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

The Sims 1

[secolactico]

I gave the Sims a try and couldn't keep with it. Frigging clock ran like a runaway train, even at the slowest mode.

There was never enough time for anything and *no weekends*. Sure, you could miss a day of work and not get fired, but still, even taking a leak took too much precious time.

I'm not looking forward to the Sims 2.

Re:The Sims 1

[saramakos]

I will second this - the time flow was a HUGE problem in The Sims. It took longer for a sim to cook a meal than it took them to process it on the loo.

No weekends, being trapped in your house except for work (as I never purchased any expansions).

I think the game had a total of 2 days fun for me, longer for my partner, but we still ended up selling it to a workmate for her kids.

Re:The Sims 1

[JAYOYAYOYAYO]

It took longer for a sim to cook a meal than it took them to process it on the loo.

if you think thats abnormal then something is wrong, and i dont think its your culinary abilities...

Biggest problem was the AI

[SmallFurryCreature]

All these artificial life games or for that matter any game where you indirectly have to control your avatar suffer from the same problem. They are dumb as shit.

I liked the sims but after a few hour play I want to kill them all. If these were humans they would be in a home strapped to their beds to prevent them hurting themselves.

Breakfast time. My 6 gals (yes I am a pervert) would do all right UNTIL it was time to clear the dishes. All of them queing up to use the dishwasher. Of course that meant waiting really long so they either just dumped the plates or peed their pants. When they run to the toilet do they seek out an empty one? No they just stand in front blocking each other so one of them pees in their pants.

Of course this then drops their hygiene. Better make sure not to install any wash basins or they spend the rest of the day washing their hands to get clean instead of just taking a bath.

The sims became more of a maze game then anyone else. Except instead of designing a robot to traverse the maze with ease you are designing a maze that a dinky toy can traverse with ease.

Getting them to educate themselves was also far to much work. Maybe I just hate micro management but I would prefer to be able to leave them to their own devices while I say cook dinner. Then come back and make some improvements only to leave them to get on with it again. Oh and did anyone ever get a sim to reliable collect the mail?

Oh well. Just have to see what is going to happen.

Re:Biggest problem was the AI

[Anonymous Coward]

What's wrong with the game's AI? That sounds like a perfect simulation of typical female behavior, in groups.

Contention Issues and other basic features

[fm6]

The inability of of The Sims to do anything reasonable when two sims content for the same resource (both go through the same door, or even the same spot in a room; both want to grab a plate from the same counter, etc) is pretty dumb. Which makes me wonder if the programmers really understand real-time programming -- resource contention is a fundamental issue for real-time work, after all. Judging from how often the game locks up, or accidentally generate objects with non-unique IDs (try killing off all the Sims in a house, then moving a new family in) makes me suspect that they don't.

I also can't believe that it didn't occur to anybody that bathroom doors need locks!

But the biggest disappointment of the game is that autonmous Sim behavior is a joke. In order to have any real progress in your Sims' lives, you have to micromanage them like a dysfunctional parent. Which makes the whole concept of personality parameters more or less pointless.

If I hear that The Sims 2 deals with some of these issues and that they've opened up their object creation API so we don't have to make do with the few lame objects they provide, then I'll give the game a look. Without this stuff, it's not a game, or a simulation. It's just a dollhouse for grownups.

The thing about the Sims

[TheOnlyCoolTim]

I started off two female roommates and they turned into lesbians as soon as I started trying to make the two roommates friends. I mean, I'm all for lesbians, but WTF? Contrary to what pornography might teach us, the girls I know that live together don't start touching each others' boobies just because they watched TV together...

Tim

Re:The thing about the Sims

[superultra]

You must have accidently (?) installed the Touch-Each-Others'-Boobies patch 1.4 before playing.

Re:The thing about the Sims

[disco_stu00]

You must not watch Cinemax.

it's about time

[truffle]

The sims 2 is long overdue. The sims game engine is so ancient it should have been shot long ago.

It doesn't take a genious to know that remaking the sims basic with a decent 3d graphics engine will result in a tremendous hit. While they're at it they can architect the game so re-implementing all the add-ons they added to the first sims franchise can be done without hacks and mess.

Of course they'll need a couple new flashy features to make the game seem new, but it shouldn't be hard to have a shortlist of such features, based on the massive play of the previous title.

I smell $$$

Re:Here are some sims 2 screenshots

[truffle]

Lets try this again, here are some sims 2 screenshots.

Not as visually detailed as I'd hoped.

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-.

Re:I find it amusing

[*weasel]

I thought that myself for a while. but I played Diablo -much- longer than I played the Sims. I 'got it' more. Similarly with all of my male gaming friends that played both. (some gamers still won't touch anything with mass market appeal ::shrug::)

but hardcore gamers seem to -get- the hunt. the chase. we -get- maximizing our character to make them the best they can possibly be in the ultimate conflict between 'us' and 'the other'.

but with the sims, you aren't necessarily 'hunting' anything. you can't -chase- anywhere. you can maximize your character very easily. There isn't an 'other' you physically conflict with. There isn't much in the game you can't have in a very short time, and before long there isn't -any- goal you have to keep playing for, to keep hunting. there are only so many expensive items, only so many stat points, only so many 'friends'.

I've watch my wife and her friends play the game and talk about it.

It's completely different. They aren't having their sim work out when they know the low body score is the only thing preventing their promotion at work. They aren't gunning for the best paying jobs, or keeping a sim home to craft lawn gnomes all day because it's more efficient.

They just play the game so different. Now don't get me wrong, it isn't a male/female thing. The Sims demographic is only 60% female after all... there are guys out there who get it, and I don't believe for a second that women are somehow genetically predisposed to -not- liking violence or horror, and so The Sims appeals to them on some hormonal level. No, there have been too many market failures based on that idea for it to have any weight.

It's just that there's apparently a whole market of casual gamers who -get- something from the gameplay of The Sims that they -don't- get from Diablo. And it can't be reduced to chasing new/different stuff.

I thought I'd simplified it down to hardcore gamers finding the fun in hunting for cool, whereas these casual gamers find their fun in -making- the cool. But sometimes... it doesn't seem like anyone is really -making- anything. I honestly think they're primarily using The Sims to tell stories.

which is interesting, because most games tell a story through conflict and travel. Whereas with this game, its stories can only be told without physical conflict, or travel.

They're restricted to being much more interpersonal and social. It all winds up more like 'Friends', or 'Seinfeld' than 'GI Joe', or 'Alias'. Which may actually be the draw.

Screenshot

[Lord_Dweomer]

Check out this screenshot. The title is "Bad Timing". On the contrary, I think this guy has the best timing in the world. Nothing says "forgive me!" like your wife and the girl she's cheating on you with having an apology threesome with you.