Logo
Returning members: Login      New to Dtoid?   REGISTER NOW and join our community of gamers -- you might win these things. Its all free and takes sec.

Did you know? Destructoid is independently owned and updated by a tight group of friends, most which met online. Drop us a line and keep us busy.
 

    all updates

   pc    xbox 360     wii    ps3    ps2    psp    ds    retro    mobile    indie

top searches:
grand theft auto IV   wiiware
age of conan   metal gear 4

New Posts
Best of the week
Contests
Reviews

 

Promoted stories
 
Gaming’s Guilty Pleasures: God mode
NihonTiger90
\\ 04.30.2008
28 comments




[Editor's note: NihonTiger90 takes a look at the games that make us become like Gods for the April Monthly Musings. Damn it, I really want to play SimCity 2000 now. -- CTZ] 

When I saw this month’s Monthly Musings, I could think of one thing and only one thing that I could write about. Something that had been an important part of my formative years as a gamer that made me into the person and the gamer I am today:

I am a Sim-aholic.

You name it, I’ve played it. If it has Sim in the name, it’s come into my hands at some point. I consider Will Wright a visionary God, on equal footing with Shigeru Miyamoto, and dare I say maybe on a higher level.

But what’s most important is what the Sim games are all about. It’s not about the crazy amounts of expansions, no. It’s about being able to step into the shoes of an all-powerful being, to construct, to cultivate, to destroy. It is about what I call God Mode. The real God Mode.

The first time I got to experience this was while playing SimCity 2000. I literally played that games for hours upon hours on my parents' old Apple Macintosh PowerPC. It was the first time in my young gaming life that I came upon the power to shape the world before me on the screen. But it was during those hours that I began to learn that gaming wasn't all just carefree, as it had been on my Super Nintendo for so many years.



Oh look, here's a very nice city I made. Full of life, secure, safe and peaceful.



Hmm, I think I'm in the mood for a plane crashing. Just to see what it's like.



Oh no! She's going down, she's going down ...



... Crap. Well, maybe the tornado will help suck up the debris from the fires...



Oh great, there go my power plants...



... and now it's in my city. How can this get worse?



Just had to open my mouth, huh?



*sigh* *left click, File, Open*

And so was the experience for months and months on end. Experimenting to see what different disasters did, to see if my city could survive or if it was prepared, managing a budget while trying not to go bankrupt, keeping my citizens happy and preventing horrible things from occurring.

Sure, I felt guilty when I tore down cities, when I ripped the earth asunder with an earthquake or volcano, when I watched the people riot because I took away all their police. At the same time, though, I found myself enjoying the whole experience, and even *gasp* learning that actions had moral consequences that I had to deal with. I soon realized that while I could just quit and start over in a game, life was not the same, and that I needed to think things over before I acted. Funny to think SimCity 2000 helped reinforce all that, huh?



SimEarth was one of the many games by Will Wright that took the SimCity experience further. Now, I wasn’t just controlling the growth of a city, but the entire planet. I controlled the temperature, the diversity, civilization’s growth, and the planet’s fate, all in my hands. I could cook the planet by turning up the heat, bombard it with meteors, send it into a deep freeze, make dolphins kings of the world, or just do nothing. It was an incredibly deep game, perhaps deeper and more complex than my 11-year-old mind could understand, but one that my 22-year-old mind now sees the beauty in.

Every time I killed off life on a Planet, whether it be by deforestation or freezing or comets, things did not come without a price. Usually, I ended up undoing all the damage I did somehow and tried to restore the Earth to how it used to be.



With The Sims 2, God Mode got deeper. No longer was I simply God over a city, I was God over people. I could control their individual lives. If I wanted them to starve, I could do it. If I wanted them to not take a shower for three days, I could do it. If I wanted them to fall romantically in love with the mail lady? Yep, can do. In short, whatever your fancy, whatever your whim… The Sims series pretty much lets you do it. Especially because there’s a ton of mods, some good and some bad. Some of them which I won't mention are really, really guilty pleasures.

Naturally, this can lead to some moral dilemmas. Do you actually take care of your Sims as the benevolent One, or do you punish them at every turn until they die, then simply raise more Sims to life, only to repeat the process over and over? The choice is, once again, yours to make. But like SimCity, you must deal with the consequences. Setting fire to your house to kill a Sim you hate might also kill one you love, and once they’re dead, there’s no going back. Thus, God Mode became a guilty pleasure. You could do what you wanted to your Sims, but you often bonded such an emotional attachment to them that when things went bad, you felt bad for them, too.



And now, Spore seeks to do all of that to an even greater extreme. Where SimEarth started, Spore continues. You can now control entire species, entire populations on a planet, from creation to civilization and then destruction. It’s SimEarth meets SimCity meets The Sims, all customizable to your every whim and wish. Spore is the ultimate incarnation of God Mode, when you truly step past being limited and into the world of infinite possibility. Do I grow a species with three arms? Two heads? No legs? Do they live underwater? Are they colossal titans or microscopic bacteria? Truly, Spore has great promise to take God Mode to all-new heights.

God Mode and the games it features in are much like any other open sandbox-style game: they offer us a window to experience something we ordinarily could not. In this case, that’s the experience of creating and controlling people, cities, entire planets. These games are vital to any young gamer’s repertoire: they instill a sense of creativity, but also can help teach morality by letting them experiment with different actions and their consequences. And in case you’re wondering, yes, that’s the reason why I respect Will Wright so much.

If you’ve never played any of these games you don’t know what you’re missing out on. Seriously, go out and pick up one of these games right you. You’ll be thankful you did.


28 COMMENTS, LATEST BY Eschatos
Spore will be the ultimate God Mode. -    view discussion




There are 28 comments about this post:
Qalamari's Avatar
Good article. Did you play any of the more obscure games like SimAnt, SimTower, etc? Or any of the knockoffs like Populous? I guess that wouldn't really fit into the context of the article, but I'm sort of curious.
NihonTiger90's Avatar
Qalamari: You bet your ass I played all of them, including the awful Streets of SimCity and SimCopter :) I really liked SimTower out of the rest.
Dexter345's Avatar
And I thought I was the only person procrastinating this month's Monthly Musing until the last minute.
NihonTiger90's Avatar
Nope, Dex. And someone else just id my other choice, Dynasty Warriors.
ajaxender's Avatar
I was nice to my sim, and he burnt the house down along with himself... by using the microwave wrong. And so, i decided i was cursed for the sims games, and never played them again. Sim city is fun though.
pendelton21's Avatar
Amen, Sim Tower is HIGHLY under-rated.
Kannon's Avatar
Sim Ant and Sim Tower rule.
Cheeburga's Avatar
Not take a shower for three days? I do that shit for five.
AKK's Avatar
When I saw God Mode I thought you were talking about turning an invincibility (God Mode) cheat on and Ramboing the shit out of everyone in an FPS or something like that.

I was let down.

But good article nonetheless.
ChillyBilly's Avatar
My girlfriend plays SimCity 200 every single day, i swear to god she is hooked. I don't think she is all about the "god" aspect of it, I just think she is REALLY REALLY good at it. She'll make a city from scratch and complete it in an hour. As a matter of fact, she is playing it now...look ---->
Bluefusion's Avatar
Man.. I loved SimAnt. Best part about SimAnt on the computer was that you could for some reason be the spider and go around killing ants. There was one even for the SNES, but it wasn't as good.

Good times...
Zatsuga's Avatar
@Kannon,
That's for damn sure.
Qraze's Avatar
great article. i absolutely loved sim ant and sim earth. the hours involved were great. #1_in_the_hood_G!!
The Bez's Avatar
Congrats on Front page and great read.
The-Excel's Avatar
A few weeks ago I started playing SimCity 2000 again for the first time in 10 years and only now do I understand how it all works. And I'm actually having fun with it for the first time.

For the record I also cheat at the scenarios but never while building cities from scratch.
Samit Sarkar's Avatar
Congrats on making the front page, Brian! This blog was awesome, as usual. My personal favorite is Sim Town, which I have fond memories of from grade school.
Cowzilla3's Avatar
sim tower ftw. ALso procrastinating to only one hour into the last day is nothing. i say we all post the monthly musing next month at the literal last minute.
MechaMonkey's Avatar
My girlfriend is a Sim fiend, which is nice because it helps her relate to my own gaming habits. Great article, and congrats on the front page!
topgeargorilla's Avatar
Why does that pipeline say Petaluma? I live near Petaluma.

Mentioned in Charlie Brown specials and home of armwrestling championships and Jeff Gerstmann.
FlatTopJesus's Avatar
Woo, glad to see that this got front-paged man; great work.
Fleet3000's Avatar
i have an awkward feeling that evangelist christians are going to protest Spore because it promotes the idea of evolution.

just a feeling.

i hope.
Cacticus's Avatar
It also promotes the idea of intelligent design, seeing as how you build animals from scratch. Just saying.
nademagnet's Avatar
I honestly never got into the "God" games. But, then again, I haven't played one in a few years.
PetiePal's Avatar
I think the first "God-Gane" I ever played was Populous by Peter Molyneux. THAT game was pretty damn awesome. Way before SimCity you could cause earthquakes, floods, volcanos or the worst of all....Armageddon.

It was pretty damn awesome. And its spiritual successor Black and White let you wreak havoc on your devoted followers.
liquidninja's Avatar
Man, I always lost at Sim City. Because every time I play I want to create a Utopia with a Fire House and Police station in every neighborhood but then I realized I suck a budgeting and go bankrupt and can't play anymore.
mistic's Avatar
great writeup man!

I loved destroying cities in SC2000 :-)
PaperBowser0's Avatar
@ChillyBilly: Damn....it takes me hours to do that..
Eschatos's Avatar
Spore will be the ultimate God Mode.

You must be logged in to post a comment. Click here to login or create a user account now.

DTOID TOP 5 - May 16, 2008
Artsy fartsy Mirror's Edge artwork for your fapping delight
[18753 views]

81
BEEG AMERICAN TEETEES! Rent Roman and hear that line day in, day out ... forever
[15576 views]

70
Way to go, advertising geniuses....meet 'Thumbcock'
[10767 views]

102
WiiWare first impressions: LostWinds (double time!)
[10173 views]

51
First gameplay footage of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
[10104 views]

154
more top stories

Post a new community blog
This month's theme:
"If you love it, change it"
Best of the community this week
Game with us: Friday Night Fights
Meet Dtoiders near you

DTOID CONTEST ALERTS
Reminder: PS3 and Deca Sports contests ending, get your entries in!
Contest: Win a chance to play Assault Heroes 2 with the game's developers!
Big fat raffle: Win one of 100 Deca Sports demo discs for the Wii
Win a PlayStation 3 and Casino Royale on Blu-Ray by playing Bond: Top Agent
The winners of the Insecticide contest announced
MORE CONTEST ALERTS

DTOID PODCASTS
Podtoid 53: The Blogocube
No RetroforceGO! this week, you make Mikuru cry
Podcastle: Dtoid's UK video game podcast
download back episodes


LATEST GAME REVIEWS
Boom Blox
Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Volume 2
Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys!
R-Type Command [update]
NBA Ballers: Chosen One
Persona 3: FES
Mario Kart Wii
Battle of the Bands
all Dtoid reviews

ORIGINAL COLUMNS
Games Time Forgot by Anthony Burch
Bargain Bin Laden by Jim Sterling
The Memory Card by Chad Concelmo
Indie Nation by Anthony Burch
Friday Night Fights by Grim
An RPG draws near by Colette Bennett
You're the man now dog by Hamza Aziz
Nerdcore Culture by Dtoid Staff
Debate to the death by Tom Fronczak
Monday mind teasers by Tom Fronczak
Miniboss Monday by Mike Ferry
Art Attack Friday by Tiffany Chow
Best of the week by Hamza Aziz
Weekend reading by Brad Rice

XBOX 360 NEWS
The week in Rock Band DLC: European bonus tracks come to North America
LucasArts says no Force Unleashed PS3/360 multiplayer, I practice my Force choke
The Protector: Generic-looking and -sounding action comes to PC and 360
Beyond Good & Evil 2 for Xbox 360 and PS3
Xbox 360 Spring Showcase: Hands-on with Too Human
Developer game notes: Top Spin 3
2K Sports reveals Rick Nash to be NHL 2K9 cover athlete
Too Human demo in the works? You better believe it
more Xbox 360 games, news and reviews


NINTENDO WII NEWS
Sega Gamer's Day 2008: new Samba De Amigo screenies
Capcom reveals Ken and Morrigan costumes for Western We Love Golf!
Wii Fit tells a 10-year-old that she's fat, Nintendo responds
MadWorld: The most awesomely violent Wii experience yet
Taiko no Tatsujin coming to the Wii, I take off my pants
Nintendo ordered to pay $21 million for patent infringement
Fun for the whole family: Cornholing comes to the Wii
Lil' Sims returning to Wii and DS with MySims Kingdom
more Wii games, news and reviews


PLAYSTATION 3 NEWS
The week in Rock Band DLC: European bonus tracks come to North America
LucasArts says no Force Unleashed PS3/360 multiplayer, I practice my Force choke
PlayStation Network Update: double bogey edition
Beyond Good & Evil 2 for Xbox 360 and PS3
Developer game notes: Top Spin 3
2K Sports reveals Rick Nash to be NHL 2K9 cover athlete
New Madden 09 trailer is painful to watch...because it's all about tackles
Sony adds YouTube support for developers
more PS3 games, news and reviews


PC NEWS
The Protector: Generic-looking and -sounding action comes to PC and 360
WoW expansion coming this year...polar bear mounts included?
Velvet Assassin slated for release this fall on Xbox 360, PC
She hasn't put clothes on yet: New X-Blades screenshots
BioWare removes 10-day validation from Mass Effect PC due to backlash
Friday Night Fights: What would Destructoid be without FNF edition
Pandemic and EA reveal Lord of the Rings: Conquest
NVIDIA wants to make its products more 'consumer friendly'
more PC games, news, and reviews


DS NEWS
Ugly Betty and American Idol winner to shill for new 'Metallic Rose' DS
Konami Gamer's Night '08: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia details and screens
Lil' Sims returning to Wii and DS with MySims Kingdom
Let me show you Pokemans Platinum: My Pokemans Platinum, let me show it to you
THQ announces Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise for Nintendo DS
EA announces that you will Skate whatever 'it' is on the DS, Wii
Learn how to run a convenience store with your DS!
Nintendo eats the Big Mushroom, nearly doubles revenue
more nintendo ds news and reviews


PSP NEWS
Captain Obvious: Sony admits PSP needs more games
Mario Kart Wii and Monster Hunter 2nd: Japan's top sellers for three weeks
Talk nerdy into Sony's new PSP headset
Covers and screenshots shown for PS2 and PSP versions of NCAA Football 09
Destructoid Review: R-Type Command [update]
Secret Agent Clank gets date and snazzy bow tie
Word: SouthPeak Games officially announces B-Boy for North American release
Developer D2C calls PSP 'a sleeping giant'
more psp news and reviews

RETRO GAMING NEWS
Sega Gamer's Day '08: Golden Axe: Beast Rider screens
No Balls, No Glory: Super Dodge Ball soundtrack remixed
The Little Convention That Could: A look back at TooManyGames 6
Activision preps Pitfall Harry's 'big adventure' for the Wii (Update)
No RetroforceGO! this week, you make Mikuru cry
Run like a raptor! Pixeljam Games' Dino Run released
RetroforceGO! Episode 48: The retro renaissance?
RetroforceGO! recording episode 48 tonight: Upcoming retro revivals
more retro gaming news

tokidoki anime


Japanator - Anime Blog  | Tomopop - Vinyl Toys Blog  |  Poprox - Pop culture blog  |  MiamiNights - Miami Blog
Be Famous! Sort of. Submit a news tip to Dtoid  | Advertising  |  Privacy Policy  |  Powered by Elephant


NOT THE SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: The stuff overheard on Destructoid's community blogs do not yet quite personify the sound of wounded dolphins mating nor reflect the opinions of Destructoid LLC, the Webby-honorated group of promiscuously jolly associate editors that update our home page daily. Read our manifesto and see what we're all about. Participating in Destructoid contests gives us permission to impregnate with your wives and horses, drink all of your beer, and eat all of your nacho dip. Anything submitted becomes the property of the public Internet under creative commons and may end up on some emo kid's arm. Some rights reserved, etc, keep your filthy lawyers tucked away in their sad oak-furnished offices saying things like WHEREAS in all caps and as far away from us as possible or we may hurt them and their vulnerable pets. Please tell a friend about DTOID and contribute: help us keep it fresh, higly accurate and relevant, fun, honest, never too stuffy, and always independent. Also, cocks.