Having a slimmer nose, a dream villa or simply being rich: many dream of it, The Sims have achieved it. Since its release in 2000, the EA Games game has allowed you to create another life, fantasize, innovate, explore and discover more about yourself.
In this iconic saga that simulates everyday life on your computer, you can create avatars, build and decorate houses, and above all, bring this virtual world to life through interactions, jobs of all kinds, and meeting places. Latest news: the ability to choose the sexual orientation of your Sims, as well as their pronouns for greater inclusivity.
Innovations that have followed the evolution of society for more than 20 years and allow players to multiply the adventures of life. Some choose to create themselves, others to create completely invented characters, cartoonish or similarly inspired by real life. The Sims then become a laboratory that allows you to imagine your life, often dreamed of.
a self discovery
Highlighting the different possibilities in terms of sexual orientation in particular allowed certain players to understand who they really were at a very young age. This is particularly the case for Gabrielle*, 27, who has been playing The Sims for almost twenty years. The young brunette appreciates these moments of discovery that the game gave her, especially when she was younger.
A way for the young woman to find out more about her, even if it’s a little sneaky: “I already knew without admitting it that I was bisexual and The Sims was a little bit of my hiding place,” she says.
The Sims also allows you to add a few more physical qualities. Gabrielle admits in particular that she respects her hair color and hairstyle, but perhaps not her morphology. “I’m also going to have a little bit of kiff changing the color of my eyes,” the young woman laughs.
“We look at each other, we look at each other”
Same settings for Elodie, 22, blonde with blue eyes. For her, it is always de rigueur to change her appearance a bit: “I always make Sims with finer features than me and a haircut that I would like to have.”
The game was also a way of changing his relationship with others: “I realized, with the different types of interactions, that some of my actions in real life were interpreted in a certain way, depending on the category they were in. the game. .”
In fact, every action in The Sims is classified according to its focus. Therefore, there are five types of possible interactions: “Friendly”, “Love”, “Funny”, “Malice” and “Evil”.
And these different actions are not due to chance. “The Sims is an externalized theater of oneself,” explains Vanessa Lalo, a clinical psychologist specializing in video games and digital practices. “The game is a reflection of our inner world that allows both identification and projection.”
Michael Stora, a psychologist who has worked with the game for a long time, agrees: “There is a projection phenomenon that is very powerful in The Sims, onto others and onto oneself.
sims therapy
It is difficult to imagine that a simple video game can be a true therapeutic tool. And yet, The Sims has over the years solved many psychological and mental problems. In the 2000s, Michael Stora notably established therapies through games, according to him, The Sims would have the same contribution as the classic projection tests known throughout the world, such as the famous Rorschach test and its tasks to be analyzed or the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test).
During these tests, the psychologist asked the patients to play games to learn more about themselves. “There are two types of players: players who will make a very similar avatar but who, during the game, will behave differently from theirs, quite transgressive and bordering on the limits of sanity. On the other hand, we are going to have players who idealize their avatar but do what they do in real life”, explains Michael Stora.
Vanessa Lalo was also able to use The Sims to answer some questions about the patient’s behavior. For example with a 10-year-old boy who had great personal suffering but whose origin no one understood. “He had built a hotel in the game with many rooms and he told me it would be useful for his friends but at the moment he didn’t have any. It’s going further in the game approach of her in The Sims. that I understood that he was being harassed.”
Solve dysmorphophobia
However, some problems can be difficult to explain or solve, such as anorexia or eating disorders (ED). Xavier Pommereau, a psychiatrist specializing in troubled children, used The Sims extensively between 2009 and 2011 to understand the distress of young adolescent girls. They then had to create his avatar to see how they represented themselves, especially in terms of morphology.
“My starting point was that teenagers are children of the image. So instead of always criticizing this practice of self-emphasis, I might as well try to work with it. When I worked with The Sims, I wanted the support of projection outside of the selfies.” explains the psychiatrist, who today notices more dysmorphophobia, especially because of social networks.
However, the result is a bit disappointing. “Given the scarce graphic elaboration of the time, the result obtained did not correspond to reality. It was not a self-portrait”, laments Xavier Pommereau. But the therapy was equally appreciated by the young adolescents consulted, who are usually very interested in working with their image.
The limits of a dream life at all costs
But wanting to create an ideal life, even in virtual life, sometimes has its limits. Desiring perfection, luxurious homes, and perfect features too much, some Sims enthusiasts may feel some discomfort about returning to real life.
This is the case of Céline, 28, who has been playing The Sims for 15 years. “Being able to create almost perfect characters has added to the feeling of inferiority that I have had for a long time. You create a perfect world, or almost, unattainable in real life. Being able to create a dream house, and realizing that you can’t do the same in real life, often created a sense of failure for me.”
And this feeling is not abnormal, as Julie Escurignan, a researcher at the Paris School of Management and a specialist in the links between fans and cultural industries, explains: “There is this aspect of dream life in The Sims but in the end it becomes quite boring. . you get your big house, the game will become cathartic.”
The researcher also goes on to explain how The Sims doesn’t necessarily have a projection vocation: “You’re going to create people you don’t like, you kill your boss… It’s a way out. It’s not really the life we lead.” I would like to have is more of a test like “What if I had made a different choice? The goal is above all to try something else, to be different, to do something we couldn’t do in real life.”
Without limits or judgments, The Sims has thus become for two decades a means of expression in its own right. A closed place that respects intimacy, discovery and delivery of impulses that has never stopped evolving to follow social trends. And at the dawn of a possible fifth work, the game intends to maintain its condition as a laboratory of life. “The universality of being able to create a life will not change, explains Julie Escurignan. We don’t know how it will evolve, but we will always want to create a parallel life.”
*First name has been changed
Source: BFM TV
