concerts or roller rinks for these “sims.” But to hear someone talk aboutThe Simsis to
instantly become intrigued. “Well, I was trying to get my sim to flirt with this woman,
but her husband became upset and decked my character!” So what is it that makes this
game so brilliant and so fiendishly entertaining?
To summarize, players start playingThe Simsby first creating the characters they
want to control by assigning quantities to different attributes: Neat, Outgoing, Active,
Playful, and Nice. Players can then place these characters in a home, either pre-built or
one they construct themselves. From there, it is the players’ responsibility to make
sure the house has all of the objects the sims will need to live: a bed, a toilet, a kitchen, a
phone, objects for entertainment, and so forth. The Needs indicators help communicate
what the sim requires to achieve happiness, including listings for Hunger, Energy,
Comfort, Fun, and Social. Players also must see to it that their sim finds a way to bring
in money to pay for all the nifty stuff players purchase, a goal accomplished by looking at
the job listings in the newspaper. In addition, the game has an elaborate social compo-
nent, where other sims can be invited over, talked to, entertained, flirted with, and
befriended. The game provides such an amazing breadth of areas for players to explore,
one is amazed that all of them are also quite deep in their functionality.
Abdicating Authorship............................
The Simsis a very good example of what Doug Church at a Game Developers Confer-
ence lecture described as “abdicating authorship” in computer games. That is, instead
of the game designer coming up with the game’s story ahead of time, as is the case in 95
percent of adventure, role-playing, and action games made today, the authorship of the
game’s story is abdicated to the players. Players can then take the story in whatever
direction they want, no matter how prurient, dull, or hackneyed it may be. Indeed, at
first players may not even think of the experience as being a story, just as they may not
think of their own life as a story. Yet it still is a story. InThe Sims, the storytelling
becomes more of a collaborative effort between players, who direct the action, and the
Chapter 20: Game Analysis:The Sims 383
The Simsprovides a
framework upon which
players can author their
own stories.