The 12 Emotional Stages Of Playing "The Sims"

The Sims is a series where you can find yourself being eaten by a Cow Plant one minute and becoming a Secret Agent the next. Experience the newest roller coaster of emotions in The Sims 4.

Stage 1: Anticipation

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This is it. You've heard so much from your friends, and you know you can trust them, because they're all doctors and lawyers and famous pop stars.

Well, in the game, at least.

Stage 2: Awe

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You start your new life and, man, it's beautiful. Much better than your real life. There is so much to do. SO MUCH TO SEE.

Stage 3: Aspiration

EA / The Sims 4

You've basically mastered this whole virtual life thing. But that's only the beginning. It's time to test just how far you can take your Sim. After all, you'd always kind of pictured yourself as a somewhat-maniacal overlord hell-bent on turning everyone into a llama and ensconcing yourself in their furs.

Stage 4: Naiveté

EA / The Sims 4

After a few days of struggle and barely being able to maintain four friends (it didn't help that one of them up and died), you realize achieving your dreams might not be as easy as you thought. You can't even make a decent Simsmapolitan, for goodness' sake.

Stage 5: Pragmatism

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Perhaps it's time to retool. You can sort this out. You're smart. You wrote a whole book in three hours once!

Stage 6: Reinvention

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What's that old adage? Ah yes, "Dress for the job you want." Well, fortunately, the job you want is to be a world-renowned classical pianist and debonair. The outfit is totally, like, 60–70% of that position.

Stage 7: Reality

EA / The Sims 4

It's your big debut, and you tried imagining everyone in their underwear to calm your nerves, but in reality everyone thinks that you look like you're about to pee your pants — and not like a champion, either. And these Sims were supposed to be your friends. That dude in the back can't even stay awake!

Stage 8: Rage

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IT'S ALL THEIR FAULT MY LIFE IS THIS WAY. I COULD HAVE ACHIEVED MY DREAMS IF I COULD HAVE JUST GONE TO WORK FEELING INSPIRED.

YOU MAY POINT OUT THAT ONE OF MY OTHER DREAMS WAS TO SMASH A LARGE DOLLHOUSE, BUT THAT IS BESIDE THE POINT.

Stage 9: Complacency

EA / The Sims 4

But on the other hand, you've accomplished some stuff. You have managed to fill an entire wall of your home with dead fish, and if you need another job, it's only a flick or two of your thumbs away. It's time to focus on yourself for once.

Stage 10: Love

EA / The Sims 4

And so it goes, once you're happy with yourself are you able to receive love and make someone else happy too. You meet the love of your life, and it's not that tramp Don Lothario like you thought — no, you ended things with him long ago because you've heard he's Oasis Springs' town bicycle. This time things are going to last forever.

Stage 11: Jealousy

EA / The Sims 4

Then one day you wake up next to the same Sim — just like every other day — and you ask yourself, "Did I really choose the right piece of meat to spend the rest of my life with? Hot dogs satisfy me now, but what if I want a hamburger sometime? Can I eat that too?"

Stage 12: Existential Crisis

EA / The Sims 4

You begin to spiral. Who are you, really? Is your Sim you? Are his or her hopes and desires the same as your own, or wholly unique? "Am I Sim, or am I llama?" is a question you might ask. Well, there's only one way to find out: check out The Sims 4.