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MGTOW: I learned how to live my life from The Sims

I told you fireworks were a bad idea.

Over on the Men Going Their Own Way subreddit, one Redditor tells his comrades how he developed his philosophy of life:


I learned mgtow from the original Sims (self.MGTOW) submitted 4 days ago by onbakeplatinum Way back when the original Sims came out and I was 14, I tried to play as my actual family. That turned out to be a complete nightmare, trying to control multiple people, always being short on money, dealing with their moods and unwillingness to do anything, etc. Then I played as just a single Sim. The game became ridiculously easy. I only had to manage one person, could live in a small house, and train/go to work all the time. My Sim was extremely happy. She became rich and I pimped her small house (I tried to make the smallest house possible) with the highest quality items. I maxed out all her stats. I don't remember much else. But it occurred to me way back then that this was how I wanted to live my life. Alone and simple. I didn't NEED to have a family like everyone else and manage/deal with other people. I could live in a small (but nice) place because it's just me, and even though I don't make much money, it's only me I have to worry about.

This seems a bit weird to me. I also played the original Sims game when it came out, and that wasn’t the lesson I drew from it at all. The lessons I learned were a little, well, darker. Some that I remember:

  • If you place a bunch of people in a house with no bathrooms and no doors, they will be extremely unhappy, and will start leaving puddles on the floor.
  • If you place a bunch of people in a house with the only toilet in the middle of the living room, they will be nearly as unhappy as the first bunch of people.
  • If you build a house with no doors, chairs, couches or beds, the people trapped within it will also be really unhappy, and will ultimately try to sleep standing up or lying on the floor.
  • Building a fence around them while they’re out in the yard will do the trick as well.
  • If someone is swimming in your backyard pool, and you quickly build an insurmountable wall around it, they will eventually drown.
  • Actually, never mind, I think if you simply “forget” to put a ladder in the pool, they can’t get out either.

So I guess I mainly learned some very basic “don’ts” in home design, such as the importance of having a door. And in fact I have not designed any doorless — or bathroomless, or bedless — houses since then. Or any houses at all, actually.

I’m not the only one who learned lessons about the importance of doors, as the following videos I found on Youtube make abundently clear. Also, shooting off fireworks inside a doorless room is pretty much a disaster waiting to happen.

Well, you get the idea.

Have you learned any important life lessons from the Sims, or any other videogames?

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Garen Truscott
Garen Truscott
9 years ago

I don’t know what the Sim-MGTOW’s problem was. I found running large families as a reliable way to make masses of money. It was almost too easy except for the more regular appearance of game breaking bugs with larger families.

dhag85
dhag85
9 years ago

– If you ever find out about any form of rumor, legend, folk myth, etc, the story will always be 100% true, and usually easily verified. For example, for centuries people have told stories of the mythological monster supposedly residing in the cave west of the village. You go to the cave and instantly run into (and kill) the monster.

– You can go right, or up. Left or down is a no no.

– In the city you are safe. Anywhere else, you are in mortal danger.

– The ultimate hipster store: sell one and only one item. Make it very expensive. Hide your store inside a rock, requiring customers to use explosives in order to find you.

– Other people may speak. You do not speak.

dhag85
dhag85
9 years ago

Oh and also:

Everybody in the world is either aged 100. There is no inbetween.

anemonerosie
9 years ago

Portal taught me that I can jump really high! It also taught me that the cake is a lie. This conflicts with Fat Princess, which taught me that both cake and bombs have a place in the world.

Skyrim taught me that I need to expand my vocabulary and that, with the right words, I can be immensely powerful.

Dead Space taught me to avoid aliens at all costs, while Dead Nation taught me to avoid zombies. I’m sensing a theme here.

Bioshock taught me that I have a soft spot for Little Girls. This game also taught me that if I’m working at one of our art deco venues I need to do so on some sleep otherwise I will start to hallucinate seeing Little Girls crawling around the venue and get very scared.

Tamagotchi taught me that pocket-animals can morph into exciting creatures, but that this is dependent on them getting played with, and being given food. Trying to do one without the other doesn’t work as well.

dhag85
dhag85
9 years ago

Lol. Sorry about that, I used “less than” and “more than” symbols, and I guess it messed up my rule. Let’s try again:

– Everybody in the world is either aged less than 17 or more than 100. There is no inbetween.

Ace
Ace
9 years ago

Jumping on turtles is fun, but if you kick the shell and it hits you, you die. Also, hit blocks with your head hard enough and they pop out coins.

loquora
9 years ago

We Love Katamari taught me that rocks are flammable and alligators are a street legal form of transportation.

Scented Fucking Hard Chairs
Scented Fucking Hard Chairs
9 years ago

@PI

Hah, yeah, that makes sense. ^^; Probably for the best, really, don’t want to wear out the sarcasm processor. =P

@otherwise

What I learned from Mario Maker: People who make rooms with two hundred springs, three hundred Goombas and no exits are douchebags. Also, the world has way too many douchebags.

Arthur Meyer
9 years ago

The mother of the Sims, SimCity, taught me some very important lessons.

– People hate living next door to a factory.
– Not having public transportation results in traffic problems.
– Education helps fight crime and gives us high-tech factories.
– Don’t call Maxis complaining about how there’s no Fusion Power Plants in 2050.
– Parks make everything better.
– People get sick and die from pollution.
– Llamas are sacred, or is it goats?
– Aliens love to blow up landmarks for some reason.
– Solar panels can work under freeway overpasses.
– Don’t cut back on funding, ever.

Chayanov
Chayanov
9 years ago

I learned that life is running around in a maze, but if you take drugs you can eat ghosts.

Viscaria
Viscaria
9 years ago

Video games taught me that you can correct your course mid-jump,and that you can run along walls if you build up enough momentum – but only for a little while. It’s called physics.

dhag85
dhag85
9 years ago

@Arthur Meyer

Also from Sim City: No roads! Only rail plz!

Paradoxical Intention
9 years ago

There’s actually a game I really want to play that I watched someone do an LP of called “Shoppe Keep”, that looks pretty interesting.

You run a kind of medieval RPG store, where you sell adventuring gear and alchemy ingredients, and you have to occasionally deal with thieves (by murdering them to make an example to the other NPCs) and barbarians (by murdering them to make an example to the other barbarians).

In the interim, you can order new inventory for your shop, restock your shelves, repair your displays, and sweep up because everyone in town has filthy feet (Though, from what I understand, the floor mat you can purchase for your shop still bugs it out, and makes it so your shop’s doors won’t close, and thus won’t end the day).

After the shop closes for the day, you get to change your displays and/or add more of them or different types of them (because displays can only hold certain items), grow alchemy ingredients to sell, do some crafting of your own, and send an adventurer you have on payroll out to go get rare treasures for you to sell.

It’s in early access right now, but it looks equal parts fun, fast-paced, and charming so I’m all about this.

Pandapool -- The Species that Endangers YOU (aka Banana Jackie Cake, for those who still want to call me "Banana", "Jackie" or whatever)
Pandapool -- The Species that Endangers YOU (aka Banana Jackie Cake, for those who still want to call me "Banana", "Jackie" or whatever)
9 years ago

A better lesson to take away would have been you can’t have complete control over people and have them be happy, you can only have control over your own happiness but whatever.

Mike
Mike
9 years ago

The ultimate hipster store: sell one and only one item. Make it very expensive. Hide your store inside a rock, requiring customers to use explosives in order to find you.

Oh did anyone play the original Phantasy Star (which is a great game, btw; also one of your party members is a talking cat)? Well, minor spoilers if you haven’t: there’s a part where for some reason you need to acquire a cake to give as a gift, and the only place to get a cake is in a shop located in the bowels of a long, difficult dungeon. When you get there, the clerk is like “Sorry, I know this is a bad place to have a cake shop.”

Orion
Orion
9 years ago

Mass Effect 1 and 2: Never Never NEVER have sex with a person you have previously killed.

I played the Mass Effect games, but I can’t figure out what you’re talking about.

Orion
Orion
9 years ago

PI,

There’s a well-reviewed game with a similar premise from a couple years back called Recettear.

Pandapool -- The Species that Endangers YOU (aka Banana Jackie Cake, for those who still want to call me "Banana", "Jackie" or whatever)
Pandapool -- The Species that Endangers YOU (aka Banana Jackie Cake, for those who still want to call me "Banana", "Jackie" or whatever)
9 years ago

@Paradoxical

Sips. :>

It also has a nice cartoony design which I’m all about.

Pandapool -- The Species that Endangers YOU (aka Banana Jackie Cake, for those who still want to call me "Banana", "Jackie" or whatever)
Pandapool -- The Species that Endangers YOU (aka Banana Jackie Cake, for those who still want to call me "Banana", "Jackie" or whatever)
9 years ago

@Orion

I think they’re talking about Samara *wink* but didn’t want to spoil.

dhag85
dhag85
9 years ago

@Paradoxical Intention

Have you played Dragon Quest IV (I think?)? In one of the chapters you play as a weapons merchant. I always loved that chapter, but the mechanics of working in the shop are obviously very limited.

Arthur Meyer
9 years ago

@dhag85

Are you suggesting that where we’re going, there are no roads?

Terrabeau
Terrabeau
9 years ago

DayZ and Rust have taught me that my belief in the essential goodness of humankind is a falsehood wrought and maintained by the existence of civilization. Once said civilization eventually collapses, everything will go to shit.

Vanir (@Vanir85)
9 years ago

Fair enough.

I have no problem with MGTOW living like this. If it’s what they want, more power to them. What I HAVE a problem with, is THEIR problem with women living like this, IRL. A woman focusing on her own life, career and interests and not wanting a lasting relationship, would quickly be labeled cat-lady, man-hater, etc (and goddess help her if she also enjoys a sex life, THEN it gets nasty).

autosoma
9 years ago

Minecraft: an excellent way to teach my daughters (my 10 year old especially) about Geology, Geography and redstone gate programming. Also Amylee33, squashie, aphmal And Tiffy Ihascupquake are good ways to engage them that gaming is for girls.

Spore: totally fucking hilarious creature creator that my 6 year old daughter lives and it gives us an opportunity to piss about

Both have been told at school that gaming isn’t for girls, both have told boys that they can ic the want to.

I’ve found its a good way to teach them both empowerment

Nequam
Nequam
9 years ago

Costume Quest: only twisted monsters like candy corn.