I recently participated in an interview with Marie Boran at The Irish Times for an article about how popular The Sims franchise is. That article is now online and you can read it on The Irish Times website!

Sims can die from random meteorite strikes, vampire attacks, folding sofa beds and even too much “Woo-Hoo” (I’m not explaining this; it’s better if you look it up).

The latest release builds on this. Your Sim can literally die from laughing too much: “We also have other emotional-based death types where Sims can die from embarrassment or anger. The player really has to push them into those extreme emotional states though,” explains Sims 4 producer Azure Bowie-Hankins.

Like bored and merciless Gods, fans of the franchise have fond memories of the ingenious ways they killed their creations.

“One time I invited everyone in the neighbourhood around to my Sim’s house.

“Then I removed all doors and watched as the trapped Sims starved to death,” says Dan Willis, university student and manager of popular fan site Beyond Sims, a long-running website that has been in existence since 2000.

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