this might be really dumb, but i remember the first time i ever played the sims and i was in CAS just spinning my little character around and i couldn’t help but think: ‘i want you to show me what life could look like if i actually did the things i wanted to do.’ and from that moment on, it was more than just a little video game—it was me playing with life; creating the world i wanted to see; entrusting these pixels with secrets i didn’t dare tell anyone around me. and then, that confidence started to spill into real life and i realized, as i got older, that i could apply that same ‘play with life’ mentality to my actual existence. on the outside, the sims might just look like a sandbox world for sky daddy enthusiasts, but for those of us using it as a tool for expression, to help us find our voices, silence the noise of outside, navigate trauma, find some semblance of representation, own our identities—man…it’s insanely disorienting and heartbreaking AF to me that this is what this franchise has become. but, with that being said, i wanted to thank you all for having the courage to share your stories. i honestly log in when i can just for the opportunity to catch up with your beautiful pixel peeps in their wonderfully curated worlds and when i say i talk about your sims IRL to people i know like they’re actually real—i mean that. it’s real to me because it’s real for you. y’all are so damn inspiring.