The Sims has become one of my favorite games of all time, after I got over some initial shock at how weird it was — and how much you could control the lives of these tiny people. Once I got really big into it, I noticed a common trend in the kinds of people I was creating.

And apparently, I'm not the only one who noticed.

1. yourself

The best way to play God, honestly. You can make yourself exactly the same, or you can be prettier, stronger, smarter, or funnier. You can make yourself have lots of friends or no friends. And you can give yourself a swanky mansion and cheat your way to millions of dollars!

2. your friend group

Sure, it'll take a little work to get your friendship to the level it's at in real life, but it'll be worth it.

3. that person you like

No one else needs to know about this.

4. celebrities (or just that senior you think is really cool)

Because everyone wants to meet a famous person, so the next best thing must be to do it in the Sims.

5. that person you hate, so you can either make them die in a fire...

(I'd include an example, but Sims fire deaths scarred me for life when I was ten, and I'm not sure of my reader demographics.)

...or make them have alien babies

(This one requires knowledge of game cheats, but it's excellent because for some reason you can't have that happen in real life.)

6. your favorite fictional characters

Admit it. You want your favorite television show characters to be happy. And in the Sims, you can make that possible.

7. the game-generated families

Because sometimes, creating an entire civilization is really, really difficult, and you just have to play God to someone else's characters.