Crossword Genius

Virtual people carrying costly weapons (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

sidearms

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'weapons' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'virtual people carrying costly' is the wordplay.
'virtual people' becomes 'sims' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'carrying' is an insertion indicator.
'costly' becomes 'dear' (synonyms).
'sims' going around 'dear' is 'SIDEARMS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sidearms that I've seen before include "weapons" , "We could kill" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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