Video games normally shower you with money. Defeat a few monsters, sell the twelve swords inexplicably concealed inside your trousers, and you can buy an entire town's inventory before lunch. Even games that begin with an empty wallet rarely expect you to remain poor for long.
Some games are considerably less generous. Their shops stock tantalising upgrades while ordinary work pays a pittance, or their currencies must also fund basic survival and character progression. You can usually become wealthy with enough grinding or one particularly devious strategy, but that rather proves the point. Until then, every purchase feels momentous, and buyer's remorse can be genuinely fatal.
The original The Sims is much less interested in fulfilling fantasies than its increasingly permissive sequels. Your first job pays terribly, household essentials cost a fortune, and your new homeowner somehow forgot to buy a toilet before moving in.
These games are great all the way to the end - but boy, they really make you work for that ending.
Making matters worse, keeping a Sim fed, rested, clean, entertained, and socially functional consumes most of the day. Promotions require both skills and friendships, while bills continue arriving regardless of whether your fragile digital employee has stopped weeping. Buying a better bed feels less like decorating and more like escaping poverty.
Henry begins Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 without the armour, status, or savings expected of an RPG hero. Food, accommodation, repairs, training, and presentable clothing all cost groschen, while respectable early work pays like medieval minimum wage.
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