Why play sims?

[Gorne]

This may be a strange question but why do people play sims? Not the genre but the game "Sims". Is it to simply watch little people walking around or have i missed the plot of the game?

[Reoh]

Originally Posted by Gorne

This may be a strange question but why do people play sims? Not the genre but the game "Sims". Is it to simply watch little people walking around or have i missed the plot of the game?

I tried out the newer Sims3, wanted to see what it was about. Sure I got the "general idea" but you never know until you give it a go right? Well I found that litterally hours will go by, and all you're doing is ordering your sims to do the stuff you really should be doing yourself anyway.

For the most part, I found that I was more interesting in designing and building the homes, the stuff with the sims and skilling them up was just a necessary evil to get $ to make bigger and grander homes (you should see my "Water Palace."

[brohawk]

I had an interesting conversation with a high level manager where I work. She plays "Sims". How we got into that though, a friend of mine and myself were talking about Civ, and she also played that game. So we were talking strategies...

Then she gets this glow and smile, and starts talking about how she figured out how to kill someone in Sims. I guess that option isn't directly available (I have never played the game).

What she does is create a 3 walled room, lure the offending Sim into it and then puts up the fourth wall. No windows, no door, no food., and eventually they will die.

All I can tell you is that this woman was a real thorn in my side for about 8 years. It was at the end that she divulged her secret strategy. She left soon afterwards since she didn't get the promotion she wanted, not that she needed the money since her husband had retired over 10 years ago in his 40's as a successful Wall Street broker. I think she just loved messing with people because she certainly was good at that.

[HenriDeacon]

I played Sims 2 for a short while. The exact reason would be for relaxation, just click on something mindlessly, slow the heartrate and forget about the kids yelling in the background for a half hour. I think many other people would have a similar reason.

[Father]

Interesting, I think this has been brought up once before. I used to be a massive fan of Sim City since the C-64, used to spend hours and hours in that game.

I believe that building something can be just as much fun in game as destroying something if well executed.
So when the first sims game came out it was a no brainer, I picked up the game with not the slightest doubt in my mind that I would love it, as it turned out I didn't love it all, I spend a fair bit of time in it almost forcing myself to enjoy it but eventually gave up with the admission that "I wasn't having fun"

The main things that put me off so to speak was the rather juvenile and Utopian atmosphere the game presented itself in and off course the toilet mechanics. I see the fun in simulation games as simulating the parts that are fun. I don't simulate scrubbing the decks of my submarine in Silent Hunter nor do I simulate having to collect passengers trash left in their seats in flightsim. If sims was a simulation of life it had to be one that allowed me to do things that are fun in life, having to go to the toilet or feed myself was not something I need simulation of in a game.

I kinda never went back to the franchise since, I understand sims 3 has done away with the bad and added a lot of the fun things of simulating an alternate life, I thought about having another go at it but at the same time I'm so reluctant to throw money at a game with which my first experience was such a poor one. I know that this time I would go in with the notion and expectation that I won't like it which is not a good way to give a game a fair chance.

But maybe others have had similar experiences with the first installment and still managed to get fun out of the current version?

[Reoh]

Yeah Father, I'm a big fan of Sim City games; I even tried Cities XL which launched recently. Building is a lot of fun, been doing it since I was a toddler with Lego! But the Sims themselves are definately altogether something different.

The world does tend to be rather utopian, if it was grittier. If things could actually go wrong, you could explore those possibilities and how to pull through them. If there was as much disaster striking as there was a happy-go-lucky lifestyle. I think then, perhaps, I would find the game itself more enjoying than as a distraction from building up homes.

PS - bonus points of I could sim play inside a sim city I made. The little villages they let you play in are tiny.

[Father]

City simulators are doing poorly atm, I bought Sim City Societies which was utter crap, I bought the first City Life which was too repetitive in it's buildings and thus counter immersive.

I got the demo of the latest Cities XL and was cautiously optimistic about it but it reviewed poorly so I didn't bother picking it up, the mp was utterly broken and given that only this week they canceled the paid mp features all together says it all.
They are however working on a new version already so hopefully they will get it right.

I'm surprised that EA isn't producing an actual Sim City game anymore. But the sims certainly is no substitute for Sim City.

I did pick up "Dawn of Discovery" which has a fair bit of city building to it but tbh I haven't actually invested time with it, was cheap on steam with Christmas and did review well.

[HenriDeacon]

The original Sim City used to keep me up all night. That is a classic.

[Reoh]

Yeah Sim City Societies was just odd, and Cities XL needed a lot more polish before it launched. I had an email from them recently, they're closing down their online component due to a lack of interest, and developing along a patch/update/DLC model I believe.