Text | Maureena
"My son is 18 years old and ready to leave the family" "My wife and my daughter are getting along, what should I do?" This is not a big collection of dog blood news, but a player discussion of the Douban "Sims Group". The "Sims Group" with nearly 100,000 simsters is proud of both the number of people in the Douban game group and the daily life, second only to the national mobile game "Glory of the King", "Yin and Yang Division" and "Original God". Some people see The Sims as their own life simulator to experience unattainable dreams in reality; others see it as a human observation, setting basic attributes for villains and then letting go to see what they will develop under extreme freedom.
Since its debut at the E3 Game Show in 1999 (officially released in February 2000), The Sims has released four generations of titles and more than 70 expansion packs. With total sales of $5 billion and more than 200 million copies, the series is one of the best-selling games of all time. It's hard to imagine that the twenty-two-year-old game, The Sims, still has such a group of die-hard fans. And judging from the content of the discussion, there are still new players entering the pit. What exactly "The Sims" can simulate is so addictive. Manipulate life
At first, the parent company EA was not optimistic about this "Sims life" game. Thinking that it is nothing more than a "dollhouse model", and even worried that it will affect the "SimCity" that has formed a brand effect, it has arranged its booth in a relatively remote location. However, the Booth of "The Sims" attracted a large number of reporters and tourists. "Oh my God, they're kissing." On the screen of the demonstration machine, a pair of female villains fell in love and began to kiss passionately, which surprised reporters who were accustomed to various action blockbusters. "The Sims" naturally became the focus of the E3 topic that year, and the parent company EA also reassured its doubts. "This game is really real." Jessica has been playing The Sims since college, but at the time she didn't understand why the villain suddenly had a lower mood value and then returned to normal after a while. She once felt that this was a system bug, until she also became a social animal. "You know, when you go to work, you will suddenly feel very irritable and sad, and there is no reason, and after a while you will be fine." The Sims is almost exactly the same as the laws of the real world. After the villain is created, he has to go to work to earn money to maintain his daily life. At the same time, it is necessary to make friends socially, and there is a certain social relationship to have the possibility of establishing a family with other villains.
According to the initial set of values, the types of jobs that villains can find are different, but the initial salary is not high, and they need to work hard step by step to live a good life. If you want villains to live a life of a man who calls the wind and rain, you have to keep working in the hope of a promotion and a raise. At the same time, the villain's social time will be encroached upon, and there will be no time to meet the new person; if the villain indulges in socializing, the working state will be damaged and the life will fall into poverty. Of course, there will be players who will get a lot of money and eternal lifespan at the beginning of the game through cheating and other means. But that doesn't mean the game loses its fun by cheating, but rather that you have more time to experiment with society in the game. For example, instructing one's own villains to destroy other people's families and so on. Players who have been exposed to the series from junior high school have witnessed the evolution of the picture quality of "The Sims" from rough to exquisite, and the game content has become more and more abundant. After working for many years and no longer having a lot of leisure time, she will always have a place in the computer for "The Sims".
"Because you can control other people's lives." Stellar tells Hard Candy that The Sims is like a microcosm of the real world. When you pinch a villain, you can decide the future of the villain according to the mood, who the villain marries and quarrels with must obey the player's arrangement, and the feeling of God's perspective determining everything is a way to reduce stress. In the "Sims" post bar, Hard Candy Jun also saw that some players said that they would use the names of colleagues who were not in a good relationship with them as the names of villains, and then let them suffer frequently in the game to make fun of them. "I used furniture to surround the colleague who was in the company and did not deal with him, let him starve to death at home, and the tombstone could be sold for money, which was really relieved." Directing life
But just by relying on the details that are highly similar to reality and the coolness of manipulating others, it is obvious that it will not maintain the popularity of "The Sims" for twenty years. Open the community related to "The Sims", the most discussed in addition to the various bizarre relationships developed between the villains, is the player's face pinch experience sharing. Due to the high degree of freedom of the game, all kinds of film and television characters and celebrities have been reborn in "The Sims". Overseas, a large number of players transplant the characters and scenes of popular American dramas into their own game worlds, and arrange these villains to stage the plot according to their own settings. "By transforming the most mundane moments of our lives— getting up, going to work, cleaning the house, cultivating relationships—into countless e-dramas, The Sims revolutionized the game." Apple's editors commented on the impact of The Sims on players.
The Soul of the Sims edition of Friends is even more burning for the soul of the eight-point file of domestic Sims players. In a series of "Sims Player Gathering Places" summarized by players, there are two platforms that seem to have no fit with the game - Douyin and Kuaishou. On these two platforms, there are a large number of player-made "Sims" second creation content. These two creations are not the regular live broadcast of game content or the sharing of experiences, but the player uses the game's high degree of freedom to become a director and manipulate the villains to stage a series.
TikTok #Sims Series #Topic, with 940 million cumulative views. The "director" usually asks the author of the online text for authorization, and then establishes a character in the game to "shoot" the episode according to the content of the online text. There are also "directors" who take the original route, from editing to shooting without pretending to be done by hand, all by themselves. Most of these series are less than 3 minutes long, and some authors have "filmed" thousands of episodes. For these short and concise episodes, the audience also pays the bill, and some accounts have accumulated hundreds of thousands of fans by relying on the series. Including the recent popular "sheep placenta literature" and the long-standing "Biography of Zhen Huan", etc., they have been reproduced in the world of "The Sims". In addition to using "The Sims" to make its own micro-short dramas, CP Rice also often uses "The Sims" for meal replacement. In reality, the deceased CP, who has long been dead and inseparable, remarries in a parallel game world and lives a loving life with Hemei and Mimi and three years of hugging under the interference of players.
"The Sims" is extremely inclusive, and same-sex love has actually existed since the first generation, but it is impossible to have children. The new expansion pack even satisfies the needs of players to have children of the same sex in the game, realizing the obsession of "they are still in love in parallel worlds", and players will share screenshots such as "the happy moment of our family so-and-so". There are also some players who will pinch out a villain who is highly similar to the characters in the film and television works or the artists in reality, and try to be as close as possible to the realistic archetype when choosing personality. Then take a laissez-faire attitude towards the villain, and from time to time to "peek" into the life of the villain, such as their relationship with other villains, sexual orientation, etc., and share it with other friends. The high degree of freedom of The Sims makes its influence break through the game circle and extend to other groups, and the new effect is naturally better than other "pure-blood" games. Another self
I believe that many people have such memories, kindergarten aunts ask "what do you want to do when you grow up", children speak freely, from scientists to politicians, the answers are various. When we grow up, we have no choice but to find that reality is so cruel that most people can only be chosen, and "The Sims" once again awakens the childhood dream of "who do you want to be". Under the question of "why do so many people like to play The Sims", more than 100 players gave their own answers. Many of them mentioned that The Sims was able to "meet YY's needs." Although there are many simulation games on the market, even in recent years, there have been several blockbusters, such as "Animal Forest Friends", "Jiangnan Hundred Views" and so on. However, due to various conditions, it is difficult for them to meet the different needs of each player in an all-round way like "The Sims", and to achieve self-substitution and emotional catharsis.
Some players said that they may not be able to realize the wish of buying a house in a big city on their own, so they regard the game as a projection of reality and make a big renovation in "The Sims", and the sense of achievement can even overshadow the dilemma in reality. Some players shared that they once liked a girl, but they never dared to show their love. In the game, he pinched the villain with his own appearance and the other person's appearance, watching the villains fall in love with each other, and the unspeakable feelings seem to be compensated. In game-related discussion areas such as Douban and Tieba, the development of more "evil ways" gameplay has always been enjoyed by players. For example, a white-skinned, beautiful and long-legged villain, if separated from all male characters, be a scumbag to play with feelings; or manipulate his own villain to destroy other people's families, marry a millionaire to achieve unearned gains, and then kill him; or forcibly have a relationship with NPCs through means such as card bugs, and let the other party conceive their own children. The mods (plugins) developed by the players themselves are more "evil", such as unlocking more sexual positions, and the intimate parts of the villain are no longer covered by mosaics.
In the real world of the see-through MOD, most people only dare to have a flash of thought in their brains, which is realized in The Sims, and the player's secret inner needs are satisfied. Coupled with the fact that The Sims is highly similar to the real world, this compensatory satisfaction is stronger and more real. Interestingly, in the player community, it seems that different simulation games are also "graded". For example, in "Moving Forest", "abusing" small animals, "dissuading" their move to other islands by beating and snubbing small animals, etc., if posted on social platforms, it will attract the criticism of many righteous people. In "The Sims", acts such as having relationships with immediate family members and seducing death into bed can be accepted and tolerated. The most realistic "Sims" does not care about "political correctness", which encourages more players to vent their psychological needs in fancy ways and share them without hesitation.
It's worth noting that, according to data released by EA, 60% of the users in The Sims 4 are young women between the ages of 18 and 24. The longevity of the series is also clearly related to the characteristics of the female player group. On the one hand, these players have rich emotional needs, on the other hand, they are also willing to share on social platforms to attract more players into the pit. How many secret desires do you not only fail to achieve, but cannot even express to others? Without Save/Load, you have to follow all kinds of rules, and in the world of The Sims, you can overthrow them all and repeat them as you please.