I put together a computer yesterday for the express purpose of playing the Sims. I wanted to let them live their own lives, and I would just check in on them and buy them new sofa's and stuff. It took them nearly 6 hours to burn their house down, and themselves with it, after that, the bugs moved in.

I am going to reset the experiment later today, and probably buy them a smoke detector and maybe a fire extinguisher.

The Sims, for those who don't know, is a simulation of life. It is not an accurate simulation of life, but it covers the basics. You create a family, buy a house, furnish the house, get jobs, make relationships, etc. You can actively control the peoples lives, or you can just let them kind of do it themselves.

The people in the Sims try to live their lives according to their personalities and their moods. If they are hungry they eat, if they are tired they sleep, so in this way it is somewhat accurate. What they don't do is plan ahead. For instance, a dude might have a carpool picking him up at 6:00am, but that's no reason not to go to sleep at 5:45am is it? Fuck no! Then, when his carpool arrives, and he tries to pull his tired ass out of bed, he invariably won't get there on time, lose his job, then burn down his house, wife, and kid.