In the opening scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s rear windowA panning camera shows the outside of buildings and allows the viewer to look inside the apartments. From the floating vantage point, you can watch the neighbors’ proceedings as they start their day. The look into the camera helps set the scene, but its voyeuristic view of its characters’ lives is unsettling. I’m worried about gambling The Sims 4 made me a person who looked at my neighbors like that.
Like so many twisted ventures, this one began 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 lucky enough to live in a historic neighborhood with brightly painted houses and gingerbread decorations. The street was an absolute dream and you almost felt like you were living in a park. I was heartbroken as we left, and because of this my partner and I decided to recreate some of the houses on our street The Sims 4 to remember the home we loved.
We started building the house directly across from ours because we always liked it and we could see it clearly from our second floor balcony. Soon we built a simple two-story house with dark wood accents and a red brick exterior—but it wasn’t enough. Wall by wall, window by window, we tried to recreate our neighbors’ houses as carefully and accurately as possible. We went back and forth, back and forth, between the balcony and the TV, making sure we had built every 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 would note if a house had a long black runner rug on the outside porch and then incorporate it into the game. The top front windows of a home might have trim, but the side windows may not. Maybe I stopped our walk just to lean around to peek around the corner of a building and get a better idea of how far back it extended, only to realize that there was a hidden, screened-in porch out back .
Then I found myself checking out my neighbors myself. The reclusive couple who lived across the street didn’t talk much, but when I saw the woman going out one day, I went out onto our porch just to see what she looked like so I could create a Sim in her image . She wore a simple blue sports t-shirt, khaki shorts and Teva sandals. She had brown, wavy hair that was cut just below shoulder length – it took me minutes to get her into it The Sims 4.
At this point I had to stop. Like a mad scientist, the execution of the project had deviated from the intent. When I created her and saw her character babbling in Simlish, I knew I had gone a step too far. It felt scary. I immediately stopped working on the project.
At one point, I considered whether it would be adorable or downright weird to print out the screenshots of the houses and leave them in my neighbors’ mailboxes. I thought it would be fun and something I’d like to get if my neighbors were sim-loving guys, but I didn’t. I assumed that my neighbors, most of whom were over 50, might not understand what The Sims was and might even feel threatened if they received an anonymous newspaper with an obsessive replica of their house.
In the end, I’m glad we built the houses in the game, even if I ended up feeling like an idiot. I was able to closely observe my neighborhood in a way that I had never done before. I felt like it helped me develop a sense of appreciation for even the smallest details of each building on the block. The training was the perfect send-off before moving, and now I can visit these houses in The Sims when I’m homesick. So if you’re looking for a fun activity that involves remembering a special home or place, I’d highly recommend recreating it in The Sims – maybe stop if you ever feel like you’re on Ends up sneaking a bit too much.
