hi:

I'm curious as to the community's thoughts on my medical team's designation of The Sims 3 (including EP/SP, CC, and Mods, etc.) as "medically-necessary software"... that's right, my medical team has determined TS3 as medically necessary. Their reason was as follows:



What do you think: has my medical team put too much expectations on the software or would you call that an accurate assessment of the situation?

Kinda sounds like BS to me. And not sure what medical team you have and for what? But if Sims is a main tool for some therapy, that seems rather weak to me. And initial teaching about actions and consequences needs to be done by parents from very early childhood on. And not have that come from a computer game which compares to real life only on a very superficial level.

And if you try to list Sims as a medical deduction on your taxes, or submit a claim on your health insurance, be prepared to be blown out of the water on those.

The initial concept by the medical team was not to teach me about action and consequence as that I understand but rather as a "non-destructive preview of actions and consequence" thus I can preview an action in a sandbox without making changes to the real world around me (basically it's a glorified decision support software). I paid for it on my own with my own cash so no need to worry about insurance denying the claim :-) notice the key word there is "decision support software" rather than "Decision making Software" as again it's a preview of consequence not a guaranteed Next Best Action(R) and I need to take the information derived from the TS3 models and always use my own best judgement and the like. I can't say "the computer recommended I get a divorce and go to vegas and blow my disability check..." but the computer can model those actions and possible outcomes.

Wow! I didn't know it could do that :-) thanks for the smile

I have no idea who you are or how old, or whatever, but if you need "decision support software", you need therapy far more serious than what you will get from a PC game. Somewhere along the line you did not learn the skills to make rational decisions and have reasonable expectations about outcomes it seems from what you are saying? None of us have crystal balls, but with common sense and logic we can predict to some degree what may happen when we do things. Bottom line: Sims is not going to solve your issues. It is an extremely superficial game world compared to the real one.

My guess is your medical team does not play Sims so really has no idea what they are talking about when it comes to this.

@iWebEx9012882 I've seen Sims games used in a therapeutic way before. In my job as a computer technician, I often installed Sims 1, 2 and 3 in educational facilities (schools and colleges), usually in the inclusion departments (places to help students who are at risk of exclusion) or SEN departments (Special Educational Needs). I know that at least one school used Sims 2 as a tool to have students with emotional difficulties act out scenarios, and later discuss the play session and their own feelings and reaction to it.

Sims aren't exactly rational though so they don't behave as a model of human interaction, but I can see how the game could be useful as a tool to have patients examine their own emotions or their own interpersonal relationships. In the same way as therapy with animals can help patients to examine their own feelings.

Good info. and examples of where Sims can help with some things, but do you think Sims can teach decision making skills for an adult? Which is the issue/question for this person? As you say, Sims do not behave the same way as real people do, in any depth.

@daisylee, I wouldn't say "teach" is the right word here as I already know how to make decisions but rather to preview a decision before I actually write changes to the world around me.

I have the capabilities to make decisions and preview smaller decisions in my head (e.g. light a match then get fire) but much larger decisions like getting married or similar need to be supported and simulated before committing to them.

Surely, any game which gives choices of action is teaching decision making, isn't it? We humans learn by application. Also, getting someone to review why they made a decision after the fact, is a useful tool to aid making better decisions in the future.

For what you and your medical team are looking for, I think that the Sims 3 will work well as long as you keep in mind that the Sims sometimes codes things to have the funniest/most dramatic result (not necessarily the most accurate).

You would do better using Sims 2. You get the most instant and long lasting reactions to actions out of the 4 games (Sims 1,2,3,4)

Apart from that, any game as therapy should only be used as an additional support to proper treatment.

Valid :-) My medical team is constantly watching it and how I use the tools I am given

I think you're measuring things from the vantage point of an able bodied, neurologically 'normal', socially adept person with disposable income.


The plot of a movie isn't controlled by the viewer.


I think there are a lot of people here who would challenge this statement. Plus, many people aren't able to own a dog.

I understand the idea behind this. But going from those examples (like getting married) that have far reaching consequenses, that might be too complex for the sims games. We have TS3 threads filled with weird unexpected sims behaviour which are funny because they are not at all like real life. The sims are hardly consistent if it comes to action and their consequenses. Also, their reactions are not always literally happening. Often, it is just a thought bubble or some angry animation and up to the player to interpret that in detail.

I totally agree with this as Sims is a very superficial game and not at all close to real life in most ways. As per above, it can show that things like building skills leads to things like fewer cooking fires, whatever, but it does not cover anything really significant in terms of life choices and their consequences. And things like you are better at things with practice and so on is just plain common sense and it should not be needed for most people to play a PC game to understand that. I can see that it can help in some situations as Simsample noted, but that was not the initial question asked here.

Per my post back when, none of us have crystal balls, that is why at least half the marriages end in divorces. IMO Sims is not going to do much for the original poster and his/her issues are far more complex than comparable to situations in a Sims game. And Sims could be only a small piece of needed therapy.

Ahh... But isn't "weird" behavior exactly the kind of thing that DOES happen in real life? So many human mental "defects" and illnesses, and psychoses? Attention: No hate... just making a point!!! That said, some Autistic traits are not considered generally "normal".

And many people hold back from overt reaction, and have an "internal dialogue" or thought bubble, as response to things. Just that you get to see it with your Sims. )))

Good discussion. It has strayed a lot from the original question about Sims being useful in a specific situation. I can see that it can be of use for many cases, but not of much help in this particular one. I will not go into it much but I agree that there is perhaps too much coddling, and there is too much a sense of entitlement, too much taking offense at things nowadays, and so on, by too many. People who are saying a thumbs up or heart emoji should not be used,eg. Ridiculous IMO. And darn near every time I am out nowadays there is a totally screaming brat, and the parent does absolutely nothing. And this has been going on a while. And some of these are the kids now having problems in HS, college, and so on. I know for many reasons and things are complex, but people, too many are just not being taught to deal with the real world now as much as in the past? As said I was taught about decision making when I was a small child. And I was held accountable for the ones I made. This needs to come from your parents and life experience, and not a PC game for most of us.

And as for therapists, many are excellent I am sure, but some are full of complete BS. There is a person I know who is trying to be one, and has been trying to be one for way too many years, and she is one of the most messed up people I have ever known. She is totally unfit to ever advise anyone about anything. Every person in her family has been in therapy. I am ancient and have known only one person ever who was in therapy which was due to work stress. Therapy can be valid, but what they say needs to be evaluated and not taken as gospel.

So back to where we started, Sims and other things can be of help in many cases, but to learn/help/teach/whatever about major decisions we need to make in real life, it cannot, other than perhaps help with baby steps. If you cannot make up your mind about what to have for breakfast, Sims may help with basement decisions, and yes, things may progress from there. But not about things like marriage, having kids, job choices, moves, and a zillion things we face in life which are far more complex than what is in this game. It is AI programmed for entertainment and to be a game, and that is all.