitude to everyone at Wilkare's. Just ... thank you.
The Sims and SimCity belong to Maxis.
How do I love my Sim? Let me count the ways...
He's so different from any other game I've ever played. He's sweet, he's funny, he has a charm all of his own, he doesn't mind people talking about him, and he lets me alter him any way I want.
Almost. He still won't agree to move to a three-storey house. Says his engine won't support it.
Bad points? Well, he's put on weight, but what's a gigabyte or two between friends? It's probably due to all the downloads I've been feeding him, so I can't exactly complain. Oh, and he'll hardly ever put up shelves for me. I have to get WinZip in to do that.
He's been behaving strangely ever since we got our cat. I really don't know why he can't just sit down and watch TV like a normal person any more, and as for the way women have been acting around him lately... I hate the way they slouch over near him and get that silly red face. I daren't ask why they do it.
But, you know... my eye has wandered as well. I've seen other games. The Longest Journey, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango - all so fun, so exciting! Only they don't last. I've always come back to my Sim, and he's never any the wiser. Perhaps he suspects something this time, though. I'm tempted by his smart, complicated City cousin. So beautiful! So ambitious! So many possibilities... Who wouldn't want to conquer new worlds?
Still... I think my love for my Sim will hold. We uninstalled once, and it broke my heart, although the first time we reinstalled was a disaster. We reinstalled again and since then things have been running smoothly, thank goodness - neither of us would want to go through uninstallation again.
My Sim and I will be there for each other for a long time to come. There's so much binding us - all the fun we've had, all the friends we've made together. Nothing will change that. No matter how many times he blanks out on me when I'm trying on a new dress, no matter how many times he comes back from town without any money, no matter how many times he goes "Bleah!" at the new table it took me so long to find - nothing will change that.
Except perhaps The Sims 2 ...