I'm talking about the Sims again, and there is nothing you can do to stop me!
Why is it that my beloved Sims is the best selling computer game of all time?
Is it because, according to Marie-Laure Ryan, computer games are designed for a purpose and real life is not? Or, as she says, you can win or lose a game but there are no strict definitions of those terms applied to real life?
Well my friends.. the Sims is neither one nor both nor any of those things. From here forward, when I mention the Sims, I am of course referring to the Sims 2 [sims 3 next year, woo!].
The Sims is a game without definite objective. Different from most games where the goal is something like rescuing a princess, the Sims simply wants you to create a family and keep them alive. You cannot "win" the Sims, but you can lose. This is interesting because humans by nature seek acceptance, yet flock to a game where you can never win, and only lose! [To lose you must have killed off every living sim on the lot]
These aspects of the Sims shows that the game, according to the chart on p. 191, is closer to life than to a game.
Marie-Laure Ryan brings up the Sims herself when discussing the narratological relevance of video games. She says it is easy to narrate your Sims' lives as they rescue the family from a fire by calling the fire station, etc. Does this give the sims TRUE narrative qualities if the player must create them himself? Can a player not force similar narratives on other games?
I am not really sure of that answer, but I do know the Sims is so popular because it is a blank template. When you are Link trying to rescue Zelda, sure you can make up a an imaginary love triangle between Link, Zelda, and the heart fairy. However, in the Sims, you really CAN make that love triangle happen, as well as decide the fate of your sims. In the Sims, it is less obvious that you are bound by the limits of the game, and more obvious that you can make all the choices for your Sim family.
Comments
You have definitely given me
You have definitely given me some things to google, my friend. Very nice first comment.
In relation...
What you're referring to here, how The Sims doesn't really have an ending point (which is how they can make 999,999 expansions for it and still sell them) is also true for much of the Massively Multiplayer Role Playing game (MMORPG) genre, though I suppose they still have overarching goals that the developers of those games created. However, there are two MMORPGs in particular that break away from really any goals other than those you create yourself: EVE Online and Second Life.
EVE takes place in space and has you flying around in a ship, creating or joining corporations, running the economy of the game, and attacking other corporations with thousands of other people. You can just kind of be a merchant in the game and never fight anything (though you might want protection, because others chose to be space pirates). The most famous thing to happen is something I won't describe in detail (those details are here), but resulted in the loss of over $16,000 by one of those corporations.
Second Life is some kind of free-form MMO, where anyone can add content to the game, some actually making a good living based on the things they do with it, such as creating textures or in-game buildings for a company wanting to promote something or another. I haven't actually played this one, so I don't know a whole lot about it, but from what I understand, the game is pretty well described by it's title. People just kinda do whatever, like fly around and talk to one another.
Also, this is my first comment ever. I'm very proud of it.