And here I thought the Sims needed a hack to wank....
The Sims2 BBS has always seemed to me to be just about as wanky as could be expected for a message board about a computer game. However, one post in particular caught my eye and is such a spectacular example of Missing The Point that I thought I would share it.

ShakeMV makes a post called "Pleasantview Racism." In it, he shares a storyline from his game where one character hates aliens and starts a campaign to eliminate them from the neighborhood. The only problem is that he fails to ever say "This is a storyline from my game!" though, imo, it's pretty clear that it's not programmed game behavior.



The first few comments are fairly sane-- some tell the poster s/he has a way with words, others ask whether the post is a story-- but then Jack4740 comes along to say This is just stupid its only a game there is no such thing as aliens(sort of),people dont face these problems in real life anymore even if you black or white or whatever you want to be.

People poke at Jack for awhile, though more seem to take offense to "there are no aliens" rather than "there is no racism," but then Shake comes back to say Did you read the whole post? (snip) Thanks for sharing opinions, even "dumb" ones. This will come back to haunt him.

Jack responds, Well to be honest this game is just like real life except it has a couple of Stupid things in it,we shouldnt be thinking or posting about Rascism in the game.

Cabelle1863 admits that s/he just skimmed the post but says Morals are what we apply to the game and it would have been the better choice for you to load stories about your Pleasantview. I'm not all that into threads that seem directed to start an argument. But now that I see you moved Dina, Nina and Don to Strangetown I'll take a nanosecond to grieve for your Strangetown. Because at some point your Strangetown will now become a BFBVFOS. But I won't try to explain why because I'm sure I'm too "dumb" to explain it correctly. Shake explains him, as does Cabelle, and they have a very wank-free resolution. Damn.

However, Jack is still REALLY mad about the accusations of Pleasantview racism- This game has nothing to do with racism,and if anyone thinks this then more people will think this and people will complain and then this game will be forced to change.I dont wont this game to change and so dont many aother Simmers on this website, its fun having all these really cool creatures.So lets dont specalate Things that are way over proportian. I really want to know what is up with his capitalization.

There is more peacefulness, except for Jack apparently going guestbook flaming, until Thsms204 has the VERY BEST comment of the thread- Racism? I suggest changing the title to prejudism.

(warning now- the next two comments I have posted in their entirety as they are so crazy it amuses me. Your tl;dr may vary)

Then BD5141 gets hir moral high hat on- Well I for one put a flag on this, we have enough problems in our world without someone starting trouble from such a post! I play this game & come to the BBS to escape such things! To me it appears that you want to start trouble! This game is to be played for fun, there is so many stories that you could have gone with! Good grief! When people makes statements and comments as this all it does is add fuel to the fire, just like that attorney Thompson in California trying to ban teens & kids from being able to play the game. This also makes if difficult for creators such as Will Wright & the company Maxis. Game designers & companies already have enough to worry about when making a game without people trying to bring racism into the game! It's comments like this that get those attorneys like Thompson going! I'm not sure of how old you are but if you were a teen would you like this attorney keeping you from being able to play the game? Anyone that reads this post should put a flag on this! This is way out of line!
And yes I read the whole story! Along with all the posts! I honestly cannot tell if this is tongue in cheek or not.

Finally, Greta248 would like to live in her own Sim world of puppies and flowers- I think its a shame to call any of this racism. I did like your story, but I'm not sure its suitable for sharing. After all racism is really a political issue and its best to keep this out of the BBS as everyone will have different views and misunderstandings can arise so easily.I have used this diversity in a positive way (when not going along with my story - which is so old that even women hardly exist so I have to keep inventing them) by having all different families. My Childlover family consisted of a very dark man and a very fair lady. I made them have and adopt as many children as possible. It was always exciting at the birth, not only what sex will it be, but what colour. It adds extra spice. We could do with even more nationalities, like Chinese style skin and more different hairstyles. I would like to see some new clothing in the game like saris etc.

I have always found the Sims themselves very tolerant. I have never had any problem with different races not being attracted to each other. I haven't managed to get my first alien yet, but the only Sim abducted was very pleased about it. I also love the way the go shopping in their pyjamas or greet a visitor in their nightie and no one seems to even notice. Its one of their many charms. And aliens could exist statistically it is much more likely that they do, but they could be living in a different time. They probably wouldn't be humanoid or green though.


To sum up- The Sims are not racist. Even if they are, we shouldn't talk about it. The end. Now I am off to make some Sims gay marriages and not post about them on the BBS.

(I have previewed this post, since the last time I posted it looked awful, and the html does not appear to be broken. If it is, I apologize and will fix asap.)