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Thanks to the virtual suburban world of 'The Sims', today's little girls are learning to build houses, spend money wisely, raise children and arouse the suspicions of social services in spectacular style. Has Barbie ever looked more dated? Or safe? Julia Llewellyn Smith reports
It's a muggy summer's afternoon in the village of Pill, near Bristol, and Bethany Howe, aged 11, is showing me around her house.
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Girls' fascination with 'The Sims' has made it the bestselling computer game ever |
'It's got two hot tubs, a lemonade stand, swings in the garden, a pink-themed kitchen,' rattles off Bethany, like a seasoned estate agent. 'There's a photo booth, a food bar you can help yourself from and a swimming-pool.'
It sounds fabulous. There is, however, one gaping drawback. 'Yes, we don't have enough bedrooms,' Bethany confirms. 'The twins have to sleep in the garden. There are their cots.'
She goes on to explain some family history. 'Bethany met Joe through a dating agency, they married, then she couldn't get pregnant, so they adopted Celeste, but then she did get pregnant.
Celeste is a bothersome brat, she's always asking for attention but she doesn't get any because there are three other kids. And she hasn't got into private school. Twice.'
Before social services descend, let's make it clear that there are two Bethany Howes. The first is the bright, well-behaved girl with long curly hair dressed in cut-offs and T-shirt to whom I am speaking.
The second is a twentysomething siren with orange hair piled on top of her head and dramatic make-up, dressed in hot pants, a crop top and bright pink leg warmers. The former is a flesh-and-blood child, the latter a character in The Sims, a computer game.
The image of video games still conjures up adolescent boys zapping aliens or directing large-breasted fantasy figures like Lara Croft. Yet across the country little girls are glued to The Sims, set in middle class suburbia. Their patronage has made it the bestselling computer game ever.
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Since the game was launched in 2000, it has sold around 60 million copies - half a billion pounds' worth. More than half of the players are female (fans include the novelist Fay Weldon), compared to 25 per cent across the industry as a whole, a figure that drops to less than five per cent for the most violent games.
Not only is The Sims turning little girls into technical whizzes, it is also making traditional toys obsolete. Just a generation ago, girls used dolls and doll's houses to make sense of the world. Today they play out stories with animated characters whom they move around screens with a mouse or joystick.
Bethany used to play with dolls, but then three years ago a friend introduced her to The Sims. 'And I became addicted.' Her eight-year-old sister, Natasha, still tries to get her to play with her Tiny Tears but Bethany isn't interested.
'You can do so much more with The Sims because you can build their cities and houses and choose their clothes and characters,' she explains.
On her computer, the 'Howe' family is moving about its electronic house. Downstairs a phone rings. Guided by the real Bethany, the Sim Bethany answers it, but a voice bubble tells us it is for Joe, her husband. Joe picks up the receiver and chats with a mate.
'That'll help his social needs,' the real Bethany notes approvingly, as a green light goes on above Joe's head.
There are no points to be gained playing The Sims and you can't 'win'. Instead, players monitor their characters' 'needs', which consist of bladder, hunger, hygiene, energy, comfort, fun, social and room (this last refers to how much a Sim likes the environment created for it).
When you tire of the basic Sims package (at around £35), you can enter the world of 'expansion packs' at £12 to £15 - extra software that enables your Sims to go to university, to the office or on holiday. |
Unsurprisingly, the bestselling expansion is Hot Date. 'That's when you have mobiles and drive a car and have dates,' Bethany explains.
Her mother, Elaine, 37, who works at a local playgroup, is relaxed about such goings on. 'I was a bit concerned that some games have a 12-plus rating, but when you look at the content there's nothing different from what you'd see on EastEnders or Coronation Street. There's nothing explicit, nothing violent.'
Bethany smiles shyly. 'There are things like trying for a baby but there's...'
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