Monday, October 28, 2002
What a load of misrepresentation. I hate to say this, it makes me sound like I’ve grown cynical in my slightly older young age, but I think advertising is getting deceptive.

Don’t worry, I’m not the kind to lobby charges without producing some slim shred of evidence. In this case, let’s talk about The Sims and its expansion pack follow-up, The Sims Unleashed. I bought The Sims a long time ago because the idea of being someone else was sort of appealing. Unfortunately, being my Sims wasn’t much better than being me. No doubt I created masterpieces of Sim construction, a self-inspired female former child star Sim named Cloretta, and several male Sims who share the house with her like Conan O’Brien, George Clooney, Flat Chest lead singer Dill Warner, Vince Vaughn, and Hugh Grant. The problem isn’t my Sim-creating, it’s the game itself, which fails to live up to my expectations of how people I created would live life.

It’s sadly true—these Sims just want to buy stuff and eat and take baths and talk to each other. Wow, what fun, she sarcastically stated. I can eat and take baths in my world! I get enough talk throughout the day, with, “Clarissa, your payment is overdue,” and “Clarissa, I’d like to take a biopsy of this mole.” I want my Sims to really live! Sexy-like, I mean.

Obviously I was excited when I saw the new expansion pack come out, Sims Unleashed! (exclamation point added by me). I was like, finally! Now my Sims will give up their ridiculous hang-ups like wearing pants around the house and only allowing two into a bed at a time. Well, “unleashed,” what would you think? It should mean that my Sims are finally freed of the limitations of computer programs and allowed to emulate real human behavior. But no, not my Sims, thank you, deceptive advertising.

Turns out all the expansion pack does is give you the option to buy pets. I suppose that’s what they meant by the commercial I saw over and over, but they played on my expectations with that dog humping the lady Sim’s leg. Hey, I’m not into that kind of thing myself, I thought, but if they can do that kind of degenerate thing then they can surely do a few Kama Sutra positions in stunning high-res imagery. Nope, no changes at all in my Sims’ sexual behavior, they just have dogs now. And the commercial was complete crap because I can’t get any of my pets to hump legs or each other. Maybe there’s a hot-key to do it or something, but it’s not in the book and the technical support help line only laughs and puts me on speaker phone.

Is it too much to ask that my Sims live a life at least as interesting as mine? If we were keeping score and, what do you know, I happen to have some scores scribbled on post-it notes, the score would be Clarissa 2 threesomes and 1 orgy and Sims nil. And nil is not some exciting sex slang for a position like “nipples impressed on legs,” it’s dictionary slang for nothing.

I just want my computer games to keep up with the times, especially mine, and my times are hot and sexy and they aren’t worried about working “jobs” and stomping roaches, and that’s all my Sims do. And another complaint, my Elvis Presley Sim was killed in a kitchen fire after apparently trying to fry up some late-night banana sandwiches before I put a smoke alarm in. Can’t I revive him in some way? It doesn’t seem fair we can bring people back from the dead in the real world and can’t do it in the lousy game. And I do mean lousy game. Thanks for nothing, Sims dudes.

Clarissa Coleman Re-Invented
It’s the obvious thing to do at this point. When at first you don’t succeed, vastly re-define the world’s perception of you and try again, with more attitude.

No Credit Card for Clarissa
I would say it’s racism, but I’m pretty sure all the credit card companies are mostly run by white people. And I basically pass for a white person, nobody really cares about if my granddad is Puerto Rican and my step-mom is Navajo.

I've Been Scammed,
Pulp Fiction-Style
Scholars of the Coleman Dynasty may know that my favorite movie is Pulp Fiction, I’ve mentioned as much in a recent article in Hollywood Refugee magazine. “But Clarissa,” you say, “isn’t your favorite movie Cannonball Run 2?” Not since I saw Pulp Fiction last month, pal.

I've Just Done My First DVD Commentary
The DVD production staff got all six of us kid stars back for the commentary—me, Tim T. Toolkitty, Jeffy Smurtz, Franz Golgannis, Pockets O’Shannon, and Dina Frazell, who played the tough girl back then because you couldn’t have lesbians in movies.