Teen Angst, Online and IRL, in Dad Don't Read This

"“Sim ambition is entirely logical. The sim wants something, the sim works toward that goal,” a 16-and-a-half-year-old girl named Mal explains in her diary in Eliya Smith's beguiling play Dad Don't Read This, “I love this feature, 'cause, like, Hilda would never say she is going to study, and then play Sims all day, to select a random example.”"

"“You can spend years in the world of a video game, precisely because it gives you both wide-open roads and a set of guardrails.” “In The Sims, for instance, you can customize humanlike characters and puppeteer them through vast permutations of life choices and relationships, creating a digital world that resembles something like our own, except with the clear cause and effect that human life lacks.”"

"“Mal keeps spending time with her because Mal is in the midst of a classic period of teenage retreat from the self.” “Her general mood may be familiar to anyone who had a dark period around age 16, especially so if you grew up in the 2010s and found yourself avoiding the drama of high school by clicking through the easier-to-parse world of a video game.”"

Teenage life for those growing up after personal computers often involves spending significant time in an alternate reality shaped by standardized, digitized, user-influenced worlds. Video games provide fantasy realms with wide-open possibilities and guardrails that make long-term play possible. The Sims exemplifies this by allowing customization of humanlike characters and controlling them through many life choices and relationships, creating a world resembling real life but with clear cause and effect. Mal’s diary in Dad Don’t Read This describes how sim ambition follows a logical pattern: wanting something leads to working toward it. Mal’s attachment to Hilda reflects a teenage retreat from the self, using games to avoid the complexity of high school drama.

Read at Vulture