T w e n t y S i d e d
Alright guys. Question time.
Does our fictional little house world have Covid-19 in it or not? We should be hitting 2020 very soon here, and I have no particular stakes in either choice, but it will change things pretty substantially either way, so I’m putting it to you guys.
I’ll hold back my evil laughter.
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No.
Hmm I’d say yes, for verisimilitude. It’s been about jobs and life and some of the inherent hardships so far, might as well see what happens during lockdown.
I’m good either way. The Sims DOES have the Grim Reaper as an actual entity and I believe in later versions of the game, it’s possible for Sims to be resurrected/reincarnated? So if we’re accepting that those things are canonical for this story within the Sims universe then we can also presume that their timeline does not follow our own exactly. On the other hand, if we’re handwaving all of the above as things that don’t exist in our tale and we’re going for a more realism-focused plot, then it would make more sense for COVID to show up as well.
I vote yes. It’s good worldbuilding!
I vote zombies instead.
I’d go with “No, but it gets impacted hard by social reactions to the pandemic.”
I am leaning to Yes as in it exists in the world but I leave it up to Bay to decide if the family contracts it or not and what outside factors influence them.
I am quite aware of the fact that this might tiptoe close to some political discussion, which probably no one of us wants to reheat.
Yeah, it’s there
Personally I think the story so far has been grounded in realism enough that it warrants covid showing up, but I can also totally see people who just don’t want the pandemic in their fiction because we’ve got so much of it in real life. Either way, your call.
My wife got pregnant and just after that the reports of COVID coming our way were on the news. Also the Dutch government made the baffling decision to send pregnant women to work at daycare (were my wife worked at the time) because “children probably do not actively transmit it” and “the disease is probably not dangerous to the unborn child”. The disease was just a few months at that point. How can you not take some precautions for pregnant women? Belgium and the UK did exactly this, but not the Netherlands unfortunately.
Needless to say it was quite a stressful period for me so it will affect how relaxed I am while reading these series.
On a less personal note, if a writer would have pulled a “yes, total pandemic” as a plot device before covid, I would have seen them as a hack.
Sorry for my initial somewhat hotheaded response. I am wondering if it would be more creatively satisfying to leave the pandemic in, but keep full freedom over what disease the pandemic is going to be. That might also work better with the gameplay systems potentiall (not that I would know as I only played the Sims 1) . Just my two cents.
I’d say the world has covid but none in the family do, and few to no people in their circle. Obviously the family is impacted by the crisis and quarantine, but in my mind they have struggled and suffered enough for some good karma.
I’m a vote in favor of yes, partly because its weird to me how little of pop culture has responded to or even acknowledged Covid so I’d like to see it where I can.
I’m still affected by the death of Loretta. I was pretty engaged with the story and eager to see this family figure things out and how they would do so. Then cancer and death became part of the story and I’m far less engaged. On the one hand, kudos to you for writing characters I got attached to. On the other hand I now no longer want to get attached. Adding COVID to the mix is going to have me put these characters even more at arms length. There’s enough misery in the world that I don’t want to read about more death in my fiction. But that’s a me problem and it shouldn’t affect the story you want to tell.
I understand where you’re coming from (despite having answered yes to the question of whether to keep it in). I’ve said it often with regard to the media that I consume, an example being the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy dour film/books, and in particular that certain brand of pretty-looking indie game that has been popular over the last 10 years that sucks one in with the visuals and mechanics but then deals primarily with very sad themes (e.g. Br
others, Pinstripe, A Story About My Uncle) to the point that I became not just burnt out but very well fed up with them, and resist playing things like Rime that I’d been looking forward to. Different from Dark Souls and Hollow Knight’s general morose tone and sad story, more actual relatable sad events and themes. I.e. that why on earth would I want my fiction to be depressing?! Plenty of that in the real world.It’s up to the story bay wants to tell. I don’t see how a business like this survives COVID, though, and that would make me sad.
And never mind covid, the late 2010s even!
I’d vote yes, since so far this series seems to have done its best to exist in the same world we live in.
It would be simultaneously funny and disrespectful to instead have Bovid-19. A mad-cow disease pandemic spread ostensibly from the cattle markets of South America. Or was it North America?? The political debate rages.
I vote yes to having Covid in this world. Seeing how real historical events and changes in culture, technology and attitude effect the sim family is one of the most engaging thing about this series. You haven’t shied away from including real-world events before, so it seems disingenuous to stop doing it now. That said, it’s your football and I’ve come this far; so I’ll keep reading either way!