Because the complexity of the game is often masked by the cute pictures found on the official site, misconceptions about the Sims PC games - and the people who play them - abound. Someone who never played the game might have the impression that the typical Simmer is a pre-teen playing with a virtual dollhouse. Upon loading the game for the first time, however, he or she will probably quickly become overwhelmed. The easy part is keeping the sims fed, well-rested, comfortable and happy, so that job performance doesn't suffer, fulfilling goals, wants, chance cards... And that's just looking at the gameplay, straight out of the box.
A previous article briefly touched on the demographics of the Sims games, which spurred a flurry of comments on the Simbology and Cuppa Joe forums, as well as the comment sections of sites, such as simprograms, covering the article. There seems to be a few preconceived notions by members of other gaming communities, that the Sims player is not a true "gamer". Taking it a step farther, quite a few simmers, who participate in more "hardcore" gaming communities, claim there is a sense of "snobbery" among the gaming crowd, that "geek" is now the "cool thing to be", and Simmers just aren't "geeky" enough. Perhaps this is because the forums are not filled with posts on overclocking video cards, frame rates, heating and cooling issues. The Sims games are not violent, there is no bloodshed, and they require no interaction between other players in order to play.
The communities surrounding the games, themselves, are also a hot-button topic. Sims communities are thought to be too "nice" by other gaming communities. As with any online social community, there are dark areas - the not-so-nice forums, which pride themselves on flaming "noobs" and trolling - and at the opposite extreme, there are more saccharine-sweet "Care Bear" forums. Most of the community falls somewhere in-between, generating little notice to an outsider. One comment on the simprograms article states, "In contrast with other game communities, the Sims community tends to require its members to act 'nice'… in sharp contrast to the aggressiveness and competitiveness commonly found on message boards for other games. Which is not to say that Simmers in aggregate are actually, GENUINELY 'nicer'… there’s as much backbiting and territoriality and infighting and drama as you find anywhere online… but amidst all of that, you see plenty of evidence of people orienting to a 'niceness norm'."
Perhaps this idea that the Sims community is "too nice" is based on the heavily moderated official Sims site's BBS. One Simbology member states, "The 'niceness' rule was something which always struck me on the BBS, which I visited regularly in Sims 1 days. A lot of people seemed to feel uncomfortable with the slightest word of criticism and always had to reply to them with statements like 'we should be grateful that Maxis has given us such a great game.'. So for some people there seems to be a rule that you have to praise before you are allowed to criticise." When asked to compare the Sims community to the more "serious" gaming communities, a member of the Cuppa Joe forum says, "Simmers seem to know their limitations and admit to them and ask for help, instead of pretending like they know everything. I think that may simply be because [The Sims games] attract more female players. In the English Guild 2 forums, it's about halfway between the two extremes. No one there seems to be tech savvy at all, or pretends to be."
This brings up another assumption: simmers are naive when it comes to understanding the machines running their games. Most non-simming gamers don't realize that a simmer who has configured his or her computer to run the game on high-graphics settings, with no lag, and quick loading times, obviously has at least a basic understanding about what is required to not only run the game, but to make it run well and look good. It ain't easy, and the game requires a high-end machine to run at its full potential.
Simmer BoilingOil made an interesting observation on simbology that dispels the myth of "gaming" and computers, in general, as being a "boys' club". He explains, "Computers were long considered to be 'guy stuff'. But the Sims have a HUGE fan-base among the female population of this planet. And not only for playing, but for custom content creation as well! There's some magnificent female modders out there. Computing is no longer a guys-only domain!" When put on the spot to name her PC specs, the previously-quoted Cuppa Joe member's response was immediate: "AMD Turion II Ultra Dual Core Mobile M60 2.5 GHz, 4 GB RAM, HD Radeon 4200 Mobility graphics card." She didn't stop there. "[My desktop PC] is AMD A2 processor 2.6 GHz. 4 GB RAM, Radeon HD 3850 graphics card, running XP and built by my own two hands." Yes, that's right; SHE built it herself.
Another Simbology member points out that there are a number of external programs that are used by Sims 2 players to modify their Sims game to their liking, such as: SimPE, SimWardrobe's Hack Conflict Detection Utility (HCDU), DJS Sims Wardrobe Wrangler and the Compressorizor, Delphy's Download Organizer, and the Sims2pack Clean Installer. She explains,"Of all of these, SimPE is acknowledged to be the most intricate and technical of the programs, which requires a bit of knowledge as to file and game mechanics. I don't know if there are other games that require that level of external programming to change the internal mechanics of a game, but I think it's unusual that there are so many programs that can be used to do so within one game."
So, there is the way Maxis/EA intended its customers to play, and then there's the way the community wants to play. And if the community wants to customize the game to its standards, then its members are going to inadvertently get a crash course ("crash" often being the operative word) in some basic programming, and undergo lots of trial and error, to finally get it right. And if people still think that's kid stuff, then wait until the game modders have their say in an upcoming article!
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are the views of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of examiner.com.
Comments
This article was a very good read! Thank you!
Very good article. It hit all the right points.
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