I am very proud today to give you a blog post from my daughter, Sofia. I know that you will like this since it gives an alternative view of life from the eyes of a teenager.

Hello again! You may remember me, Sofia, the daughter, from last year where I talked about why I don’t believe in bad luck and now I’m here with a bit of a more controversial matter: (to adults anyway) are video games really that bad?

Throughout my life, I have always played some kind of game whether it be my friend trying but not really succeeding to get me into battle games or me choosing to recreate my life in The Sims, except becoming rich and famous.

A house I built (I think) once I started getting better at building

My first experience with my favourite game to date, was sometime in winter or autumn, when I was laying on my parents’ bed, my grandad downstairs, and I saw this video entitled ‘The Sims 4 – Only $1 left’. Instantly I was intrigued. How could someone live on only one dollar (soon to my knowledge a simoleon), even in a video game?The video was by DanTDM, who I had never heard of, and sadly don’t watch anymore. It soon became the video that started my lifelong dream to become a sim. Before I knew it, I was tuning in every week to find out what was happening to this crazy family of scientists and baristas and as if I couldn’t get enough, I started watching everyone’s Sims video no matter who it was: ihascupquake, TheSimsSupply (now known as James Turner) and even AviatorGaming!

After weeks of trying and surprisingly succeeding at getting 10/10 in my spelling tests my dad agreed to buy me ‘The Sims 4’. I was so happy. Hours later I was notified of the news that Sims 4 just stopped on a black screen: woo! The next day I had been given a full refund from Origin and my father had bought The Sims 3 and figured the problem. I had no graphics card. Soon enough I was on my way creating myself (or what I thought of myself) as a sim after a short blip in working games.

My sim self (2017)

A photo for reference (2019)

An obsession grew and couldn’t wait for every day that I could come home to my sims! I remember once I was devastated as my sim aged up from a toddler and gained the evil trait since I didn’t provide her with the right skills to age up. This was like losing a part of myself. How could they take away MY RIGHT to pick MY sim’s traits: UNBELIEVABLE? Despite this, it made me determined to make her sister a god child and soon she was, except I hated that about her and Cerena went on to live a better and longer life (sorry Ella).

Cerena (left) and Ella (right) playing

I started building many terrible houses like the one above but slowly they progressed thanks to the help of Lilsimsie’s Builder’s Bible. Suddenly impressed by the powers of myself, I began to make houses differently and they no longer were simply American suburban houses but I made British-style townhouses, granny cottages and my favourite of them all, modern houses. As I grew in passion and comfort, I gained inspiration for one of my currently longest dream careers – an architect. The Sims 4 encouraged me to build houses of all qualities and style, and let me experiment – apart from when I was making my own sims town and my game crashed abruptly. I was heart-broken to some extent. The gallery was amazing and even if I put up an awful build, someone would still be there and comment ‘amazing’ and like and download it. This has encouraged many people like me of a young age to have new dream careers that we never would of thought of and that is all thanks to The Sims.

One of my first horrific builds

Another part of the Sims was that it showed me many things about myself and it could help me discover how I’d grown. You can clearly see this from the way I perceived myself as an 8 year old to how I do now. Sims has taught me so many things: commitment, love, devastation, my true love for building mostly modern houses, separation and the most surprising English! I remember my grandma telling me that I cannot keep with anything (after- school clubs) and to this day I still say to her “True. But I stuck with The Sims through all the activities, didn’t I?” And I will still stand by Sims no matter what.

I hope you enjoyed my twist on Blogmas and I cannot wait to write another blog post next year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!