Life Lessons I Learned From Playing The Sims

3. Time is Precious

One of the first families I started out with playing in Sims 3 was a young couple. Theodore wanted to be the number one director in Sunset Valley while his wife Louise wanted to be a vocal legend. With a lot of hard work, they did and they had two beautiful children along the way. Louise would rush home from performing to teach Derek and Samantha how to walk while Theodore was out working out late at night. I may have created Theodore and Louise as adults, but I raised Derek and Samantha since they were still in their mother’s womb. Now those two are all grown up with wives and children on their own. I knew that eventually Theodore and Louise would die, but what surprised me more was how much it affected me. So one day, during the birthday party of Samantha’s son, Louise died of old age and it saddened me to see her go. I didn’t know the exact day of when she was going to die because I controlled Samantha and Derek’s family most of the time since Theodore and Louise were pretty much fulfilled. Louise only got to see her grand child once, mostly because I always made my sims too busy to do other things.

When you think about it, I didn’t spend years taking care of this family. I only spent probably a day at most in real time attending and grooming to this family, yet with all the heartbreak and success I’ve achieved for them… it felt like a lifetime. It reminded me of my grand father when he had cancer, everyone didn’t say what they wanted to tell him mostly because we all thought he’d still be around the next day but then one day he just didn’t wake up. I once created a family with a patriarch elder who resembled grand father and I made sure his children visited him almost every day until he died. I never chose to bring him back with some plant or potion from the game, because having control of all the time in the world will only make me take it for granted in the end.

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My sister came home from school one day and told me that one of their teachers asked them to play The Sims as their project to teach them how to manage income. I laughed thinking that video games are only for entertainment, but after years of playing I realized that video games are also a source of learning. Sure, The Sims could teach you how to manage your household funds, but there’s a whole lot more you can learn that you’ll value for years to come.