The Sims 4 Paranormal, Video Games and Belief, and Alternate Worlds

Season 2, Episode 1

listen on Spotify
listen on Apple Podcasts

Emma and Christy play The Sims 4 Paranormal ‘Stuff Pack’, exploring the game’s haunted house and séance aesthetics. We talk Victorian occult imaginaries, playing Sims as an emotional outlet, the promise of perfect capitalism, video games and affect, queer computer spaces, technopagans and cyber covens, and esoteric beliefs on the internet.

MEDIA DISCUSSED
All screenshots from The Sims 4 Paranormal can be found, in order of discussion, in the carousel above.
Electronic Arts, The Sims 4 Paranormal ‘Stuff Pack’ (2021)
Jordan Peele, Get Out (2017)
Jean-Marc Vallée, Sharp Objects (2018)
Solomon J. Solomon, A Conversation Piece (1884)
The green ghost, ‘Slimer’, from: Ivan Reitman, Ghostbusters (1984)
Electronic Arts, ‘Can a computer make you cry’ advertisement (1983)
‘Miss Calendar’ from: Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
Linden Lab, Second Life (first released 2003); screenshot of modern witchcraft group ‘Children of Artemis’ in ‘Second Life’ (c. 2014)

REFERENCES
Kyle Riismandel, Neighborhood of Fear: The Suburban Crisis in American Culture 1975-2001 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). 
The Sims as a ‘satire on consumer capitalism’: Tom Nicholson, ‘The Sims at 20: You Don’t Know It, But It Ruined the Life of Every Millenial’, Esquire, 2020.
Jonathan Ahl, ‘This Farming Video Game is So Popular, People Pay to Watch Gamers Play It’, NPR, 2021. 
SimGuruJessica, ‘Sexual Orientation in The Sims 4: New Update to Feature Sexual Orientation in Create a Sim’, 2022.
Mia Consalvo and Nathan Dutton, ‘Game analysis: Developing a methodological toolkit for the qualitative study of games’, Game Studies 6, no. 1 (December 2006).
Simone Natale and Diana Pasulka (eds), Believing in Bits: Digital Media and the Supernatural (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).
Raymond Williams and Michael Orrom, Preface to Film (London: Film Drama Limited, 1954).
Aubrey Anables, Playing with Feelings: Video Games and Affect (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2018).
Simona Natale, Supernatural Entertainments: Victorian Spiritualism and the Rise of Modern Media Culture (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2016).
Alexander Galloway, Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 2.
Thaddeus Griebel, ‘Self-Portrayal in Simulated Life: Projecting Personality and Values in The Sims 2‘, Game Studies 6, no. 1 (December 2006).
John L. Crow, ‘Accessing the Astral with a Monitor and Mouse: Esoteric Religion and the Astral Located in Three-Dimensional Virtual Realms’, in Contemporary Esotericism, ed. by Egil Asprem and Kennet Granholm (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp 159-180.
Douglas E. Cowan, Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet (London: Routledge, 2004).

FURTHER READING
Jessica Marie Jones, ‘Alter Egos and Infinite Literacies, Part III: How to Build a Real Gyrl in 3 Easy Steps’, The Black Scholar 45, no. 4 (Winter 2015): 47-61.

---

This season of ‘Drawing Blood’ was funded in part by the Association for Art History.
Follow our Twitter @drawingblood_
Audio postproduction by Sias Merkling
‘Drawing Blood’ cover art © Emma Merkling
All audio and content © Emma Merkling and Christy Slobogin
Intro music: ‘There Will Be Blood’ by Kim Petras, © BunHead Records 2019. We’re still trying to get hold of permissions for this song – Kim Petras text us back!!