] "The most mundane tasks -- the ones that actually bore
] the hell out of you in reality -- come at you in the
] computer game with relentless insistence, and if you are
] going to be a happy Sim, master of your tract home, lord
] of your lawn, sultan of your suburb, you have to get
] organized. You have to impose order on chaos. You have to
] stay cool and go with the flow. In this way you can
] achieve split-level greatness."

David Brooks, of the Weekly Standard, writes about The Sims in the November 24 issue of the New York Times Magazine.