h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The "Sim" Phenomenon - A2499113
Author: Me, Myself, I, The Old Coot In My Closet, And The Incomparable Id [Call me "Id" for short.] - U187415

A2499113 - 'The "Sim" Phenomenon'

This little beauty is my latest effort for a "Making Computer Games" seminar course that is suppposed to acclimate young, impressionable freshmen to the rigorous writing requirements of the university. One of our best assignments so far has been the one where we had to write about our favorite computer game, and why. (I thought I'd gone to college, but apparently I'm still in grade school!) This assignment was to "write a paper" . . . and I kid you not. I believe the only restriction was that it had to be at least somewhat related to the topic of the seminar.

Anyway, here it is. This proposed edited guide entry is about the Maxis simulation games and why they are so overwhelmingly popular.

What do you think, folks?


Id

Fascinating

I don't have time to give it more than a quick read through right now but it looks pretty good, and this post wil bump it up the list and under the nose of a few other PR regulars

Mrs Gosho got into The Sims for a while, and I was in danger of becoming a Sims widow. Did you know that you can sell Simoleans on eBay? She made $20 or $30 a week doing that


Scout

Very Good. Personally, I would like to see more history and facts. I used to have Sim Earth - that certainly was playing God!

Perhaps you could also mention the contrast of this sort of constructive gaming versus the 'shoot 'em ups', the fact there is no real 'winning' and try to explain why they are so addictive.

Two notes:

I seem to remember that the original simcity was developed as a teaching tool for a civil engineering class and was marketed as an afterthought

and

SimGolf is now being given away as a promo with certain packages of golf balls in North America.

How on does one sell Simoleans on eBay???

Pretty good, Id, but I think it's a little sparse on the SimCity side. It might be worth mentioning the crossover between SimCity and The Sims. In SimCity 4, you actually get a few Sims to place in your city for even more feedback. And you can drive cars and fly helicopters, too. And mentioning the natural disasters is a must.

Cheers!

My problem is, I only played Sim City, back in the day. (I love how I say that, back in the day, as if I was more than two decades old.) I haven't touched the rest of the Sim line myself, up until now with Sims + expansion packs, etc. I've got no reference to write about the other Sim games in that much detail. The concept was originally to focus more on the Sims, iteself, but it just kind of grew.

Now . . . should I cut it back or are other researchers willing to collaborate and fill it out? That'd be cool.


Id

Hello Id,

I'm a big fan of EA Sim games myself, so it's really cool that you decided to write an article about them!

Just a couple of comments:

1. I know that to discuss *all* the Sim games in existence in detail would be hell (and anyway, the general principle and concept are pretty much the same), but since you're discussing Sim games in general, maybe you could mention more of its incarnations than just The Sims and SimCity, so that the reader has a grasp of how extensive this phenomenon is? (as in, all of them are in a way parts of the great SimCity... you know, SimZoo, SimPark, SimTower etc)

2. Just a little note at this point: wasn't The Sims originally developed as architectural simulation software? And then EA decided to turn it into a game instead? (and a good thing they did!)

3. An additional note on why people play Sim games: in the case of The Sims, people may also be playing it because it allows them to live out their fantasies - huge mansions with rolling gardens, a life of luxury and utter decadence, all the furniture you can buy - which, for most, is something not achievable in real life. (and there's of course the case of perverse sense of humour... I mean, how many ways have you killed or tortured your Sims? ) And then there are those who play it for the challenge (and not for control per se) - to see how competent they are as Sim developers, how good they can be at troubleshooting and being successful. And where control is concerned... heh heh, The Sims 2 is coming out, where you'll even get to play cross-breeding and control not only people but their *descendants*

4. The Sims website URL has been changed to thesims.ea.com

5. I think that scrump's idea about including more history about the Sim games is great! If the topic isn't too hard/tedious to research, I think that a section on how the Sim phenomenon started would be excellent!

6. It's generally not a good idea to start an article with a heading. (typically an introduction should lead the reader into the article; anyway, a heading right under the title looks hideous) Since your gaming phenomenon bit serves as a pretty good intro, I'd suggest that you remove the 'gaming phenomenon' header and let the paragraph stand alone

7. I think the 'so why are they so popular' and 'so the answer is...' sections are a little messy. I think your bit on control/playing God etc should come under the popularity heading; the bits about building your own houses and towns/simulated life and all could maybe come under the heading 'gameplay' or something (and you could keep them where they are, before the playing God etc thingy). Perhaps the 'gameplay' section could be expanded slightly to include the rest of the games (in general; you don't have to go into great detail)

Other than that, I think this article has great potential if only worked on a bit I'll see if I can scrounge up a couple of links for you.

Cheers,
Far.

A few starting points for the history aspect:
http://www.maxis.com/about/about_timeline1.php
http://simcity.ea.com/about/inside_scoop/sc_retrospective.php
http://www.geocities.com/simsstash/history.html

Author has gone missing.

I propose that we send this off to the Flea Market

Let's do. Will you email or shall I?

I make it a rule that the seconder always e-mails. So off you go

And if you check the recent postings to PR (or <./>MP165955</.&gt you'll find a little trail of similar suggested moves

I notice you sent some to the group yesterday or today... weren't we supposed to be doing that towards the end of the week so that the poor, overworked Italics could schedule a certain time to deal with them?

Hmmm... I've gone through the Scouts group message listing and I've found a total of 45 moves still outstanding. Some of which have been around for a 'tad longer' than the 'end of last week'

You have a lot of time on your hands, don't you