I've never been a big fan of Will Wright's games -- when I was a kid, I found SimCity and SimEarth too deep and confusing and, as a teenager, was quickly bored by The Sims. A games desgin student at Anglia Ruskin University named Robin Burkshaw, however, has me singing a different tune. It seems that with a little bit of wit and originality, you can create, or at least catalyze, a really interesting narrative out of The Sims 3: he created two homeless sims, gave them a few character traits, and then let them run loose.
From his blog, it sounds like the results could be awfully hilarious:
This is Kev and his daughter Alice. They’re living on a couple of park benches, surviving on free meals from work and school, and the occasional bucket of ice cream from a neighbour’s fridge.
When you create a person in The Sims 3, you can give them personality traits that determine their behaviour. Kev is mean-spirited, quick to anger, and inappropriate. He also dislikes children, and he’s insane. He’s basically the worst Dad in the world.
But the experience quickly becomes sad: "His daughter Alice has a kind heart, but suffers from clumsiness and low self-esteem. With those traits, that Dad, and no money, she’s going to have a hard life."
I don't want to put words in Burkshaw's mouth, nor do I want to talk on a subject that I don't know much about, but Alice and Kev shed a lot of insight into games' potential for social criticism and awareness. Indeed, there are several links to social organizations and charities at the end of Alice and Kev's tale.
Do yourself a favor and hop over to aliceandkev.wordpress.com -- it's compelling, fascinating, and heart-wrenching stuff. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but I read every entry in one sitting.
[Via BoingBoing]
Good find :)
Now I want to play Sims 3
I've just finished them all and they are grrrrrrrrrrreat! :]
I can't wait for it to be updated again :]
This is the first Sims game I've played and so far I'm very impressed by how simple real-life stuff translates to game mechanics. For instance I had a character who's lifetime wish was to be a great surgeon, but I had her get pregnant at the beginning of the young adult stage. Now her day to day wishes are to be a good mother, but she still wants to be a top surgeon. It's really interesting managing the resources to try and do both. Her husband is a childish loner, so he tends to play video games or frolic in the sprinkler instead of taking care of the baby :\
I find part of the brilliance in this heart-rending tale is that it's still in the making and we aren't promised anything, just like our own lives. I'm sure the majority of us will like this story to have a happy ending, but if it doesn't, tough shit, that's life.
Yeah, pretty intriguing stuff.