When I played The Sims 1, I thought that a washing machine would make the game more realistic. But when I thought about it a bit more, I realised it would only add a tedious chore to an already pretty tedious simlife. And when I had to do laundry for more than just myself, I really became grateful for escaping the chore, while playing the game.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that The Sims 3 expansion Ambitions would add washing machines. “Why?” was my first reaction. And second, and third. For one, I had trouble equating ‘ambitions’ and professions with laundry, or the need to do laundry. And second, it is a tedious chore that takes up too much time in real life, so why would I want to spend even seconds pretending to do make-believe washing in a game? I wouldn’t! But who the fukc would?

Pre-teen girls. Apparently. I can only imagine it is because they have never had to touch soiled underpants or stinky socks, or shirts with sick all over them. Maybe they think washing machines are ‘cool’. They are not. Washing machines are tools. It’s better than washing by hand, mostly. But if I could get away with simply buying new inexpensive clothes every day, just so I could escape laundry,  I would. And I challenge anyone who thinks differently.

Doing laundry in The Sims 3 gives your sim a moodlet. Your sim gets 20 points on his ‘feel-good’-o-meter for wearing clean clothes. When in reality it is usually the other way around: you feel bad for wearing dirty and stinky clothes. But thank goodness they did not implement it that way in the game. I know I feel the minus-point-moodlet when I do laundry. It’s more than the actual chore, it is the time spent on it. You have to spend time washing and drying and putting away. It is only seconds, but since a simday lasts a few minutes on high speed (my speed to play), it still takes up a good portion of the available time. I don’t feel the moodlet does justice to the horridness of doing laundry. At least I don’t have to separate whites from synthetics, or choose what program to run it on.

And then there is the choice of a washing line for drying or a dryer. A dryer is bad for the environment and your energy bill, a clothes line just looks ugly. But if you have a washer, you seem to need a way to dry your clothes. I don’t think there is an option for sims to steal clothes from the washing line, but that would actualy be fun. But as it is, the whole setup just means spending time, simoleans and room on something that has no place in a fun simgame. And it adds far too little.

Because the incentive to add a washing machine, and the dryer, are so minimal, the player can easily get away with not putting these things in the game. And when I play the Ambitions neighbourhood, that came with houses that had the washing machines ready, I simply delete all washing machines and the laundromat. Isn’t that wonderful?