Time Traveling

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to give up the Sims for a while. This may not seem like much, but when you consider that I thought about the Sims each day about as often as a teenage boy thinks about sex, you can see that it's really rather huge. Huge, but not unprecedented - I've taken breaks from playing before. But this time is different.

You see, for me, the Sims has been more than just a game. I've played it, yes, but I've also read online stories written using the game. I've contributed in online communities of people who are all as obsessed with the game as I am. I've developed friendships of sorts with some of them. I've spent time online, downloading custom content for the game. Basically, I've obsessed over it, played it as often as I could, and thought about playing when I couldn't.

But for the last couple of weeks, not only have I not been playing, but I haven't even been interested in reading the stories, or with participating in the communities around the game. It's like the Sims switch in my brain shut off.

I won't say that it's permanent. I may very well be back to playing before too much time has passed. But for now it's like I've been transported back in time, to 2002, or 1995, or any time before I discovered this game. I'm kind of liking the change.

And I'm glad that I haven't really been transported back to 2002 or 1995. I was horribly depressed over the death of my mother in the former, and I was single and desperately lonely in both the former and the latter. All in all, I'm way happier now.

And I'm not missing the virtual world of my Sims at all.

For now.