The 'Sims 4' Nihilistic Violence Mod Is Less Fun Than It Sounds

Content warning: this piece mentions miscarriage and abuse.

My Sim, Conrad Pike, was just trying to do some karaoke after work. Then the Thotties showed up.

The Thotties are a gang in Sacrificial Mods' "Extreme Violence" mod. Normally, The Sims is wholesome, rated T for Teen entertainment. Sims don't drink alcohol or have sex; they drink juice and WooHoo. While Sims do get into fights, they usually disappear into a cloud of smoke, sparing teenage eyes from the sight of violence.

Using the Extreme Violence mod takes it as far away from wholesome as you could possibly get. The point of this mod is murder and violence, and you've given the ability to kill and maim in a variety of over the top, gruesome ways. The most recent version of this mod added a new non-deadly interaction where a Sim can punch another Sim in the stomach. If the punched Sim is pregnant, they'll have a miscarriage.

This mod is elaborate, giving the player not just murder tools but brand new game mechanics as well. With Extreme Violence installed, you have the ability to summon gangs to whatever lot you're hanging out in. Of the two gangs available, I was interested in the Thotties, who are essentially a roving band of young women who seduce and then murder Sims. When three young women in corsets showed up wielding daggers, I figured I had the right Sims. They must be the Thotties.

Before I continue I want to lay out some very important facts: the VICE offices are open, meaning that everyone can see what I'm doing on my computer. Additionally, this week Rob Zacny and Patrick Klepek are visiting because they both love me so much. So as I've summoned a bunch of thots in my game of The Sims, Patrick came over to my desk to see how I'm doing. I told him that I'm doing fine, and explained the mod I'm using. Then Patrick asked me "what's that?"

I looked at the screen. All the Thotties were twerking. Not only that, but they've attracted a crowd. Every Sim in the neighborhood, including the incredibly normie Geoffrey Landgraab, had come to see the Thotties. This is when I decided to make my Sim beat one of them up.

The animation for beating up another Sim is bloody. Conrad grabbed one of the Thotties' hair and wailed on her, hitting her face and stomach. Blood flew out of her body with each blow. Once the interaction was over I thought I was done, but no, my Sim was then ben marked for harassment by the gang. All three of the Thotties were beating up on him. He got completely bloodied by them, so I decided to try out another interaction in the Extreme Violence mod: I take out a gun and open fire. Two Sims unrelated to the conflict died.

I tried to escape the Thotties by going back into my Sims' house, but I forgot to lock the back door and so they followed me. They left me alone after I murdered one of them with a machete.

Playing The Sims with the Extreme Violence mod installed turns it into a bootleg version of Grand Theft Auto. The violence is random, and escalates exponentially so that you go from fist fight to cold blooded murder before you can blink. When I was fifteen or sixteen, I would have loved this. You basically get a "push this button to cause chaos" mechanic, allowing you to turn the pleasant neighborhoods of Oasis Springs or Britechester into blood soaked nightmare towns at a moment's notice.

As an adult, I don't need all this. There is too much violence in the actual world for me to get much pleasure out of causing it in the game that I use to escape into fantasies of interior design. If I want realism in my game of The Sims, I'll add laundry.

Still, there is something intoxicating about just how absurd the Extreme Violence mod is. It's not so much grotesque as it is cartoonish. Part of this is because while Sim will visibly and audibly panic if there's a murder going on in front of them (and the Extreme Violence mod allows players to call the police to arrest the Sims committing crimes), once they cycle through the animation, Sims are just weirdly okay with the random shootings and stabbings.

The Extreme Violence mod makes The Sims the kind of place where every day is The Purge. I don't know that I want to play the game like that every time I play, but I appreciate the ability to inject a little chaos into my pleasant suburbs.