I need to say something about the release of The Sims 4. Players, it appears to me, have been putting one another under great pressure to declare allegiance -- to one game version or another, one opinion of the new game or another, one style of play or another. "Do you consider such-and-such feature important?" becomes a shibboleth, by which to distinguish the righteous from the suspiciously foreign and impure.
The one criterion by which we should be examining any game feature, version, play style, or interaction within our community is this:
| What does it do for the lives of the Sim people? |
A Simmer can tell at a glance that my own world is the Sunset Valley of TS3. But to anyone who expects me to voice support for a faction against older or newer games, I say: you're living in a dream world.
The Sims -- all of them -- are my people, and Simmers are our friends and allies. I call upon them all to reject, instantly and firmly, any attempts to divide us on arbitrary lines. No matter whether those lines be drawn by people inside or outside of the community, our rejection of them should be instinctive, visceral and absolute.
(This is the photo that I wanted to post to Instagram, but there are only apps for Android and iOS, whereas my phone runs Symbian.)