My Sims mostly die of old age. Since Sims 1 I've only ever had two accidental deaths, my very first Sim died while trying to repair a toaster, and in Sims 2 I had a Sim get struck by lightning twice in quick succession while I was trying to get her out of the hot tub and out of the rain. But her husband was there to plead with Grim, so she wasn't dead for long, lol.

The only times I ever killed Sims was in Sims 2, when I had a pair of mad scientists set up a cowplant trap in their yard. By then Goopy Gilscarbo and Benjamin Long had lived unnaturally long lives, so I didn't feel *too* bad about feeding them to the cowplant just so my Sims could have urns around to fulfill the 'See Ghost' wants they kept rolling.
In Sims 3 I only ever killed one Sim. He wasn't a playable and I used master controller to give him an instant death. It was in part for a story, my heir was a cop and it gave him a 'crime' to investigate. And he was chosen for death because he had a habit of dating a girl, impregnating her and then breaking up with her, and then failing to pay his child support (Twallan's expanded story progression). He had just turned elder, and I decided it was time for him to go before he fathered another child he wasn't going to support. I didn't see him die, I just smote him from above.

I don't enjoy torturing Sims or watching them die. I play legacy style, so I've watched as my elders go with Grim several times through the generations, it always makes me sad, but it's a part of life, so I don't try to avoid it.

Sims are just pixels, but they are made to not only look like humans, but to react as they do. Even though I know they don't feel anything when they are burning to death or drowning, the animations they run do make it look like they are suffering, and I don't enjoy watching that, or being the cause of it. In a movie, you know the people on screen are just actors playing a part, but that doesn't stop you from feeling real emotions from watching them, or from getting attached to characters. It's the same with Sims. They aren't real, but can evoke real emotion in the player.

I had one of the really bad nannies, but the worst that I ever did to her was to have the toddler that she was supposed to be taking care of influence Benjamin Long to fight her. (The nanny won!) My toddler had the habit of interacting with anyone in the lot, and this was a home business. So by the time he had learned to walk, learned to talk, and gotten potty trained, he had a very full influence meter. Being pulled off the potty to be given a bottle that he didn't want, then being put in the crib when all he needed was a diaper change, then listening as the nanny burned down the kitchen with Lobster Thermidor was enough to inspire him to spend some of it.

I was able to do part of a Black Widow challenge in Sims 2, but it was easier to let them die accidentally by just not micro-managing them after setting up a possible accident. (aka, putting a small table under a sprinkler, setting a broken electrical appliance under it and watching for a want to repair it. Or not stopping a tired sim from playing with the diving board.)
My one and only attempt in Sims 3 ended up with feeding Gunther Goth ambrosia before he aged up to Elder, making sure he achieved his LTW while filling every wish I could manage, and discovering that sitting under a working sprinkler while fixing a laptop apparently is perfectly safe now... After he fixed it 4 times I quit the challenge.

Edit: My sims are never human. I don't consider them human. But I never kill them myself, and they only die if one of "MY" sims wants it, or they have an accident. And I only arrange accidents if one of my sims wants it. I haven't seen any "see ____'s Ghost" wants in Sims 3, and I'm not playing the Black Widow anymore. Even my unlucky loser has achieved his LTW. So I don't think I'm going to be killing any Sims 3 sims.

I never torture or kill my sims haha. I always make them live happily ever after lol.

I admit it, I'm a sim murderer. Haven't killed for a few years now though... think I'm losing my touch.

I apologize to anyone who got offended with my last post. I don't think people are "bad" people for killing sims, and it might've seen unnecesarily harsh.

I'll just quote calisims, because I think that quote said it all:

"Sims are just pixels, but they are made to not only look like humans, but to react as they do. Even though I know they don't feel anything when they are burning to death or drowning, the animations they run do make it look like they are suffering, and I don't enjoy watching that, or being the cause of it. In a movie, you know the people on screen are just actors playing a part, but that doesn't stop you from feeling real emotions from watching them, or from getting attached to characters. It's the same with Sims. They aren't real, but can evoke real emotion in the player."

That was my point all along. In war games, even though I don't play them, at least you don't get to know the person you kill first. In this game, you follow them from cradle to grave. You watch them grow up, develop into adults, experience heartache, friendship, first love... they're still just pixel people, but you get attached to them. At least I do. I too feel sad when the Reaper comes to claim a sim for his own, but it's a part of life.

I should probably mention I think I am oversensitive when it comes to this. I don't support any of the wars our country participates in, and I get scared when people talk about our "enemy" in the war as though they're not people. Because they are. They, too, are someone's son, someone's husband, someone's brother. They all have families weeping over them. Of course, they chose to go to war, the way our soldiers did too, so they knew there was a risk. But in their heads, they're fighting for a just cause. Call me unpatriotic but I actually do not find it MORE sad if one of ours die than one of theirs. I find the loss of a human life sad, regardless, if it happens too early.

To add to the fact about me being oversensitive, I get so connected to fictional characters, in tv, books etc., it's almost insane. I involve myself almost more in their lives than in my own. What happens in the shows I'm watching can affect my entire day. When Logan and Veronica broke up in Veronica Mars, I was sad for days IRL. I cried for hours after finishing the Harry Potter series. So, it turns out I might be the weirdo, not the rest of you.

I can perfectly understand why people find it disturbing. Lets be honest, if a shrink heard you were torturing sims they'd have something to say about it But really, its not like people play the sims just to torture them - if they did then that would be very disturbing. I'd like to think we do it once or twice to just see what happens.


and I love that show!

"really? you do? ......can you show me how to? ive been trying to get rid of that nancy landgraab since for EVER, now!"

shrinks have things to say about everything. its their job.

as long as the player is aware that what theyre doing doesnt fly in real life, nobody has room to judge them. nobody. not when we have TV shows like "funniest home videos" where people getting kicked in the candy or smacked in the face with glass/a rake/cement is rewarded with hysterical laughter. or "jackass". i think we, as individuals, have a lot of self-improving to do before we can look down our noses disdainfully at a fellow gamer for what they choose to do with their pixels.

im more concerned about the kid who throws rocks at the neighborhood cat than i am about a gamer who lights strings of code on fictional-fire.

Dont get me wrong, I've tortured sims myself. I'm just saying I can see both sides of the coin.

Guys, it's just fantasy. I'm fairly sure most people here would not actually torture or kill a person in real life. When I was a kid I would sometimes set up sims houses with my sister and cousin and we'd kill off the sims in really silly ways. None of us want to hurt anyone like that. It's just some harmless fun.