Life simulators are very mysterious. They don’t blur the line between reality and video game, but they easily put you in the roll of whatever character you are playing. Unless you have a god complex. In which case you go into The Sims 2, invite all the townspeople over for a BBQ, lead them upstairs, remove the staircase, and start a fire.

Main draw of simulation games is letting you play something you can’t in real life. What if I were a mad scientist with a secret lab? What if I were mayor of a city? What if were ugly and lonely and my parents kept me in the basement?

You can do just about anything in these simulator games. Which begs the question, why am I raising a dog and planting apples?

Nintendo will be mowing down the population with their big hitting simulator games starting tomorrow. The first of which is Nintendogs. The game that lets you experience owning your own pooch. Maybe you can’t have a dog in your apartment building. Or maybe you are 9 years old and your parents won’t let you have a dog. And you should stop feeding those stray dogs. They might bite you.

In those cases, this game will let you experience something you can’t have. Like a doggie prostitute, you pay for your petting.

Coming up in time for the holiday season will be the DS version of Animal Crossing. This incredibly addictive game makes no sense to me. I get how to play the game, but I don’t understand why I keep playing it. You run around picking weeds, chopping down trees, running errands, planting apples, shaking trees, digging up fossils, writing letters, and paying off your house mortgage.

Again, why am I doing this? Because I can’t be a furry archeologist in real life? No, that’s not it. I mean, I can’t be a furry archeologist in real life, but that isn’t really the draw of the game.

Perhaps it’s the simple distraction from life. When your worries consist of collecting all the blue furniture sets and getting home in time to see the full moon, things don’t seem so bad.

Go ahead and pet your dog. Design our own poncho and visit your grumpy hippo. I won’t be laughing at you. I am a furry archeologist.

P.S. You can also give your character a dirty name! Tee hee!