Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Mass Hysteria - Sims 2


So we had something funny happen at the house tonight.  Okay, it's funny now.  At the time it was a virtual cacophony of horrible happenings.  About a year ago, we already had the game Sims 2 for our PC, but were given "Pets" and "Seasons" expansion packs.  If you haven't heard of Sims, it is a computer game in which you create a family, build a home, and create fun lives for them.  That includes building up skills and finding hobbies, getting a job, dating, getting married, having children, having grandchildren, and growing old (if you're lucky). 

A Sims family with four kids sits down for lunch
The new expansion pack "Pets" allows you to adopt pets, raise them, and even have baby pets.  

Seriously, the tiny baby pets are stinkin' adorable!
The expansion pack "Seasons" allows all four seasons into the game.  You can build a snowman, swim under the hot sun, grow spring flowers, plant a garden and fruit trees, watch autumn leaves fall...  The details in the game are amazing.


So about a year ago, I built our family.  A mom, a dad and three girls.  We played the game long enough that the three girls (based on my real three girls) grew up and got married (in the virtual Sims world) and we built them houses of their own.  We played the game for a while but after time, with new pets, new babies, gardens, it was a LOT of work and it was really ME playing it for them.  School started last year and we forgot all about it.  Flash forward to a few days back, my girls rediscovered the game and wanted to be able to play the houses by themselves.  At the time (not remembering how much work is involved) I thought sure, why not?.

So tonight my 8 and 7 year olds come down for dinner and spill some horrible news. Unbeknownst to them, you have to go to the mailbox every once in a while to pay your imaginary Sims bills.  If you don't, the repo man will show up in a creepy sad-faced van and take some of your stuff.  Of course when I had played Sims, I acted exactly as I would have in real life and paid off the bills in a timely fashion, so I didn't know about the repo man.


He clearly lives in a "Van, down by the river"

Well the repo man came in and stole the bathroom sink.  Then, for good measure... he stole a pool light and a bowl of cat food.  

The repo man zaps your stuff with his neon laser gun.  My husband's character (which looks just like him in real life) stands by helplessly in a scarf and can do nothing to save his daughter's family...

Really, the cat dish?? MEAN.  The girls were upset of course, but the story continued...

They then told me that a bad lady had come and stolen the twins that belonged to my middle child.  Turns out that it was a social worker, as my kids had not feed, bathed, played with, or taken care of the babies basic needs and so the consequence in Sim land is they come and take your kids.  Seriously my face was absolute shock at the dinner table.  My husband thought this was a hilarious reaction and was stifling giggles behind his sloppy Joe.  I was horrified.  They took your babies??!!  Yes my middle child says seriously.  "It was the first day of winter."  Holy. Crap.  Do you know how dramatic that sounds? It sounds like the opening of a tragic novel.  It was the first day of winter when they took my babies...  I ask more questions.  What happened?  A bad lady came into the house, grabbed the babies and ran to a van and drove off. 

Clearly there are no car seats for the CPS lady van in Sims land

Woah.  Has someone called Lifetime Television, because I think I've seen this exact made for TV movie!  My middle child then says dramatically... also it was their birthday.  Thud.  That was the exact sound my heart made hitting my stomach.  You're telling me a social worker barged into your house on the first day of winter and stole your babies from their own birthday party???  Yes.  My husband has his head down on the table and is wracked with laughter at this point.  I was actually upset.  I turn to him and say, "you know, technically they were our grand kids".  More uncontrollable laughter.  "I potty trained those kids" (anyone who has played Sims knows how much work two twin toddler babies are to keep happy).  He continues to laugh so hard he isn't even making noise anymore.  I ask everyone..  did you SAVE the game after this happened?  No, it was only paused.  I say if you get out of the game, and don't save, maybe we can stop it from happening.   I start to clean up dinner and send my husband up to hopefully undo the all the damage, and the girls follow him up there.

So from what I'm told, he starts the afternoon over.. but alas it is too late.  The repo man is already there.  There goes the sink again. There goes the pool light... and the cat food.  The second he leaves the social worker shows up and steals the twins.  Here he is trying to fix it and history is tragically repeating itself.  While on pause he looks up some tips on line and is told you can possibly adopt your babies back if you call the adoption agency.  He calls them on the phone, but alas, he gets a quick and harsh rejection notice.  "I'm sorry but some children were taken from this home, there is no WAY we will let you adopt."  Wow.  Talk about real life scenario game play.  Sims social services ain't messing around with no dead beat imaginary parents.  Is there a Sims Montel Williams I can call?  My husband keeps searching... I, by the way, am still down cleaning up the kitchen when all of the sudden, a few minutes later, I hear my middle child run down the stairs in a absolutely panic.  She screams "the police are here and they are taking away all FOUR KITTIES!!!!"  She is literally in tears.  "Not the kitties" I whisper under my breath.

Not the Kittens....
What in the name of all that is holy is going ON up THERE??!!  I march up stairs. I'm on a mission.  My 7-year-old is in tears and by good golly I'm going to get back her kitties.  AND her babies.  AND her bathroom sink.  Does my husband find this hilarious?  Yes.  But, I will say, even he has compassion on our sweet, sensitive child and quickly discovers a possible solution.  We have Carbonite (an online program that backs up things on your computer).  We have it set to update in the wee hours of the morning.  Just like a dramatic movie we turn to each other and say... there's still TIME!!  We shut off the game (without saving) and he quickly does a search for just the Sims files.  He finds them! They are from earlier today... BEFORE the first day of winter.  Hallelujah.  I'm playing with the girls downstairs and he sends me a dramatic text:  We will know in 12 minutes.  The wait is agonizing.  We play a game of "Cootie" to keep our minds off of it.  Suddenly I get a second text.  It's from him.  It's downloading a picture (I keep it from the girls, in case it's bad news)... Finally I see:


That's right people... the whole fam damily is BACK.  Two babies, two cats, and four adorable kittens all accounted for.  BOOM.  Talk about saving the day.  Not only that, but its TWO days before winter.  Plenty of time to fix all the woes, feed all the people, clean all the litter boxes, give the babies some bottles, change them and put them in cribs.  Twenty minutes later they are all happy, healthy, and alive.  The horrific alternate "1985" future had been changed...

It erased!

Well, after all the chaos my husband posts this story on facebook and we start laughing so hard at all of the comments that I decided to blog about our virtual tragedy. So relived it had a happy ending too.  Phew.




Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...