The thing about Cottage Life is that it lets you have the fantasy version of rural existence. And, because of COVID, I’m back there again. Not only that, I grew up in a very rural area. It’s a constant worry about whether the crop will bloom under your care or fail despite it. It’s seeing the greenery of weeds behind your lids, imprinted in your brain like a watermark. It’s your back aching and sweating under the hot sun, filtered through the hotter-still screen of the greenhouse, relief a vague and distant comfort. Rural living, and even growing food for just yourself, is a hard process that will leave your hands constantly calloused and dry. It’s just that, like the rest of The Sims, it is just a dream. Where they, too, can be self-sufficient in a way that they never could in real life. They get to live their ideal lives and imagine a world where they, too, can escape the hovering presence of capitalism. Cottage Life lets people experience a grounded, simple life–the kind that people think about when every pressure of modern existence gets to be too much. It’s a pleasant world where your labor doesn’t just mean something to you it means something to everyone. You’re not just collecting wool you’re collecting wool for the nicer of the two Crumplebottoms, who gives you a cute new pattern for your cross-stitching. You’re not just growing mushrooms you’re growing mushrooms to give to the barkeeper, who may, in turn, give you a hand-made meal. Making your labour a benefit to the community, a tie to it. Having your labor be meaningful, and more importantly, having it be yours. A dream for a more rural existence that rewards hard-working hands with tangible rewards. The new dream is a small home so wholly your own, away from the bustle of city life, the isolation of the suburbs, where you make things, where you don’t feel like a cog in the machine. No, this new dream is digging your hands into some soil, planting a tiny seed, then helping it grow. The modern dream isn’t a big house, a fancy desk job, or a cool car. It was precisely what people wanted to experience in real life, just virtually. Cottage Life, in contrast, makes cultivating plants and farming its core appeal, its raison d’etre. Mostly, it was a way to get rare plants like the “Death Flower” to haggle with the Grim Reaper when he came calling. If you wanted your sim to have a garden where they could grow fresh food, you could, but it wasn’t a particularly robust mechanic. While your Sims always could garden in The Sims 4, it’s never been the main thrust of gameplay. What it offered couldn’t be more perfectly timed if it tried. Provided by EAĮnter The Sims: Cottage Living, an expansion to The Sims 4 that dropped in June 2021. The idea of a white picket fence, a two-story house, promotions, being a team-player in whatever corporate structure you’re embroiled in… it’s just not that appealing anymore. Priorities and desires have dramatically shifted since 2000, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, that promise of a better future never came to pass. A reminder of a time when the future looked brighter. That this virtual dollhouse that gamifies the mundane activities of everyday life would be more fantasy than not. Maxis couldn’t have foreseen the way the world would change–couldn’t have known that in only a decade or so, home-ownership would feel as fantastical as becoming an astronaut. Where home-ownership is assumed, where upward mobility is possible, where jobs are abundant and well-paying, and where hard work actually does pay off. And why not? The Sims offers a world where almost anything is possible. Since The Sims was first released in 2000, the series has captured the minds of millions of people the world over. As inaccessible and fantastical as the idea of becoming a vampire in the first place. It’s just that the American Dream is a fantasy. And while players can pursue almost any path–up to and including becoming a master vampire, really– The Sims feels like a way to (virtually) live out the traditional “American Dream.” Suburban living, financial stability, an eight-hour workday with guaranteed days off, and maybe a little family to round it all out. The Sims, as a franchise, has always offered freedom.įreedom to be anyone, to be anything.
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