Will Wright On The Return Of The Sims

Thanks to GameSpot for their interview with Maxis/EA's Will Wright regarding The Sims 2, the March 2004-due sequel to the multi-million selling people-prodding simulation. Wright talks about the difficulties in creating a follow-up ("Especially with a successful [game] like The Sims, you have to balance your fear of not dropping the ball with the danger of being overly conservative"), and discusses some of the evolutions due to debut in the sequel, primary among them "camera freedom... something that we've resisted for a long time and feels like probably the biggest stretch... but... some huge benefits", as well as "the idea that The Sims smoothly age and have different concerns and motivations and needs at different age ranges. It becomes more of an epic, almost Michener-like multigenerational thing...the story that you're playing through."

Comments

I find it amusing

[*weasel]

this game is so diametrically opposed to the hardcore gaming crowd, it makes me laugh.

I mean, we nitpick all of the balancing and bugs and shit - but really all we're saying is 'i don't get it'.

we just don't see where the fun part is, that makes dealing with the headaches worthwhile. I mean, the games we love have some stupid AI, some minor bugs that make the game annoying, but not unplayable. But we -get- those games. We see the fun part, and put up with the dumb stuff to get there. but not for the Sims. it's a foreign beast.

anyways... point is - it isn't our kind of game, it never was. the people who like it must -like- to micromanage the people. they must not -mind- the idea that they can't maximize their sims effectiveness. they must revel in the idea that there -isn't- a story or a point.

I had a bit of fun with it for a couple days, and like you guys, i moved on. It was a decent diversion, a novelty.

But my wife and a couple of her friends, they are so -hooked- it amazes me. I mean, they don't play all the time or anything, but when they play games, more often than not, that's the one they play. And they can't describe to me -why- or -how- the Sims is fun... not in terms I consider fun anyway.

So I've come to begrudgingly admire this game I don't understand. Mostly because it sells the pants off the games I -do- understand, and I have no real idea -why-.