the sims
Latest
Flameseeker Chronicles: Memory lane and the delights of anticipation
The clock is ticking -- 2011 is winding down (less than six weeks left!) and Guild Wars 2 fans everywhere have closed beta on the brain. This news has been out there for a very long time, but just to eliminate any confusion, I'll go straight to a recent quote from Martin Kerstein: "We will enter CBT before the end of the year, and depending on the results we get from it, we will decide on Open Beta and Launch." The phrase "small closed beta" has also been tossed around, so I seriously doubt ArenaNet plans to go all BioWare on us and start slinging hundreds of thousands of keys in every direction. (Of course, Star Wars: The Old Republic is exactly one month out from launch at this point, and Guild Wars 2 is definitely not.) That doesn't stop us, the fans, from having a pile of questions. When will the beta start? How many people will get in? How long will it last? Will it be ongoing or weekends only? What is the development team hoping to focus on? Only time will tell, but it doesn't stop us from waiting, wondering, and anticipating. (Aside to the developers: I'm out of town this Wednesday through Sunday. Please don't do anything then.) There's a lot to look forward to, but at the moment we're in the lull that comes after new information has been revealed, dissected, and discussed to pieces. We're waiting for whatever comes next, so I'm going to take the opportunity to look in the other direction: back. Follow along after the jump to join me on memory lane.
The Sims Social officially launches on Facebook
EA "officially" launched The Sims Social on Facebook yesterday, but it's been in open beta since August 9. That enabled EA to achieve the seemingly impossible task of having almost 5 million "monthly active users" listed on the game's release date. Nice trick! In addition to that achievement, EA is launching its creepy, creepy game bolstered by a Gamescom award. The shadowy cabal of "independent experts" awarded The Sims Social with its "best browser game" award. We suppose there wasn't a "best browser game with which to proposition your Facebook friends" award.
Come, relive the creepy with The Sims Social announcement trailer
Few E3 moments provided bone-chilling waves of creepiness quite like the announcement trailer for The Sims Social during EA's press conference. You can now watch the Facebook title's first look after the jump -- just get ready to get really, really uncomfortable.
The Sims Social brings awkward video game hook-ups to Facebook
At EA's E3 2011 press conference, CEO John Riccitiello was excited to announce The Sims Social, which is ... The Sims on Facebook. That's basically it. You'll be able to "play" a lower-res version of The Sims on Facebook. There wasn't much talk in the way of features, but the announcement trailer was pretty hilarious and ultra creepy. We'll try to track that down for you guys so you can share in our misery right now.
Sims 3 adding pets this fall; standalone game for consoles and 3DS
With The Sims 3's latest expansion, Generations, launching this week, it's time for EA to announce the next installment: Pets. The title will be an "entirely new standalone game" on Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo 3DS. It'll be a standard expansion on PC and Mac. The Sims 3: Pets will give players direct control over the creatures and even allow breeding and sharing. The Xbox 360 version will have Kinect capabilities, allowing players to control "their pets and Sims" using voice commands. Like, and this is in the press release: "telling their Sim to be romantic." Take a moment to think it through. ... Awkward, right? For the Nintendo 3DS, Pets will use the built-in pedometer to add more "Karma Points" the more the player walks. The points can be used on in-game items. Using the 3DS's StreetPass players can gift pets to other Pets owners. Oh, also, if you don't make at least one crazy lady with hundreds of cats in the neighborhood, you're playing The Sims wrong.%Gallery-125274%
MMObility: Travians and socializing on any device
Last week I told you a little bit about Travians, a neat little mobile- and browser-based game brought to us by the same good people who brought us Travian. (Notice the singular title of Travian, the island-based MMORTS.) I was intrigued as soon as I saw it mainly because it looked like it was doing something different: creating a mostly non-combat experience that is so very rare in today's market. I had also a lot of experience with Travian before, and despite not enjoying some of the aspects of the game, I enjoyed playing with friends. I hoped that Travians would allow a player to insert a single avatar into the greater world of Travian islands, and that's sort of what you do. If you have played The Sims before, you'll have a basic idea about the what you have to do in Travians. You must point your little person to the bathroom, aim him toward a food source, and even tuck him into bed. Your character won't die or wet the floor if you don't perform successfully, but he will lose some ability to gain experience and other points. If you have enjoyed a conversation while in an online game, found yourself crafting away an evening, or spent a great deal of time decorating your virtual home, you'll have a basic idea about the optional activities in Travians. Click past the cut and I'll tell you more! %Gallery-124785%
Enter at Your Own Rift: A case for player housing
Earlier this week we were treated to the news that Trion Worlds is going to offer free character transfers between "select servers" once Update 1.3 hits. Now, how useful this will be is anyone's guess -- as some have noted, this may just be a clever ploy to redistribute the population from high-pop servers to low-pop ones -- but generally it's been met with applause from the community. I remain impressed as a consumer with how fast and aggressive Trion is pumping out content, and the fact that this is a free transfer once per week is really cool considering how most other subscription MMOs charge for a similar "premium" service. Whatever Trion's motive and however it'll play out, I do know this: The company needs to continue to bring the heat to the competition. It's vital that RIFT distinguishes itself from the rest of the pack in some way, whether it be polish, originality, speed, customer service, or innovation. Today I'd like to make a case for what I think should be high up on Trion's development schedule: player housing. We know it's something the devs have discussed, with some very much for and some very much against, but I'm hoping it's gone past the brainstorming phase. Why should we care about what might seem like fluff? How could housing work in RIFT? Tune in after the jump, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel to find out!
Sims 3: Generations trailer introduces the world's worst teenagers
If hooking up in the hot tub isn't your ultimate end-game in The Sims 3, then you might want to check out Generations, the latest expansion. Now it's your mid-life crisis instead of just another Tuesday! It's all about experiencing life's major moments, like raising lawn-hating teenagers.
Second Life's Rod Humble on accessibility, new tech, and the future
Second Life doesn't get a ton of press anymore, partly because of its age and party because -- even after nearly eight years -- people still don't know what to make of it. Is it a game? Is it a virtual world? Is it a melting pot for anyone who has ever thought to themselves: "I know! Let's code, model, and distribute some giant free-standing genitalia!" Luckily, Rock, Paper Shotgun has stepped up to interview new Linden Lab boss Rod Humble and shed some light on the matter. Humble recently left EA after six years overseeing the second and third entries in the long running Sims franchise, and speaks about trading the relatively insulated world of virtual suburbia for the wild and incredibly untamed frontiers of Second Life. "What makes Second Life so intriguing to me is its hard to define nature. I have heard people call it a virtual world, a game, the 3D internet, a social media platform, the list goes on. I like that kind of unresolved ambiguity, I think it shows something that is not yet fully evolved and has exciting new roads to discover," Humble says. He goes on to outline plans to revamp Second Life's performance, ease-of-use, and service aspects in order to counter the recent decline in user hours.
The Game Archaeologist and the NeverEnding Quest: My expedition
Today I feel a little like Jake from The Blues Brothers, the Jake who, while on the defensive when confronted with his failings, comes up with a laundry list of excuses including earthquakes, flat tires, a lost tuxedo, a stolen car, floods and locusts: "It wasn't my fault, I swear to God!" Yup, Jake, I empathize. After going through an excellent month of EverQuest on The Game Archaeologist here, I had every intention to marinate in old-fashioned EQ goodness for the very first time in my life. I set several evenings aside, put on my chainmail bikini and Viking hat, and told the computer to, I quote, "Bring it on." Then the floods and locusts happened, in the form of a number of personal crises compounded by an unexpectedly difficult time just getting into the EverQuest Escape to Norrath unlimited trial. I don't know what's going on over at SOE, but the signup for this trial simply doesn't work. I followed the directions and downloaded the client, but the next screen (which contained the activation key) never appeared. It appears that I'm not alone dealing with this frustrating experience, but long story short, I eventually created a second account to just get the 14-day trial (instead of the unlimited one) to get in the game. By then I was down to just a mere two evenings of EverQuest trompings, which I knew would not be enough to satisfy the fans looking for an in-depth impressions of their favorite game. So I have to throw myself on your mercy and tell you that I played it, but not nearly as much as I should've. That said, it definitely was an intriguing expedition from which I took away quite a few notes and during which I at least had the opportunity to get my feet wet. What is EverQuest like to an experienced MMO player who's coming to the game for the first time over a decade after it released? Hit the jump and let's see how far down this rabbit hole goes!
The Game Archaeologist and the year that was 2010
Earlier in the year when I started this column, I realized two things. First, I'd be giving myself as much as any of you a crash-course education in older MMOs, particularly with some of the more fringe titles that I'd never really explored up to this point. And second, it would be a challenge to find the right mix of elements to do these MMOs justice. So before we look back at all the games this column covered in 2010, I'd like to ask each and every one of you to take a minute and drop a comment about what you'd like to see The Game Archaeologist do next. What titles would you love to see honored in 2011? What features are the most interesting to you -- dev interviews, player interviews, history overviews, photo galleries, first impression playthroughs, or links to community fansites and blogs? What could I add to make The Game Archaeologist even better? I also want to take a minute to thank the readers, players and developers who have contributed to this column so far. While there are MMOs that get a lion's share of the press these days, we at Massively are committed to spotlighting as many of these games as possible, particularly if there's a passionate community and dev team behind them. I've loved hearing your stories and hope that in passing them along, perhaps we've opened a door or two to games that you might've never considered before. So let's hop in our hot air balloon and soar over the year that was 2010!
Linden Lab names new CEO
For some time now there's been a question as to who would eventually be stepping into the shoes of CEO over at Linden Lab. In June, Mark Kingdon (aka M Linden) stepped down with very little warning after a series of layoffs, and Philip Rosedale (aka Philip Linden) stepped in as interim CEO while the company was reevaluating its direction and future technology potential. Now, news comes today that Rod Humble will be stepping into the CEO spot at Linden Lab in January. Humble has been in the games industry since 1990, during which time he's racked up involvement in over 200 different games. Prior to making the jump to CEO at Linden Labs, Humble was the President of Product Development on EverQuest, and worked on other SOE titles such as EverQuest Online Adventures and Star Wars Galaxies. Most recently, Humble worked as label lead on The Sims at EA, later attaining Executive Vice President for that division. His expertise in large online games and connection to a crazy hot title like The Sims may prove to be the combination needed to lead Second Life into an even more promising future. [Via Tateru Nino]
The Sims Medieval 'special edition' coming, specialness debatable
When we heard that EA would be releasing a "special limited edition" of The Sims Medieval next spring, our minds were filled with images of a replica treasure chest, loaded with fittingly medieval goodies -- perhaps a sword-shaped letter opener? (Okay, so our imaginations are a little unimaginative today.) Instead, we learned that the release would include three exclusive throne rooms, "princess," "barbarian" and "dark magic," in addition to two outfits, some royal clothes and executioner garb. While we're already rocking a dark magic theme in our own throne room, the thought of some pre-made costumes for the next Renaissance Faire season seemed pretty cool. Upon closer inspection of the announcement, however, we discovered that these are outfits for the game's "simulation" people. That kind of ruined it for us, but we suppose if you're a diehard Sims buff, resisting this package would be feudal.
Will Wright explains what The Sims and an ant colony have in common
Originally titled Home Tactics, Will Wright's hit people simulator The Sims was largely made possible by a bunch of simulated ants. During an interview with Doom creator John Romero at the IGDA Leadership Forum dinner last Friday, Wright revealed that his previous title, Sim Ant, was a key inspiration for -- and the basis for the core emergent gameplay in -- The Sims. "We decided to program Sim Ant as close to how real ants work as we could, which means that they're actually responding to pheromone trails, and the intelligence is distributed environmentally," Wright recalled when asked how The Sims came about. "We were able to get very complex behavior out of the ants just using these pheromone distributions. So I started to wonder how much of human behavior I could simulate the same way." As it turns out, a lot. "The basic engine for The Sims really ends up being one of any pheromones. Every object in the environment is sending out an 'advertisement' of pheromones in a particular flavor. The flavors are the eight basic needs of the Sims. So they can advertise 'food,' 'energy,' 'fun,' 'social,' 'hygiene.' Every object is described in those terms, being the collection of pheromones that it broadcasts," Wright explained. "A Sim is always sitting there, smelling all of the pheromones around it saying, 'oh I need to be clean, or I need to be fed' -- whatever -- so they follow that pheromone trail to the closest object that's producing it. The advantage of that -- the whole point of that -- was that we could add new objects into the game later without the Sims having any foreknowledge of what the objects were, as long as they had these pheromones." Romero began to ask Wright if he thought actual humans might somehow work this way, but stopped himself. He was probably picturing the audience as a group of hideous ant people, or imagining he could see clouds of pheromones wafting about. Even the guy who thought up the Doom demon would be grossed out by that.
Study: Action games could help you make faster decisions
Years of action gaming have instilled deep within us an irrational phobia of standing anywhere near red barrels; a syndrome we're sure many of you can sympathize with. But a study from the University of Rochester says those same games might also be helping us make even non-barrel-centric decisions faster. After giving audio and visual tests to two groups of college students that had recently played either an FPS or The Sims, researchers found that while the two groups got the same amount of answers right, action gamers were able to arrive at those answers about 25 percent faster. Sadly, the testing had to be discontinued when the FPS players refused to stop marking their triumph by knocking The Sims players to the floor and repeatedly jamming their crotches into the losers' horrified faces.
Waging WAR: Finding the sandbox
In this installment of Waging WAR, Greg takes a look at Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning from a few different angles and goes in search of the proverbial "sandbox" in a game that contains neither sand nor boxes. Somewhere along the line during my childhood, I developed a habit for playing games with nearly every game I've ever played. I can even remember a time in my early teens when I sat down with a few friends and collaborated on making our own version of battlechess. Pages of chicken-scratched rules and several dice results-tables later, and we were off and running for a solid week of the most entertaining chess matches I've ever played. Or there was that time with The Sims when I started creating experimental families and then leaving my computer on overnight and not interacting with them, just to see how successful they could be without my help. I could bore you for hours on end with examples of how I twisted the rules and made my own games from the games I've played. I suppose I can blame my penchant for metagaming on my early introduction to pen-and-paper roleplaying (i.e., D&D 1st Ed., to be specific). All I had was a sheet of paper, a handful of dice, a description of the world around me, and my imagination. By its very nature, PnP gaming is sandbox gaming. The reason I'm bringing this up now is that, until WAR, I had pretty much been able to "find the sandbox" in any MMO I was able to get my hands on. Whether it was building hardcore Dungeons & Dragons Online characters, roleplaying in City of Heroes, or achievement-chasing in World of Warcraft, I've never really been troubled with finding something to do when the grind started to wear me down. But now, with WAR, I'm finding most of my old tricks for MMO metagaming just aren't working. To read about what I've tried, and why it didn't work in WAR, follow along after the break.
The Sims Medieval will be in stock at retailers March 2011
We are now less in the dark about the Dark Ages version of The Sims. During its Gamescom 2010 presentation, EA announced a March 2011 release date for The Sims Medieval. This iteration of the mega-popular life adds more than the poor plumbing and widespread illiteracy of the age: it also adds quest-based gameplay that allows you to gradually expand your kingdom with the help of a user-created "hero."%Gallery-99636%
EA announces The Sims Medieval for PC and Mac
EA is sending The Sims back in time to the dark ages -- wait, is it time for DarkSims already? The publisher has just announced The Sims Medieval, a new series for the PC and Mac that lets you "build up a medieval kingdom, controlling characters from all walks of life, from Kings and Queens, to Knights and Wizards, Blacksmiths and Bards." This is accomplished through a new addition to the series: quest-driven gameplay. As you complete quests in The Sims Medieval, you'll be able to shape the kingdom as you see fit, and either expand it internally or through conquest. And with every new game, you'll create a hero with a variety of traits and the obligatory "fatal flaw." (Ours always forgets to wash his hands, for example.) The Sims Medieval is currently slated to launch in Spring 2011. Head into the gallery below for the first screens. %Gallery-98734%
The Game Archaeologist and the Legend of the Sims: Our memories
Last week marked the beginning of a brief foray into the world of The Sims Online -- "brief" because the title is defunct (meaning no hands-on experiences to share these days) and I doubt that any of the game's creators are itching to reminisce about this lackluster entry into The Sims franchise. So chances are that today marks the end of our expedition, but we'll put our chins up and try to do it justice. Recently in the Massively office, a few of us spent a bit of time chewing the fat about The Sims Online. It's hard to imagine, but when the beta came out for this title, it was actually pretty hot stuff. The Sims had that crack-like addictive quality to it, and a lot of people -- myself included -- thought that the online version would make it exponentially better. Instead of every copy of The Sims being a little island unto itself, now we could connect and build in ways that were limited only by our imaginations. Oh, and also questionable developer decisions.
The Game Archaeologist and the Legend of the Sims: The history
The Sims Online was one of the odder entrants into the MMO genre this past decade, an online iteration of an immensely popular game franchise that promised deeper social interaction. With EA at its back and the Will Wright name affixed to the front, TSO (not to be confused with Cryptic's STO) had a solid shot at cracking the big time. It did not. It went over as well as a fish flopping out of water to make a go for it on dry land, eventually realizing that it was both going nowhere and dying slowly. The end result? It stunk. And yet it was an interesting failed experiment in MMO gaming, especially considering that the concept wasn't as off-base as we once thought. With social "dress up" games booming -- Second Life, Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin, Hello Kitty Online, even elements of LEGO Universe -- The Sims Online could be seen as a prophet of the future, mistreated in its own time. Return with us to the days of pixelated 2-D isometric glory, as the Game Archaeologist interprets the Simlish of ancient tomes for your benefit.
