This is why I love The Sims 2 - I can play ALL the characters and control what happens to them. I can develop this one as geeky and that one as unrestrained libido and another one as a lovely child who helps look after younger siblings. I decide which families are going to be a very nuclear mum, dad and kid, and which ones are going to be sprawling multi-generational communes. I feel pleased about my Sim people hitting their Aspiration targets and annoyed when an event (fire, illness, cockroach infestation) gets in the way of what I had planned. But then I also get a feeling of success when the event is dealt with and their lives get back on track. You can also let out a bit of repressed evil... not that I would, of course.