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

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.

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

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-.