the klog

So my new phone comes with The Sims 2 Mobile Edition. I've never played any Sims games, actually, so I was curious. The first thing I noticed is that it's a pain having to constantly go to the bathroom and shower and eat and stuff. It's like they're making up for all the games (not to mention TV shows and movies) where the characters go days without ever using the toilet. Here, you spend half your time on the toilet!

The worst part is going to bed. While you're sleeping to bring your tiredness meter back up, your bathroom, shower, hunger, and entertainment meters all drop, so that when you wake up, you have to spend a couple hours of in-game time just to be content again. My second day of in-game work, I didn't give myself enough time, my entertainment meter was too low, and my character didn't feel like going to work. I missed the carpool and missed work, apparently because I needed to watch TV for a while longer instead. :\

Anyway, you meet other characters in the game (played by the computer), and you can chat with them to befriend them. As you do so, your friendship meter goes up. I had my character, Clark, chat with the Ben for a while, and when the meter got to 45, it said, "You've made a new friend!"

I kept chatting with Ben, and when the meter got to around 70, it said, "You've fallen in love!" Whoa. I totally didn't expect that! Before I knew it, Ben and I had spent the night together, which the game depicts with the pictured image. (It also lets you "spend the night" regardless of the time of day, but it always takes exactly 3 hours) Later that same day, we got married! Evidently the game doesn't discriminate at all between men and women when it comes to love and marriage.

Of course, the game's model of love isn't terribly sophisticated. Your relationship with each character is totally independent, so you can fall in love with every other character while you're married, and spend the night with them while your husband is in the same room. :P

The best part: When I tried to get a divorce, the game replied directly and to the point: "You cannot afford a divorce." :)

(Eventually I learned that you get about $800 when you get married, and you lose the same amount when you get divorced. I guess it's supposed to represent tax breaks maybe?)

On a related note, Judevac spotted these in the Wilkes Bashford window display last night, on the eve of Pride Weekend in San Francisco:

I like how they're standing on cakes. :)