Thursday 10 March 2005

Pic of the day: Born to study! Screenshot from The Sims 2.

Sims 2: University

Back when I played an early version of Sim City, the Sims could only be seen as small cars moving frantically along the roads. But they were already called Sims. I don't know if this was intended to create a distance, to remind the player that there were not people or humans or persons in there. If so, it didn't work too well. People grew to love -- and occasionally hate -- the small imaginary people in their computer. And in the year 2000, when it was deemed that computer technology was sufficiently advanced, the Sims got their own homes and their own simulated lives. From that year onward, the Sims never left the bestseller lists.

After seven expansion packs, technology once again enabled a new generation of Sims. This time literally, because in Sims2 they go through the whole lifecycle from conception to death. There was one small omission, though. There was no higher education: Your teenager went to school every day (except weekends), and when the teen years were over there was a birthday event and they stopped going to school. Perhaps they moved out, perhaps they lived for free with mom and dad, perhaps they got a job, perhaps married. But they never went away to attend college or university. They never lived in a dorm or shared a house with strangers. Today they do... if it be your will.

***

When Maxis first announced the theme of the expansion pack, gamers reacted with disbelief and outright rejection.
"They should have made pets instead!" *Murmurs of assent* (except from me, who hate the small pee factories with a vengeance. If stray pets in real life came over every single night and defecated all over the edges of my property, I would shoot them with extreme prejudice.)
"What about robots? Where is Servo?"
"What about downtown from Sims: Hot Date?"
"Anything but university!"

I'm pretty sure most of them have been slinking out the doors of the local game shop today carrying a copy of University anyway. Because, well, if it's Sims it is usually better than you could imagine. This also proved true this time, although I personally was positive from the start. (Despite my original preference for Servo...) Adult life is just too short. Yes, in Sims2 as well. There is always the Elixir of Life, which seems to be intentional rather than a cheat. The original adult lifespan is kinda a minimum. People who don't use the opportunities to live according to their chosen destiny, die fairly young. (There is barely time to raise a kid or two before you grow old.) Those who follow their dreams, can live much longer and their offspring will inherit the land.

The 8 semesters on university are inserted right before adult life. The Sims are now "young adults" and can do anything adults can, although it is kinda cramped to do that in a dorm. Eheh. Actually you can send teens off to college at any time – I suppose some are just precocious – but to maximize life, you should shunt them off just before their birthday. If you are playing several families in parallel, you may want to time it so that their kids go to college together as well. You know they want to. ^_^ No, seriously, it shows up as one of their four wants or wishes, if they have a girlfriend or another really good friend. The first thing they think of when they arrive is to look for their friend.

***

But you're likely to notice some new things before you get that far. As soon as you start the game from the new icon, you will notice two things. One, the load times have increased from annoying to excessive. Two, the music is more varied and better. (This will be noticeable throughout the game, especially at university but also during many of the load screens, buy screens and from your Sims' stereo. There are also new musical instruments that can be played together. Music is a pretty big focus in this expansion.)

Then when the family finally loads (after a barely guided tour of the university, if you so choose), some of the wants look different. They have a dark blue border. These are influence wants. Usually they are related to friendship or success at work. When you get these, you gain influence points as well. Gather enough of these, and you can convince other Sims – including and not least NPCs – to do your bidding. Well, your Sims' bidding, you get the point. Make the mailman scrub those toilets! Make the clingy neighbor who shows up unannounced, do embarrassing things in front of the extended family. Make your rival do your homework! It's the sweet, dark taste of power, such as your Sims have never felt before.

There are now a slew of new interactions. Most of them are clearly intended for young people, but others will cheerfully take part in them, even on their own. There is something strangely disturbing about a grown man and his father-in-law fighting with pillows while wearing lab coats. Putting the "fun" back in dysfunctional families, isn't that what they say?

Some actions have become more realistic too. For instance, when Aksel and Desiree held a party for her family and close friends, she served chef salad. Whereupon her parents and grade school sister ignored the meal on the dining table, went to the kitchen and stuffed their faces with snacks from the fridge. Her teen daughter and another teen (a boy which Amalie has taken a liking to) also ignored the food, instead sprawling on the floor chatting (this is called "hanging out" for some reason). They did this for most of the evening, then ran away before the party was over. But at least one of the guests ate of the salad, and of course Aksel.

The guests have generally freer reign now. Not only can they grab snacks if they feel at home, they will also spend much of the time at the piano ... whether they can play or not. A slight irritation is the new feature of automatically setting up a tip jar when you play (unless you're just practicing). I can see this being nifty in a dorm, but it really has no place in a house. There's not much help in a father giving §100 to his daughter, when they all share the same bank account. - _-*

***

The youth theme also extends to the most powerful of the 100+ new items that come with the pack. You can now finally buy handheld game consoles, MP3 players and the indispensable mobile phone. Buy them from a special vending machine. If you want to buy them outside campus, in ordinary neighborhoods, you need to install such a machine in one of your shops. The game does not do that for you. The documentation forgets to mention how you activate them too: After you have bought them, click on the active Sim. Instead of just Meditation, you get the option to use your carry-on gadgets as well. You know you want to. Now you can have fun while waiting for the taxi to take you home. And you can call your friend even though your mom is on the phone for another hour. Just like in real life, you will never go back. Sadly, there is no PDA so you can't write your novel everywhere. Real life wins again!

***

Another new feature is the Life Goal. When choosing a life aspiration (family, money, romance, knowledge or popularity) you are automatically assigned a special goal. This is hard to achieve and is likely only realized near the end of your life (unless you play with aging off, and in some cases even that won't work). If you reach it, you are rewarded a huge amount of aspiration points and influence, and are granted lifelong happiness. More exactly the coveted "platinum mood", which makes you function at peak efficiency no matter your physical needs, as long as you don't actually die. Sadly you cannot choose your Life Goal. It is selected randomly based on your aspiration. So the loving, caring mother Suzanna who quit work to take care of her family, is now secretly dreaming of becoming a criminal mastermind. o_O Of course, if she had chosen Family aspiration from the start, instead of Knowledge, she might have pulled the "6 grandchildren" card instead.

Young people who go to the University actually have the chance to renege on their aspiration (which they chose as they became teens). They get one – and only one – chance to change it, if they advance far enough along their studies. This change follows them when they return to the ordinary Sim world, the neighborhood from which they came. So also does another reward of higher education: Their extended mind can now hold 8 (possibly 9??) items at once instead of the 7 which normal people have. So they can have 5 wants, making them subtly more flexible and slightly more likely to achieve happiness for the rest of their lives.

How to get that far, however, is a matter for another day, if any. Watch this space – or buy the game yourself. ^_^ (You may want a fairly recent PC to do that, though. It is certainly no faster than before.)