The first time I was exposed to The Sims was when I was about 12 years old. My friends described it as the perfect game for me, because I used to spend most of my days with my head in the clouds. I was always daydreaming about girls or boys and planning my wedding or entire future with whichever person I was crushing on at the time. To find out that a game existed in which I could make all of this happen and live out my fantasy in a more tangible way was a dream come true. Or so I thought.
Believe it or not, my daydreams did not include my future husband not knowing how to cook anything or my future wife needing to be told to go to the bathroom every few minutes. Perhaps I should have seen the limited money problem coming, but 12-year-old me had full expectations of being able to completely remodel my dream house into the perfect mansion at the drop of a hat.
Now, usually I’m one to appreciate games that try to maintain some sense of realism. I understand that The Sims is designed to mimic real life, and with real life comes a whole host of challenges. But I think there’s something to be said for keeping too many “real” aspects. After all, if the appeal of the game is supposed to be escapism from one reality into another, there must be enough distinctions between the two to make it feel worthwhile.
Between managing hunger, hygiene, bladder, energy, social, and fun, I found myself nothing short of exhausted. Instead of playing a game that allowed me to customize my life, it felt more like I had suddenly adopted a bunch of children that I didn’t want. After keeping track of the needs of everyone in the house, I barely felt motivated anymore to customize my surroundings or build the relationships I’d spent so much time dreaming about. And because I was reluctant to use guides, I hadn’t the faintest idea that cheats for The Sims even existed.
It wasn’t until years later that I was introduced to cheats such as motherlode, which gives you 50,000 Simoleons, or the fillmotive cheats that allow you to fill all your Sims’ needs at will. Though those were the first two I started taking advantage of, there is a whole world of cheat codes for The Sims that give you almost total control of the world around you. Finding these codes changed my experience of the Sims entirely. It went from a game I couldn’t stand to one of my favorites for many years.
In general, I’m not really on board with the idea that cheat codes add quality to a game. I don’t particularly like being overpowered or having a crazy amount of money in situations where I clearly shouldn’t. It takes the challenge out of the games and makes them feel not worth playing for me. But with the intent of The Sims being a fun, alternate reality, cheat codes are the only way to achieve what the game seemingly sets out to be. I’ve always had the personal preference to play any game the closest to how it was intended, but The Sims is the only one in existence I’ve come across that just isn’t fun to play without those cheat codes. So, I will continue to use them shamelessly, and no one can talk me out of it.