“Sometimes I let my characters die, especially the pregnant women…”

The Telegraph – 13/08/2006:

The image of video games still conjures up adolescent boys zapping aliens or directing large-breasted fantasy figures like Lara Croft. Yet across the country little girls are glued to The Sims, set in middle class suburbia. Their patronage has made it the bestselling computer game ever.

Not only is The Sims turning little girls into technical whizzes, it is also making traditional toys obsolete. Just a generation ago, girls used dolls and doll’s houses to make sense of the world. Today they play out stories with animated characters whom they move around screens with a mouse or joystick.

Yet when Pelletier’s team observed girl players, they discovered a different reality. ‘Girls usually use The Sims to explore subversive behaviour. They get rich and try out a wealthy lifestyle, then see who can lose the most money. They drown their babies and call in social services – they deliberately play against the game’s conventions.’

Indeed, most little girls do not treat their characters nearly as maternally as their parents might hope. ‘We like to put characters in the swimming-pool and then take the ladder away and see how long it takes before they drown,’ explains Ellie Priest. ‘Or you keep giving them drinks and won’t let them go to the loo until they wee on the floor.’



  1. woktiny says:

    All this time they said men were the violent ones… when will the truth come out?

  2. Improbus says:

    So thats what little girls are made of. That explains a lot.

  3. Andy Cactus says:

    Take a look at this long time sim torture classic:

    link”

  4. Mike Abundo says:

    Female violence is like female sexuality: a slow burn to an inferno.

  5. Jimbo says:

    The original story is hilarious. My brothers used to watch wrestling and it didn’t make them psycho (well, except for the one) so perhaps this is okay too.

  6. Miguel says:

    Women are very practical… If something’s too much trouble… Just drown them in the pool… or let them starve… or whatever…

    But seriously, most of us play these cruel games when we’re kids… I used to actually BOMB my lego houses with huge bombs made of… LEGOS, and those bombs were full with little legos that acted like shrapnel!!!!

    Now I’m no psycho (I think). My brother is, oth… His plays were a bit different – he actually destroyed ALL his toys. All of them. None has survived to his adult age (I have all of mine)…

    I don’t know if some theory can come up from observations such as these, but it would be an interesting read…

  7. James Hill says:

    Women. Can’t live with ’em and they can’t pee standing up.

  8. Mike Voice says:

    …they can’t pee standing up.

    Poor design? 🙂

  9. RTaylor says:

    Many of these girls will grow up to be ex-wives. That said why is this finding surprising? 😉

  10. James Hatsis says:

    As an old sage once said to me…”Wives are temporary, Ex-Wives are FOREVER”

  11. Anon says:

    So all the 13 year-old girls are playing serial killers in the sims, and all the serial killers are playing 13 year-old girls on myspace.

  12. jim says:

    This behavior is very telling. Girls value relationships very highly even if the relationships are poor. You often see amoung young girls relational agression. (Read Rachael Simmon’s “Odd Girl Out”)

  13. Gregory says:

    Eh, that happened with the dolls too. For example – my wife used to free barbies and throw then off the third floor window….

  14. OmarTheAlien says:

    Why, I wonder, is the mouse cord laying across the keyboard? Is this child left handed, or perhaps dyslexic? I foresee a troubling life for this kid, her life is already a confused tangle of input devices.

  15. woktiny says:

    #8 … humility?

    or maybe the penis evolved as a mechanism to help the hunters go without losing track of their prey, or becoming prey.

  16. Walter says:

    Does this surprise any of you?
    These are teenage girls!!! They have the highest capicity for evil!
    Look at what they do to teenage boys!

  17. and you wondered why I don’t want kids

  18. Mike T says:

    I don’t need this to tell me that little girls are rough and tough. My sister-in-law’s 4 year old will fight you to the death. No matter what you do to her, you can’t hurt her. I’m not even sure she’s human.

    Mike T

  19. Angel H. Wong says:

    Women can pee standing up, they just have to squeeze really hard and spread their legs 😉

  20. Teyecoon says:

    Does this not prove “absolute power corrupts absolutely”?

    Imagine if life on earth is a SIM game for God who causes havoc when he get’s bored.

    Does this also mean that the SIMs world is full of serial killer mentalities? Is this news going to cause the ESRB to change its rating on this game to M+ like they did with GTA:SA and start new Congressional hearings on the damaging effects of video games?

    We’ve all heard of the evil child Damian but who knew there were so many “Dame’ians” out there.

  21. I thought it was standard for everyone who bought the Sims to at least try killing them all once by drowning them.

    Or seeing how long they survive in a room with no windows and doors with only a chair and a fridge. It gets pretty boring playing the game “properly”.

    Once again, people complaining about things that aren’t an issue. The only issue is people who think that the Sims is based on reality!

  22. Bruce IV says:

    #16 – lol
    #17 – didn’t everyone know children are twisted freaks? I remember my little brothers sticking a bottle rocket into a McDonald’s toy to see if they could make it explode (or the other ones they cut the heads off of with their jacknives)

  23. Bruce IV says:

    Oops – auto-numbering there – the reference to 17 is incorrect … (it was early, mby I should take up coffee)

  24. João PT says:

    #8 oh yes they do…


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