Recently I've purchased The Sims 3 (brilliant with 4 coming out soon) to relive the glory days of the original game. In the original, (I should mention I was around 10 at the time and played it for about 3 years), I would build articulate homes, have them die in terrible ways to make haunted houses, send the kids to military school when I got tired of having them around, and absolutely LOVED having the robot butler. Not to mention the soundtrack (which I still listen to at work for ambiance).
While the first game was fun, we understandably grew apart, and with the new purchase, I've noticed a HUGE change in my own gameplay style as opposed to the general feel of the game. There have been so many improvements and new algorithms added in that it's hard to take it all in at once. They still aren't the smartest little avatars, but they at least don't trap themselves around each other anymore in one square foot of space! Anyways, I find a greater pleasure in making them thrive now, seeing their families grow, their careers improve and watching the gradual influx of money. Granted I still enjoy building gorgeous homes, but I tend to make them so they are beautiful and livable, less eccentric, but creative and nice.
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| This land is mine to shape to my will. Muahahahahaha! |
I think this says something in general about the way children understand the world and adults do, neither view is superior. Children have not completely developed their morality to expand fully beyond themselves and what effects them directly, now that I've grown a little wiser, I see that even though these creatures are made of bits, I don't want to do things just for the heck of it. It's become less of a God-complex of needing a little more control over life to more of like watching a fish tank. Which is sometimes what I do when I am working from home and am stressed. I will turn on the game and just let them go about their lives, and I on occasion need to extract them from the filter.
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| A patron throws darts as Justin Simberlake looks on. |
It's just virtual people watching I guess, but it's still neat to see the stories and relationships that develop. I just wonder how much is pseudo-randomly selected within the code to happen, or if when they are created and move into a home if there is a destiny before them laid out by the computer. Great, now I need to see if I can bust open the source code to see!
