"The Sims 4," Electronic Arts' successful life-simulation game, has managed to win over hundreds of thousands of players worldwide. And just as in real life, "Sims" fans face a sometimes tough choice: Should they play it straight or cut a few corners?

For those who opt to go with the second option, the game's developers have included a number of cheats, enabling tricks from the helpful to the funny to the downright morbid, as Cinema Blend points out. To make use of those magic helpers, it's important that players key in a number of commands in just the right order.

If you're ready to make your virtual life a bit easier, the first thing you need to do is to hold down the "Shift," "Ctrl" and "C" keys at the same time. A text box will pop up on your screen, and you are ready to type in such mysterious terms as "motherlode" and "resetSim."

The former will add a whopping 50,000 Simoleons to your bank account, which should help you build that awesome mansion you've been dreaming of; the latter, meanwhile, allows you to change your Sims' names without a court order and newspaper announcement.

The more advanced cheats, however, require an extra step: Instead of typing in a command that renders an immediate effect, you need to activate the so-called "testing mode," which is done in the same text box and using the phrase "testingcheats true."

Now, you can enter a command such as "cas.fulleditmode," which will enable an enhanced version of Create-A-Sim and let you change previously locked Sims features, such as traits or styles. And once this mode is enabled, you will also have access to a wide range of "interactive cheats."

If you hold down the "Shift" key and click on one of your Sims, for example, you'll be able to add him to a given household or fill all her motive/need bars to give her the "Happy Mood." And by shift-clicking on the ground, you can even teletransport your virtual friend.

For objects, too, your options multiply: If you hold down "Shift" and click on, say, a car, you will be able to make it dirty, make it clean and reset it to your liking.