My Australia project is still in the works, but I want to get my thoughts down on a particular topic while I'm still focused on it.
Let's talk about The Sims.
Call this an homage to Shamus Young's "Experienced Points", bar the programming background, talent and general knowledge of games, but I want to talk to the makers of this series.
I've been playing The Sims since my step brother gave me a copy of the original "The Sims" sometime in the early 2000's. I've played every incarnation of the franchise, every expansion of the original, most of the Sims 2 expansions and only the University expansion of the third.
I want to establish that I know what I'm talking about here. I'm not some professional reviewer who played this game for what they consider a decent amount of time then complained about how only "casual" gamers can possibly derive entertainment from this.
They're right. I'm a casual gamer, and I wear such a title with pride. I have put my heart and soul into deriving pleasure from this game, and for the most parts I've succeeded. However, I'm not here to make great claims about the game. If you aren't interested in the series, I can't blame you and understand completely. This is for the undecided and the fans. I wish to ask and answer (from my opinions and experiences) a double-barrel question:
Why do we want to play the Sims? and Are the successive incarnations of the game appealing to this?
I want two things from the Sims, both of which I feel I have never been treated with the proper respect.
Firstly, an autosave option. I'll say that again. An autosave option. One more time. AN AUTOSAVE OPTION. 20 minutes ago, I lost 6 hours of progress on my game. I will never get that time back. I hate this game right now. I admit that freely. I am emotional here. Now, I know that some people want the ability to undo from one save to the other in case of terrible accidents, but that is why I say OPTION. Sure, I could save every few minutes. I timed the manual save today. It took FIVE MINUTES. That is not a save loading time. THAT IS AN AD BREAK. Just... make me think that the significant portion of my life I waste on this fucking game is optional. YOU DON'T HAVE TO PROVE IT TO ME. I'll... calm down.
Now, my bigger gripe is in a sense of accomplishment. I'm not asking for actual Steam-style accomplishments (with Maxis and Origin on board, that would guarantee the fucking game would crash). I just want a little proof to myself that I have something to show for my work on this game. I thought the franchise was progressing this way with Sims 2 implementing a family tree function, to show how far back the ancestry reached. Considering this has not been changed in anyway sine the original Sims 2 was released in 2004, I think any success that achieved was purely accidental. Since then there has only been an increased focus on not allowing any freedom. In The Sims 3, you have to give up certain aspects of progress to play as a different family. This being a change from being able to play any family in the neighborhood. I just want something, anything, to reward me. Somthing that carries on. Something even useless. The family tree is a good start, but as soon as a family dies out, I lose everything. It's like playing a flash game on Steam, and selling it on a sense of accomplishment because the number beside "Hours Played" increases.
What other "points" are there to save up? Let's make a list:
- Aspiration points (saved for each Sim, completely, irretrievably lost when that Sim dies.)
- Money (for a lot, lost when you follow a Sim away from the familial home. Considering only 8 Sims can be on a lot, you pretty much have to do this for your Sim to have kids)
- Career Progression (same as with Aspiration points)
- And don't get me started on emotional connection, what little there is.
I feel the Sims get more rewards than I do.
Why is this lack of perceivable progress so frustrating?
Because this is not the facebook game it so clearly wants to be (especially with its new facebook connectivity features). It is, by approximation, the largest game on my computer. I can run no other program on my machine (less than a full year old) simultaneously (is that a pun?) without a slowdown. I can't minimize the program without a graphical decline upon maximization (another pun?). This program requires me to put my entire digital life (i.e. my life) on hold for some unrewarding, increasingly forgettable, pointless gameplay. Give. Me. A. Fucking. Break. And then it crashes because it can't connect to Origin (I'd have complaints about Origin, but it's like picking on the stupid, smelly kid in primary school. I wouldn't be the first to do it, I wouldn't be the wittiest and the passage of time will do more damage than I ever could).
I'm going to spell-check this article (to the usual poor standard) but I won't edit it any more. This post is rambling and angry, and I don't want it to lose that, even at the price of coherency.
Sims 4 is coming out. My predictions? It will have unnecessary and no longer optional connectivity with Facebook and Twitter. It will have poorly implemented and maintained mandatory online play, with unnecessary multiplayer... somehow. The game will be streamlined and simplified to avoid causing offense to younger players, and in doing so will create more controversy by removing specific content. My money is on them removing gay relationships. It will rely upon expansion packs to have even a little creativity. The expansion packs will be: Vacations, Higher Education, Pets, Nightlife and Ikea. It will be larger and more expensive than can possibly be justified.
I'm afraid I'll need someone else to correct me on some of these guesses when the game is released, as there is only one prediction I can both verify and guarantee:
I won't buy it.
Feedback welcome.
H. Rourke.
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