In Alfred Hitchcock’s opening scene Rear windowa rotating camera shows the outside of buildings and gives the viewer a glimpse into the apartments. From the floating viewpoint you can watch the activities of the neighbors as they start their days. The camera’s gaze helps set the scene for the film, but the voyeuristic glimpse into the characters’ lives is disturbing. I’m afraid it’s playing The Sims4 turned me into the kind of person who looked at my neighbors that way.
As so many twisted attempts do, this one started with serious intentions. After living in the same city for nine years, I found out I would be moving at the end of the summer. In my hometown, I was fortunate to live in a historic neighborhood with colorfully painted houses and gingerbread decorations. The street was an absolute dream and almost felt like living in a park. I felt heartbroken to leave, so my partner and I decided to try to recreate some of the houses on our street. The Sims4 to commemorate the home we loved.
We started making the house directly across the street from ours because we always liked it and could easily see it from our second floor balcony. It didn’t take long before we built a simple two-story home with dark wood accents and a red brick exterior, but that wasn’t enough. Wall by wall, window by window, we tried to imitate our neighbors’ houses as carefully and accurately as possible. We walked back and forth, back and forth between the balcony and the TV to make sure we had built each part of the house correctly.
Every day my partner and I observed the houses in detail during our daily ‘look at the flowers’ walk. I noticed when a house had a long black rug on the outside porch and started adding that to the game. The top front windows of a house may have molding, while the side windows do not. I might pause our walk to lean my body forward and peer around the corner of a building and get a better idea of how far it stretched, only to find that they have a hidden screened porch on the had the back.
Then I found myself investigating my neighbors myself. The reclusive couple who lived across the street didn’t talk much, but when I saw the woman going outside one day, I went out to our porch to see what she looked like so I could make a Sim modeled after her. could make. She wore a simple blue athletic T-shirt, khaki shorts and Teva sandals. She had brown, wavy hair cut just below shoulder length; it took me minutes to get her in The Sims4.
At this point I had to stop. Like some kind of mad scientist, the execution of the project had strayed from the intention. When I created her and saw her character walking around chatting in Simlish, I knew I had gone a step too far. It felt creepy. I immediately quit the project.
At one point I thought about whether it would be cute or downright freaky to print out the screenshots of the houses and leave them in my neighbors’ mailboxes. I thought it would be funny, and something I would like to receive if my neighbors happened to be the Sim-loving type, but I didn’t. I thought that my neighbors, most of whom were over 50, might not understand what The Sims is and might even feel threatened if they received an anonymous newspaper with an obsessive imitation of their house.
Ultimately, I’m glad we made the houses in the game, even if I felt like a creep in the end. I was able to observe my neighborhood up close in a way I hadn’t done before. I felt like it helped me develop a sense of appreciation for even the smallest details of every building on the street. The practice became the perfect send-off before my move, and now I can visit these houses in The Sims when I’m feeling homesick. So if you want a fun activity to remember a special house or place, I highly recommend recreating it in The Sims – maybe stop doing it if you ever feel like you’re a little too a lot of crawling.