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Skipping right over the notion of free will, Electronic Arts has ensured this process has come full circle with the release of the fourth installment of the Sims franchise. What is essentially a life simulator for those who relish in observing and shaping human relationships, building aesthetically pleasing homes and then filling and arranging them just so, The Sims 4 delivers on what it promises.

Ironically, the same immutable laws whose observance did away with notions of providence have today led to simulated worlds. Here you shape and design bodies in great detail, tweak genetics in assembling families, determine “natural” inclinations, and then thrust the Sims into a world where they appear to believe that they are in control.

As a geocentrist, I took this opportunity to dole what small-minded punishment I could toward Copernicus and his hubris. And so I modelled his face from an image on Wikipedia. I gave him the desire for knowledge and creativity, a penchant for anger, and then I had him immediately march out of his fully furnished home to yell at, insult, and lie about his job (I used this speech option liberally throughout the game) to each of his neighbors and all who walked by.

Appearing to be on a bender, I then encouraged Copernicus to explore his small piece of the neighborhood. Often losing consciousness and falling onto his face, he yearned for sleep, food, and a place to relieve himself, but he seemed to lack the will to do this on his own. After a time, I sent poor smelly Copernicus off to work – as an astronaut. What he did there, I know not; this experience is still unavailable in Sims 4. In his absence, I sold his new house, and moved him in with the family Goth, a family of four who dressed in black and shunned the sun from within their two-story Victorian home. At least I presume this is what they did, as I had them sell their house right away, and then moved the family into the vacant lot across the street. When Copernicus returned from work, forced to accept his new situation, still tired, hungry and smelly, I put it into his mind to throw a costume party for his new family, and to invite all the people he had verbally-assaulted earlier. It didn’t go well.