Interlude: 10 Mar 2021

I’ve been playing this game since I was ten. I’ve been writing stories, in all kinds of genres and settings, since I was six. I have a driving passion for writing. Writing is what I do, I’ve been doing it day in and day out for over half my life. I’ve run role-plays day in and day out also for over half my life. And when I realised that there was a community that writes around The Sims, I was so excited and happy about getting involved and you know just sharing with the community and seeing all the neat things everyone else comes up with.

Now we’re here. It’s been over a year since the very first issue I had with this community. I’ve never felt more unwelcome in a community or a fandom in my entire life, and I’ve joined quite a few of them over the years.

I know it’s not everyone. I’ve made a good friend or two among the rabble, but overall, it’s just been a really negative experience almost from day one here, and it’s a struggle to care. I’ve taken a week off from doing like anything at all, just hung around spousal beans, and done nothing on the internet for that whole week and I come back and there’s like, dread. There’s dread. Because I know how touchy the people in this community can be, I’ve had nothing but trouble from this fandom, and I know probably sooner rather than later, I’ll have another problem with someone from here.

When you get in a situation where even sometimes the good people that you’ve met, the friends you’ve made, can be negative experiences, like I mean what is the point of putting yourself through that, for someone that’s just going to also be a pain in the ass? And you can’t say anything because if you do then you’re the unstable one, you’re the problem, you’re the one starting things, you’re the bad guy. I’ve been attacked for just venting in places that Sims players shouldn’t even know exist.

I just don’t have the patience anymore. I can’t be doing this he said she said 9th grade crap anymore. Jobless moms, are the worst fucking friends. I swear. I dealt with them you know day in and day out working for a school district, they acted just like this community, which makes sense because I think a decent amount of this community is jobless mom. Jobless moms are, it’s like, they get bored or something and they forget other people exist and they turn into utter nightmares.

It’s 2021 why am I still having to remind people that you are not talking to like an AI script? There’s a real living person behind the screen that makes this content, that spends the time doing these edits, that busts their ass writing these stories. These are real living people, okay, and they have feelings, they have issues in their real life, they have you know disorders and disabilities and things they’re fighting with. You are not the only person on the planet, and some of ya’ll be acting like you are. (Some of ya’ll projecting like hell, too, and that’s pretty sad.)

It’s just kind of tragic, you know, to see how many people act like they’re the only ones making content and that people paying attention to and reading their stuff is just kind of a given. Lots of people in this community act like they’re the best gift to this community and that their opinions, their ideas, their work overrides that of literally everyone else. And I mean, in some sense, you know they’re right. Yeah, with a community this big, someone will always be paying attention to you. There’ll always be somebody that reads your stuff. But if you really want to make it anywhere, you gotta stop treating other people like givens. And I ain’t here to teach people how to be decent humans. I’m not. I’m not here to teach people how to treat other humans.

No matter what you do, there’ll always be somebody somewhere that hates whatever it is you’re doing. That’s just part of life. But the sheer amount of negativity and selfishness, and entitlement that I have seen from this community is… pretty extraordinary. Nobody owes you anything unless you paid for it. And a lot more people around here than I’m willing to put up with don’t think about their actions and those actions’ impact before they do or say things.

Simprovise shut down a few weeks ago, and I think I’m going to leave it shut down. Its URL will expire in June and I’m going to let it go. I give up on it. I wanted to do something fun and interesting with and for this community and at every turn I get spat at and attacked instead, so I get it, I’ll go back to my corner. I’ll try and finish up Of Frost and Fire and Corazon, more because my mama didn’t raise a quitter and *I* want to get to the end, and then I’m out of here. And honestly… I may never touch The Sims again.

Edit: It’ll probably take months between updates, I’m sorry, but I walked away from The Sims for… almost three weeks now and I have absolutely no desire to go back at all.