Screenshot of video game's cover by K. Reyes March 2021
Bibliographic Information:
- Title: The Sims 4
- Released: 2015 in Mac compatible version
- Developed by: Maxis
- Created & designed by: William Ralph Wright
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Platform: Origin
- Producers: Kevin Gibson, Grant Rodiek, Ryan Michael Vaughan
Genre [ Format of the Title]:
- Animation, realistic games, simulation [Video Game]
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Awards or Honors:
Interest Level:
Rated as Teen by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (2020). This is a single player game and many “Simmers,” as the dedicated players of this game call themselves, have been playing some variant of Sims since its inception. |
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Plot Summary:
At its simplest level, The Sims4 allows you to create your own characters (CAS - Create a Sim) by choosing every detail necessary to create a “person.” Choose an age from toddler - elder, gender (or remain fluid), customize gender settings including physical frame, clothing, ability to become pregnant, impregnate or neither. Choose their voice pitch by clicking on specific icons such as treble clef sound melodious, bell sounds clear, fire sounds warm, trumpet sounds brash. There are also very specific toddler traits that are different from the rest of the adult SIMS and these eight traits are: angelic, charmer, clingy, fussy, independent, wild, silly, inquisitive.
You will continue to do this for every character you wish to have in your family and then proceed to move to a particular venue where you then have the option to choose a house based on how much money your characters would make. Within the character traits there are four categories: emotional, hobby, lifestyle, and social; each category breaks down into even finer details. The traits you give your Sim determine his/her/their interaction with the other characters you’ve created. The game gives your Sims tasks to do based on the character traits you choose. This game proceeds, as in real life, with birth being the creation of your character and death being the result if you don’t care for your Sim. Every activity and interaction in between simulates real life.
At its simplest level, The Sims4 allows you to create your own characters (CAS - Create a Sim) by choosing every detail necessary to create a “person.” Choose an age from toddler - elder, gender (or remain fluid), customize gender settings including physical frame, clothing, ability to become pregnant, impregnate or neither. Choose their voice pitch by clicking on specific icons such as treble clef sound melodious, bell sounds clear, fire sounds warm, trumpet sounds brash. There are also very specific toddler traits that are different from the rest of the adult SIMS and these eight traits are: angelic, charmer, clingy, fussy, independent, wild, silly, inquisitive.
You will continue to do this for every character you wish to have in your family and then proceed to move to a particular venue where you then have the option to choose a house based on how much money your characters would make. Within the character traits there are four categories: emotional, hobby, lifestyle, and social; each category breaks down into even finer details. The traits you give your Sim determine his/her/their interaction with the other characters you’ve created. The game gives your Sims tasks to do based on the character traits you choose. This game proceeds, as in real life, with birth being the creation of your character and death being the result if you don’t care for your Sim. Every activity and interaction in between simulates real life.
YouTuber shows us how to build a Sim 's house (Deligracy, 2021)
Game Designer Background:
William Ralph Wright was born in 1960 in Atlanta, GA and attended Louisiana State University. He is the game designer who created the original Sims after he experienced the tragic 1991 fire that burned through several homes including his own in Oakland, CA. Prior to his creation of The Sims, he was already a well-regarded game designer and he co-founded a game development company called Maxis (Wikimedia, 2021). He is an award-winning game developer (and I think a cool dad as he apparently used to build robots with his daughter!). A New York Times article refers to him as the god of all god games because The Sims was the first video game, and an enduring game, that gave the player god-like powers in the game (Seabrook, 2006).
William Ralph Wright was born in 1960 in Atlanta, GA and attended Louisiana State University. He is the game designer who created the original Sims after he experienced the tragic 1991 fire that burned through several homes including his own in Oakland, CA. Prior to his creation of The Sims, he was already a well-regarded game designer and he co-founded a game development company called Maxis (Wikimedia, 2021). He is an award-winning game developer (and I think a cool dad as he apparently used to build robots with his daughter!). A New York Times article refers to him as the god of all god games because The Sims was the first video game, and an enduring game, that gave the player god-like powers in the game (Seabrook, 2006).
Critical Evaluation:
The Sims4 hooks the player who gets to control many things about his/her Sim. Once you have your Sim created, you can give it a particular career that’s based on the personality traits you have chosen. You can play this simulation on your laptop and there are keys (WASD) or up and down arrows to help you navigate the game. The simplicity of the game is deceiving. The Sim can interact with everything from other Sims, the house you created, the environment it's in, and it can do the actions you’ve given it to do etc. The longer you play, the more skills your Sim acquires, and there are aspirations they can work toward which you can set up by selecting her career and then tasks are given for your Sim to accomplish. Completing these tasks is how you level up so that your Sim makes more money, and thus could buy a bigger house, or get a car, or get married etc…
The Sims4 game inadvertently teaches the player home management skills as well as budgeting and interpersonal skills. The player learns how to make its Sims successful by making sure their Sim is happy and Aspiration Goals are usually what helps make your Sim happy. As a player, you will need to be careful to watch the Sim’s Needs (Bladder, Hunger, Social, Fun, Energy, and Hygiene); keeping this panel in the green is essential to keeping your Sim alive. There is a large element of personal responsibility the player takes on towards the characters he/she creates. This game is not for one who wants a closure to a game or expects winners and losers. This is not a linear game but truly a simulation game of life.
Creative Use for a Library Program:
Collaborate with the English department and get students to do a storytelling project. The Sims4 can be used as an inspiration for creating diverse and increasingly sophisticated characters and situations. As a culminating project, the library will host a story sharing afternoon where students share what they’ve written.
Speed-Round Game Teaser:
Want to play god and create your world as you wish, populating it with characters of all kinds, in a world you’ve designed just for them? Pick up The Sims4 and let your inner goddess/god and creative mind build the houses, grow a town, choose your people or randomize them if you want. You are in control.
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation:
People might complain that some situation are depicted to realistically. For example, in “real life” Sims will have sex (you’ll never see this but you'll know it's happening under a moving blanket with hearts floating up); Sims will get pregnant, be in relationships you may not like, or even experience various, not so sanitized ways of dying like electrocution for example. But the lessons a player can learn such as money management and responsibility for another life is priceless.
Reason for Inclusion:
My thirteen year old daughter and her friends are obsessed with this game and now I get it. It is like playing house, except on steroids. There’s really no end to the game-playing so now I know why they can play this for hours. Plus, this is a game that I was considering purchasing for a couple of computers in the library.
Collaborate with the English department and get students to do a storytelling project. The Sims4 can be used as an inspiration for creating diverse and increasingly sophisticated characters and situations. As a culminating project, the library will host a story sharing afternoon where students share what they’ve written.
Speed-Round Game Teaser:
Want to play god and create your world as you wish, populating it with characters of all kinds, in a world you’ve designed just for them? Pick up The Sims4 and let your inner goddess/god and creative mind build the houses, grow a town, choose your people or randomize them if you want. You are in control.
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation:
People might complain that some situation are depicted to realistically. For example, in “real life” Sims will have sex (you’ll never see this but you'll know it's happening under a moving blanket with hearts floating up); Sims will get pregnant, be in relationships you may not like, or even experience various, not so sanitized ways of dying like electrocution for example. But the lessons a player can learn such as money management and responsibility for another life is priceless.
Reason for Inclusion:
My thirteen year old daughter and her friends are obsessed with this game and now I get it. It is like playing house, except on steroids. There’s really no end to the game-playing so now I know why they can play this for hours. Plus, this is a game that I was considering purchasing for a couple of computers in the library.
REFERENCE
Deligracy, 2021 March 10). How to build your first home in the Sims 4 [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Ifns51VNi_A
ESRB. (2020, June 26). Ratings Guides, Categories, Content Descriptors. ESRB ratings. https://www.esrb.org/ratings-guide/
IMDb. (2021). The sims 4. Award. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4109630/awards
Seabrook, J. (2006, October 20). Game Master. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/11/06/game-master
Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, March 7). Will Wright (game designer). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Wright_(game_designer)
ESRB. (2020, June 26). Ratings Guides, Categories, Content Descriptors. ESRB ratings. https://www.esrb.org/ratings-guide/
IMDb. (2021). The sims 4. Award. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4109630/awards
Seabrook, J. (2006, October 20). Game Master. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/11/06/game-master
Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, March 7). Will Wright (game designer). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Wright_(game_designer)
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