You have an exceptional credit record, you obey the law, you help people when their trolleys are stuck in the lift. Your reward? A world that doesn’t care. So what if you let that fat Jeep in front of you into traffic? The driver is so deep in their phone, they’re not going to thank you. The post-pandemic world is mentally weary and pretty damn angry. The loadshedding crisis of 2023 made South Africans even angrier. As one Wits study said, the mess of the world has created a sense of frustration, and pervasive uncertainty has left people feeling powerless. It’s a loss of control in the chaos of war, political uncertainty and endless admin. And it’s linked to depression, burnout, anxiety and stress. You binge eat and drink. You adopt dysfunctional coping mechanisms.

Or you take control of a mindless digital minion in a world where your decisions mean something. Take The Sims. Created by Will Wright, The Sims landed in 2000 soon after he lost his home in a fire, which got him wondering: what if he could make a little world filled with little people whose every want is under your control. By 2008, the game had sold more than 100 million units globally and become the biggest-selling PC game to date. It was a surprise in a gaming world filled with muscles, blood and mucus (Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty: World at War, and Dead Space). The Sims is about making sure you meet the emotional needs of tiny humans while decorating their homes and using hacks to get extra dosh (type motherlode, if anyone’s asking).