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Have you ever been shamed for playing TS?
loutredor
Posts: 404 Member
I remember a similar thread was opened a while ago (maybe even years ago?) and I was really surprised when I realized that most of the answers were: "No, not really".
It is not a secret that TS has the reputation of being a game for little girls, a dollhouse game, within the gaming community. As a fan of video games, I have always been surrounded by male gamers who shamelessly belittled the game. Even female gamers did, asserting that they would choose a destructive FPS game over a creative one like TS any day, as if they had to prove themselves to the rest of the community, to whom choosing a game targeted towards a male audience over a game targeted towards a female one was the only good choice. And I am not saying that they played FPS games only not to be shamed by male gamers (it was probably indeed the type of games they liked most), but that it definitely was the reason why they belittled TS.
I didn’t pay much attention to it, mostly because, as the only female within a “male” family – having brothers and male cousins only – I was used to be shamed for any ‘feminine’ quality I may or may not have (I will always remember the first time I carried a handbag).
However, it had been a long time since I last was shamed for doing something considered ‘feminine’ in our current society. Mostly because I am now 26 and that, growing up, most people become more open-minded. Also because the people I chose to be my friends today are – believe it or not – very nice. And finally probably because, knowing me quite well, no one would dare provoke me in such a way today. They would be too scared of the consequences. Bouaha.
Anyways, yesterday, a nice acquaintance of my boyfriend’s joined us for dinner and to my surprise, I experienced that situation again, for the first time in a very long time.
Jokingly, he started mimicking a mafia boss and said:
- C******** (insert my name here), we have to talk.*
We were facing each other at the table so that the situation was even more comical.
- I am all ears, I answered on the same fakingly serious tone. (apparently, fakingly is not a word, but it will do.)
- C********, listen, he said, you have to stop playing The Sims! and then he laughed mockingly, proud to have found such a disgraceful piece of information on me.
- Oh really, I followed with my usual phlegm, and probably in an even more mocking tone, and why is that?
He seemed rather destabilized at my answer – obviously, for him, the only reasonable answer was to laugh and to hide in shame.
- Well, because, he said, it is bad!
- How is it bad? I said. I play it mainly to build stuff and it is one of the most amazing construction tools I ever saw. (I was thinking mainly about TS3 throughout this conversation, but rest assured I like TS4 as well.)
- It is true! She builds amazing stuff! There is an incredible level of detail! said the most amazing man on earth who may or may not have been biased by the fact that he also happens to be my boyfriend.
- So is Minecraft though! replied the first guy.
I don’t know Minecraft too well so I wasn’t sure of how much you can really achieve with the game. I thought you couldn’t build really detailed things so I played on the fact that Minecraft is also not a game aimed at ‘manly men’, and snorted with disdain – which, believe it or not, worked pretty well because the guy seemed pretty ashamed. I was wrong though because I looked for stuff built with Minecraft today, and there are, indeed, incredibly detailed stuff.
- It is not only the building aspect though, I went on, the gameplay is pretty good too. It’s an amazing sandbox game. You can do whatever you want.
- So is GTA, said another friend.
What is it with thinking that all of the games that share the same characteristics as TS are bound to be better than TS? It is pretty crazy. Especially if you consider that Minecraft and GTA are not combined in one and single game. Anyways, there is only so much you can do in that particular “sandbox” game, especially if you want to do something that doesn’t imply driving or killing someone, so at this point I started making a long list of things that you could do in TS and not in GTA. The two guys still seemed rather desperate to belittle TS though, and wouldn’t let go.
-Anyways, The Sims really isn’t for me, concluded the second friend in a more ambivalent way than the first guy. The only time I tried to play it, my sim died after two minutes, burning their food.
- Well, I laughed, just because you’re bad at the game doesn’t mean the game is bad.
I thought about it today, though. Is it really such a bad thing that The Sims games have such a terrible reputation? When you think about it, it may be what stops the most close-minded people from playing it. I know people often say that we have a terrible community on here, but to be honest, for a game as popular as TS and with such a number of players, I find it quite surprising that there isn’t more trolls or excessively immature teens, as is the case in the communities of the most popular/played games. (I have nothing against teens. I am sure you will understand the exact type of teens I am talking about.)
What do you think? Is the reputation of TS a good thing, or should we try and advocate for the quality of the games more?
Have you ever been shamed for playing TS games?
Thanks if you read the whole thing.
*In case you wonder how much of it is authentic, the whole dialogue is roughly translated from French. Because I am French.
It is not a secret that TS has the reputation of being a game for little girls, a dollhouse game, within the gaming community. As a fan of video games, I have always been surrounded by male gamers who shamelessly belittled the game. Even female gamers did, asserting that they would choose a destructive FPS game over a creative one like TS any day, as if they had to prove themselves to the rest of the community, to whom choosing a game targeted towards a male audience over a game targeted towards a female one was the only good choice. And I am not saying that they played FPS games only not to be shamed by male gamers (it was probably indeed the type of games they liked most), but that it definitely was the reason why they belittled TS.
I didn’t pay much attention to it, mostly because, as the only female within a “male” family – having brothers and male cousins only – I was used to be shamed for any ‘feminine’ quality I may or may not have (I will always remember the first time I carried a handbag).
However, it had been a long time since I last was shamed for doing something considered ‘feminine’ in our current society. Mostly because I am now 26 and that, growing up, most people become more open-minded. Also because the people I chose to be my friends today are – believe it or not – very nice. And finally probably because, knowing me quite well, no one would dare provoke me in such a way today. They would be too scared of the consequences. Bouaha.
Anyways, yesterday, a nice acquaintance of my boyfriend’s joined us for dinner and to my surprise, I experienced that situation again, for the first time in a very long time.
Jokingly, he started mimicking a mafia boss and said:
- C******** (insert my name here), we have to talk.*
We were facing each other at the table so that the situation was even more comical.
- I am all ears, I answered on the same fakingly serious tone. (apparently, fakingly is not a word, but it will do.)
- C********, listen, he said, you have to stop playing The Sims! and then he laughed mockingly, proud to have found such a disgraceful piece of information on me.
- Oh really, I followed with my usual phlegm, and probably in an even more mocking tone, and why is that?
He seemed rather destabilized at my answer – obviously, for him, the only reasonable answer was to laugh and to hide in shame.
- Well, because, he said, it is bad!
- How is it bad? I said. I play it mainly to build stuff and it is one of the most amazing construction tools I ever saw. (I was thinking mainly about TS3 throughout this conversation, but rest assured I like TS4 as well.)
- It is true! She builds amazing stuff! There is an incredible level of detail! said the most amazing man on earth who may or may not have been biased by the fact that he also happens to be my boyfriend.
- So is Minecraft though! replied the first guy.
I don’t know Minecraft too well so I wasn’t sure of how much you can really achieve with the game. I thought you couldn’t build really detailed things so I played on the fact that Minecraft is also not a game aimed at ‘manly men’, and snorted with disdain – which, believe it or not, worked pretty well because the guy seemed pretty ashamed. I was wrong though because I looked for stuff built with Minecraft today, and there are, indeed, incredibly detailed stuff.
- It is not only the building aspect though, I went on, the gameplay is pretty good too. It’s an amazing sandbox game. You can do whatever you want.
- So is GTA, said another friend.
What is it with thinking that all of the games that share the same characteristics as TS are bound to be better than TS? It is pretty crazy. Especially if you consider that Minecraft and GTA are not combined in one and single game. Anyways, there is only so much you can do in that particular “sandbox” game, especially if you want to do something that doesn’t imply driving or killing someone, so at this point I started making a long list of things that you could do in TS and not in GTA. The two guys still seemed rather desperate to belittle TS though, and wouldn’t let go.
-Anyways, The Sims really isn’t for me, concluded the second friend in a more ambivalent way than the first guy. The only time I tried to play it, my sim died after two minutes, burning their food.
- Well, I laughed, just because you’re bad at the game doesn’t mean the game is bad.
I thought about it today, though. Is it really such a bad thing that The Sims games have such a terrible reputation? When you think about it, it may be what stops the most close-minded people from playing it. I know people often say that we have a terrible community on here, but to be honest, for a game as popular as TS and with such a number of players, I find it quite surprising that there isn’t more trolls or excessively immature teens, as is the case in the communities of the most popular/played games. (I have nothing against teens. I am sure you will understand the exact type of teens I am talking about.)
What do you think? Is the reputation of TS a good thing, or should we try and advocate for the quality of the games more?
Have you ever been shamed for playing TS games?
Thanks if you read the whole thing.
*In case you wonder how much of it is authentic, the whole dialogue is roughly translated from French. Because I am French.
5
Comments
I think what draws me to TS4 is the fact that I can play God. I can create worlds just as I like and name sims whatever I like and just relax and let their behaviour entertain me. There's no losers in TS4, only winners.
All the sims err'day
Origin ID: lisalittlesimmer
edit: apparently my brain just started switching up random words so half of that didn't make sense. Thanks brain.
But to be fair, you can do a lot more in GTAV than you would think, I go golfing, climbing Mount Chilliad. Playing Tennis. Parachuting, it's more than a normal criminal simulator now, I've spent longer on it just living a normal-ish life than I would like to admit doing the entire crinimal part.
I remember turning off the feature in discord that showed what game I was playing just so my discord communities couldn't see that I played the sims
But then I realized life is too short to be embarassed about playing a game. Especially one I don't play all too often to begin with.
Still, I don't see myself sharing the fact that I play with anyone on my own unless it gets bought up by them, lol.
(◡‿◡✿)
So, never shamed, but I deeply fear it. When I come in to work after the weekend and I'm asked what I did, I never respond with, "Oh, well, my legacy family started the second generation, but then Paolo came over and croaked in their living room. Can't wait for the cats and dogs expansion, oh man...blah blah blah" it's always, "oh, just hung around the house."
That is so true, I am often looked out with contempt when I talk about my passion to people who don't play video games, as if somehow their hobbies were more admirable... but I find it even more sad that people will judge you for you choice of game even within the gaming community. Especially considering most of the time those people didn't even play the game, and are solely basing their judgement on its reputation.
I wonder what their criteria may be to determine whether a game is a "real game" or not. The Sims certainly can't be considered a casual game in my opinion.
I feel I do kind of experience what you're talking about in an interesting fashion, though:
General PC gamers who don't necessarily shame me for playing the game but do quite obviously look down upon the game quite a bit as "casual" and just completely and utterly talk down the specs a PC needs to properly play The Sims 3. That really irritates me. They talk down to me and tell me that I should have only spent $400 on a PC to smoothly play TS3 w/all EPs at max settings. They belittle my research and the community of people who actually play the game to know what will actually work for the game.
It's nauseating.
I'm not embarrassed about playing sims. It's more simple than other games. I think I'd be more embarrassed to admit to other mmo-type games because of the stereotyping about the people who play them! Sims is good clean fun.
I've not been teased about it yet, though my husband does sometimes poke fun at me for writing stories about the little pixel family.
Maice Sims
I couldn’t care less if anyone attempts to fault me for playing the game. I do what I enjoy, and if it isn’t hurting anyone... then there’s no sweat off my back.
He probably played it before and lost all of his Sims in a fire or something but that is the only time I ever heard anyone slate TS1
At the time it had me questioning myself and wondering if I truly was too old to play it (I was in my late 30s, so no where near a Grandma, but now I am. lol). But then I found a lovely lady who wrote beautiful Sims 2 stories via an ad at the end of one of her stories on the exchange. She ran a wonderful TS2 forum/website. I checked out the site and we became good friends along with other older Simmers like myself on her Staff. They are still my friends to this day.
Other than that incident, I've never felt any shame for playing Sims. I've had some people roll their eyes at me when they find out, but I just smile and tell them all the reasons I love it. They usually start asking me a bunch of questions about it , then drop the subject. A few have ended up buying the game themselves though.