Let’s Talk About Sims, Baby: Part IV - MySims PC and Non-Violent GamingOctober 23rd, 2008 by Suzie
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Note: This is part III of my write-up of EA Sims Bloggers Day. You can read Part I, Part II and Part III here.
MySims. You play as a wide-eyed chibi, thrust into a run down town and given a goal: attract citizens. You do this by building furniture, houses, and unlocking super-computers and pin-ball machines. Once you’ve got what people want, you’ve convined them to return home.
When we saw this game demoed, it was hard not to notice the gap between this and MySims Kingdom. In MySims Kingdom, the producers talked about how they’d elimiated the annoying loading screens. Moving from that into MySims PC, you see the loading screens first hand. Everytime you switch between building mode and town mode, in fact. Where the PC port does come into its own though, is the online arena.
Each player gets given a little social zone to invite their friends to. You can build there, so you can each get your own ‘hangout’, there are the usual chat-programs and minigames - tag being the version we saw - and the whole thing is like a slicker, cuter, smaller, faster-loading Second Life.
It’s hard to talk about games like this. It’s simple, you’ll either like it or you won’t. If you’re the kind of person who needs direction, goals, and storyline, you’re going to find this dull. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys building the perfect house and unlocking all the furniture blueprints to fill it up with cool shit - then you’ll love it.
One thing is for sure - it will make money. People can’t seem to get enough of the Sims, and EA knows it. The Sims franchise is going to be running for a long time yet.
So what does all this Sims stuff mean for you?
Video games without violence. Video games without any kind of competition, in fact, no racing, no collecting points, no scoring goals, no enemies to overthrow. It is, actually, revolutionary. Having a build mechanic be the central gameplay mechanic is interesting, and throwing in a goal of helping people and giving them what the want is even more so. Let’s face it: video games have had a remarkably one-track mind in the past. Sports and War/Fightinge remain the default models for gameplay in most games.
We’re seeing a change now though. Indie games are coming up with novel new mechanics. Whether it’s playing with perspective in Echochrome, building a pizza-making machine in MySims Kingdom, or training your brain on the DS, video games have exploded. And it’s not a bad thing. The shooters are still there, more people are playing games, there’s more scope for indies, it’s more socially acceptable, there’s more choice. Sure, it sucks when you drop $60 on a game you don’t like, but is it worse than dropping $60 on a game exactly like the one you last played?
