October 11, 2004

• I saw that on boing boing earlier and thought it was hilarious. I have to say, my emotional reflexes are so tightly wound I could never do that myself without feeling guilty. I just can't even bring myself to torture and murder virtual people!
• This merely motivates me to go out and get the game just so I can.
• From SA, many have found the joy of Sim torture.
• The trick of boxing Sims in like that is not new, but I never had the guts to try it, so it's funny to see what actually happens. Supposedly you can do a similar trick with a swimming pool if you get them in the pool, then take away the ladder. I wonder what happens if you try it in Sims 2.
• The swimming pool of DOOOOOM! Yeah, that works well. Much hilarity can also be had by setting the fireworks (that come with the Livin' Large expansion pack) off indoors in a room full of rugs. There's entire sites devoted to user-made objects for expediting Sim death, like the Electric Shower and the Poisoned Chips. If you really want to torture some Sims, make an entire family of 8, each one with a different set of attribute points maxed out, and place them in a small, windowless, doorless room with the clown painting and either the christmas cookies, birthday cake, or turkey... to generate trash to drive the neat-freak Sim insane. In no time they'll be slapping each other, crying, wandering around aimlessly while carrying stacks of plates they can't get rid of... great fun. ;-) Um, not that I know about cruelty to virtual people or anything...
• Sim torture: a casebook study. This should be added to all crime methodology in tracking potential serial killers. They look for things like that. Childhood animal mutilation, setting fires, now...Sim torture.
• If sim torture points to serial killing, what conclusions do you draw about people who bring down disasters on their simcities, or, for that matter, initiate mutually-assured destruction by tossing a few nukes russia's way in Civilization? Future presidents?
• Well, if sim-torture is wrong, then I don't wanna be right ... OK, you little electronic buggers, daddy's comin' home and he's pissed that someone squealed ...
• So I've been trying and trying to wrap one of my sims in a black hood and wire his genitals, but no luck so far. Anyone figure out how to do this yet?
• Two words: Expansion Pack.
• If sims torture leads to serial killing, how about widespread mowing down of simulated peoples with automatic weapon fire? Because I understand a lot of that goes on, on the internuts. But then, my AD&D playing in high school DID lead to me dressing in a robe and searching the local drainage culverts for dragons and kobolds. I never magic-missled anyone, but I did happen upon a Bloated Possum of Nausea Trap +2 that went off while I was trying to disarm it. Pee-yoo. So maybe they have a point.
• I knew this one kid, I think his name was Tom Hanks, who went crazy from all the D&D. Sad, sad, poorly paced story.
• It just goes to show you how useless this game is that the best thing anyone can come up with to try is to devise ways to torture the Sims to death.
• Who said it was the best thing?
• I like building houses.
• Me too. I also find the game strangely soothing when I'm really stressed.
• I'm with meredithea. Or when I'm procrastinating. It seriously sucks up the time.
• ...make an entire family of 8, each one with a different set of attribute points maxed out, and place them in a small, windowless, doorless room with the clown painting and... turkey... to generate trash to drive the neat-freak Sim insane. In no time they'll be slapping each other, crying, wandering around aimlessly while carrying stacks of plates they can't get rid of... Sounds like Thanksgiving at my house.
• I have a kind of siren woman in one of my districts who has drowned two husbands and is working on the third. But generally I'm very nice. Or used to be. My daughters see it as an electronic doll's house program - they like building the houses and choosing the furniture, but never make anyone get a job. Since I unwisely showed them the cheat for giving yourself more money, the place has filled up with impossible mansions (rooms with sixteen toilets, day-glo walls, and twelve pet hamsters) and I have been deterred from visiting.
• Sounds like Thanksgiving at my house I smell a holiday expansion pack!