What impact will "The Sims" have on our Society

What impact will "The Sims" have on our Society

Hello, I would be grateful if you give me feedback on whether you agreee or disagree with the ideas and implications of the following essay.

Many Thanks, DT (Apoligies its quite long)

GOVERNING SUBURBIA


Marshall McLuhan said, The medium is the message1, how do we relate and interact with the contemporary medium that expresses domestic space, computer games? How does it express our society and gender roles within it? What are the social and psychological effects on the players? Its important to understand why computers games are the current medium to express suburbia and it domestic spaces by intially looking at what and how the different mediums throught history have portrayed the subject.

Over a century ago, scrapbook houses were the contemporary medium, a montage of pasted graphics or materials creating a book: visualising an idealistic view of the interior layout of a house, depending on class during a specific era. These scrapbook houses were an ideal medium to introduce girls to their future roles as wives, mothers and homemakers2. Daughters mimicking their mothers traditional roles, looking for images of desirable objects in catalogues and collecting samples of interior finishes. This implies gender specific consumerism being taught and has an association of the female gender with domestic space, the bored housewife and breadwinner working in the city. Scrapbook houses probably had a great influence in awareness of the inequality between the two sexes and gradually led to change through first wave feminism. Through history we see how the gender roles within suburbia start to change, by the 1950s there were magazines such as DIY Weekly that portrayed the man doing all the heavy lifting and women choosing the patterns and materials, maybe this is where the idea of keeping up with the Jones developed from because the majority of the building trade at the time were trying to rebuild Britain (creating suburbia) after World War II. In contemporary society the magazines are aimed more directly at the different genders in an attempt to define the roles that they should play in society. Our roles are not as defined as they used to be, this is mostly due to the rise in the feminst movement in the last hundred years.

At the turn of the twentieth century it became widely accepted that children were not little adults but innocent beings3 needing protected from the the industrial revolution and the health concerns. This was an important time for children in that there mortality rate was reduced dramatically. Schools were percieved to develop social skills; games and toys became common everyday occurences for children. The dolls house that was once only attainable by the upper class became the latest way to instil social feminisation in girls amongst the masses at that time. This allowed girls to interact with symbolic role-play within the traditional female domain, a suburban home. These girls instead of playing out a traditional feminine domestic role based around the family unit, again acted out more subservient roles. They would have re-enacted doll death scenes and funerals in an attempt to better understand social complexities within society at that particular time. The doll manufacturers noticed this and started to cater for such subversion by manufacturing dolls dressed in mourning attire. For some, a dolls worth was determined by its ability to subvert convention, mock materialism and undermine restrictions4. In the 1960s and through the rise of second wave feminism Barbie dolls allowed a channel through which girls can vent their frustration on the inequality in society. "Ninety-nine percent of girls in this country have at least one Barbie. Barbie is for them, representative of them, representative of who they might be when they grow up. Its a vehicle for their dreams and aspirations"5. This statistic and career Barbies (Barbie presented as a doctor etc) reflects how women pushed their daughters to expect the same rights as men, living their dreams and aspirations through their daughters. However the most purchased career genres for Barbie dolls are nursing, childcare, education and fashion, which are all traditional female domains. Nancie S Martin who develops Mattel's girls software clarifies "one of the things we do here is that we make things that are coded as girls' products, period. We don't make gender neutral stuff" 6. Therefore Mattel emphasis while designing to cater for girls, may have stereotyped girls to a emphasis their conventional family gender roles which teach social, commutative and creative qualities. "If youre a dad, your daughter has been aware of your deep voice and physical strength since she was an infant. You help her feel protected. Over the years, she has felt safe riding in your arms, nestled against your chest, or viewing the world from atop your shoulders. She may not feel as calm and soothed with you as she does with her mother, but she does feel daring7". These differences between the sexes can also be seen within homosexuality with one partner taking on a more subversive role in an attempt to be accepted by society. Or maybe with the rise in single sex couples adopting children, one part of the couple needs to drive the child to achieve a status in society as a mother would in producing the child into an adult, where the other part needs to support the family unit as the father previously would have. Recently Barbie sales have reduced by 10% and this insinuates a shift of female expression/domination to another medium.

Post World War II society expected women to adopt their traditional role as housewives and men as breadwinners. The We cant win without them poster replaced by The Grove Family television soap opera (produced by the BBC) and depicted a lower class family in suburbia rebuilding their lives after the war. This dealt with basic social issues, promoting consumerism and depicted the traditional gender roles of that period. George Gerbner notes women are portrayed as weak, passive satellites to powerful effective men. TVs male population also plays a vast variety of roles, while females generally get typecast as either lovers or mothers8.Television allows direct access into the domestic realm, setting out the boundaries of the gender roles that were expected to be conformed to, in the future. Initially suburbia was mainly represented in soap operas or latterly programmes like wife swap, allowing a sense of escapism from the structured monotony of everyday life. The gender roles portrayed within these soap operas have progressed along with the achievements of the feminist movement within society. It is however interesting to note that in 1994, 75% of the people who watched soap operas were female9. Young children watch television for the visual action, a continuation of discovering new objects, different sounds and social interactions, extending further than the boundaries of the domestic space they reside in. The television has taken over the role of the fireplace within the house, where furniture is arranged around it reducing the communication between the occupants of a domestic space. The Meiers family's account of television viewing of the sports channel, explains an instance of the gender roles in media viewing and depicting the difference between the sexes brilliantly. "In the evening {Mr Meier} gets involved in conversation, otherwise he would at least have watched the regional news; so he does not see the results again until after the news. In a way he wanted to go to bed early and that is what he told his wife. But now he has a faint hope of being able to see the Mueller goal on the Second Channel sports programme. However he would have to switch channels. He tells his wife she looks tired. She is surprised he cares, but she does go up to the bed. He fetches a beer from the kitchen. Unfortunately his wife comes back to get a drink. Suddenly the penny drops. 'My God! The Sports Programme! Thats why you sent me to bed!' He doesn't want to get involved and goes straight to the toilet. In the meantime it happens. His wife shouts, 'Hey Max Schemeling is on!' He doesn't react. He can't stand Schemeling because he has something to do with Coca-Cola. He deliberately doesn't hurry. When he comes back United's game is in progress. He is just in time to see the second, rather third rate, goal. {...} In the afternoon (the next day) a neighbour tells him that his club has lost again, which is what he thought anyway, because when there is no wind he can hear the crowd in the stadium from the balcony and there has been no shouting. He goes for a walk with his wife and their younger children; some acquaintances delay him. when he comes home his elder son is watching the sports review after having slept to midday. Meier gets angry because he has wasted the day, and even more so when his son asks, 'Have you heard, United won 2-0!' As if he was an idiot! He gives his son the Bild, and the son says, 'I thought you didn't read that.' Offended, the father goes to his room, while the mother sits down next to her eldest son and watches the sport programme with him. It does not interest her, but is an attempt at making contact"10.

By in large radio was able to instil the same domestic roles over longer periods as it still had the same opportunity of accessing the internal domestic space with the added advantage that one would not have to view it so one could do the washing or cooking at the same time. It also was able to control the domestic space as it started to gender specify music. I don't wish to dwell on radio or music as there is a greater ability to stereotype and divide up groups into smaller groups because people feel strong about it. For instance the majority of people respond strongly if one is to say that "music is not relevant to living" but when is the last time you put music on and sat there listening to solely? You will however have recently sat down especially to watch and listen to a television program but the majority of people would say that "television is not relevant to living". The subject is to large and opinionated.

More recently computer software, especially its ability to access a particular topic on the Internet has progressed to the metaphorical frontline in depicting suburbia. Computer games appeal to society because of a visual representation that can also be found on television and an ability to interact with the medium which television had previously not allowed. It is also worth noting that children are better than their parents at playing computer games and therefore undergo a better experience, due to having grown up watching the visual movement in television. This interaction with the visual representation has led critics to say that these games can instill violence within children. This is because they learn to develop their social skills within the softwares environment and detach themselves from society at large, due to the addictiveness of the games. Daniel Anderson connects this issue to other mediums: "Video games have violent content; TV has violent content; comic books had violent content; movies had (have) violent content. There has long been the belief that violent content may teach violent behaviour. And yet society finds a new medium in which to present that content, and yet the demand is nearly insatiable"11.

In 1985 the "Little Computer People" was the first computer game orientated around an affluent two half-storey house, depicting suburbia. The player was locked into the domestic space and was unable to view the surrounding suburban context. It wasn't just a godlike game (symbolic control of mortality); it went a step further, allowing questions to be asked and the little people, depending on the level of happiness responded. The needs of the little people would have to be taken care of by feeding them and giving them water, otherwise they would turn green and die. The little people would play word games such as anagrams with them, which made the game educational. This educating of the player along with the depicted domestic space, insinuates that the game was aimed at girls or women. Game design was and still largely remains a male domain but that is currently changing. The game could be perceived as a reaction to second wave feminism and an attempt to re-educate women about their traditional roles but is more likely to be a lack of research and a stereotypical approach to games design for women. The difficulty of researching what computer games girls or boys like playing is counter productive, as one's observations are different depending on the social or cultural context in any given era. Mike de Sousa thinks that "it would be far more honest to say, given our social, cultural, and political context girls at present tend to adopt certain strategies when playing, but given a different context, it is probable different strategies would come to the fore for each gender"12. Maybe the differences in strategies are due to the most obvious: separate spheres production and reproduction. Women are far more likely to spend their time creating real relationships securing their social status than on a computer. Men experiment with the different social situations that the games will allow; maybe this is why in a male-based industry, the games can be easily subverted. "Women are often represented as sexual stereotypes. This hyper-sexuality and objectification affects women's game play in other ways. While Men who gender-bend, or take on female characters in online games, discovered the biggest draw back of playing them were the insults and propositions"13. Through the Internet we end up with a diversified online community, controlled if not visually represented. Playstation 1&2 were both marketed from a genderless perspective, focusing on humour and the experience of owning their product. Computer magazines now include reviews on cross-gendered hardware such as dance mats. While this shows an opening up of the market to include women, it also is taking into account the feminsation of men, the metrosexual man. No longer is the gamer the domain of the male geek locked to his computer only stopping to collect the pizza from the delivery man.

Marxist critic Henri Lefabre sees the taking of space or volume as a capitalist luxury but then speaks fondly of it. "The House is as much cosmic as it is human. From cellar to attic, from foundations to roof, it has a density at once dreamy and rational, earthly and celestial"14. Therefore through research and a dialogue within society, the designers of games depicting domestic space are creating domestic utopias.

Domestic space with regards to suburbia and the city were depicted in the computer games "The Sims 2" and "The Urbz: Sims in the City" respectively, "The Sims" having been the best selling game of 2004 and a prequel to the above mentioned games. Will Wright has developed the above computer games with "Maxis" and in colloboration with "EA Games". Initially Will Wright created SimCity, which allowed the players to create their own cities, hospitals, parks etc with the aim of creating a pleasing environment for its unseen population. In 2000 he said "Let there be Life" creating "The Sims" which allows players the godlike quality of being able to control their Sims (symbolic people) around suburbia trying to fulfill their needs and desires. The predecessor to "The Sims" conceptually is the Tamagotchi, a handheld game that sold millions across the world in 1997. The Tamagotchi needed to be fed, told to go to the toilet and put to bed. Children would compete with each other, to see how long they could keep theirs alive. A childs social status amongst their friends would be raised as if the were good at sports. Due to The Sims popularity thousands of websites appeared in which players posted screen shots of their suburban worlds. This led Will Wright to create The Sims Online where the purpose or narrative came from the player's Sims interacting, a new way to socialise through this medium, meet people that you would bump into on the street but to have a common topic that everyone would know, a mass orgy of personalities. Sixty percent of the people using this service were female as it allowed a connection between a fantasy world and the creation of real social connections. The problem was that it wasn't as addictive as "The Sims", you weren't able to get a job and receive a promotion for your hard work. "They needed a game with a well defined narrative, not just a sand box"15 said Dan Morris, so therefore the toolbox without any rules doesn't appeal to society. "The Sims" is conforms to capitalism and real life where we receive enjoyment through being better than the rest of the mediocrity, in achieving things that propel us to stand out amongst a crowd. "The Sims" allows us to live out our dreams or see a close friend be successful, it allows us visual representation of ourselves within a short time period.

"The Sims 2" is the sequel and while similar is more complex, Tim LeTourneau the senior producer of "The Sims 2" said "Think of The Sims as an independent movie and of the Sims 2 as a Hollywood blockbuster"16. The gameplay is meant to represent the real world. Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation states "Human behavior can best be explained as a quest to satisfy primal needs, before other demands"17. "The Sims 2" responds to this concept, as the player is expected to meet their Sims basic needs; hunger, comfort, bladder, energy, fun, social, hygiene and environment before they are able to fulfill their aspirations; financial success, romance, gaining knowledge, having a family. Initially you could be forgiven for thinking the game reinstates the traditional gender roles of women as the housewife and of the man going to work in the city, which is a place that the workers disappear to during work hours. It also forces you to confirm to these roles initially through the narrative and consumerism, receiving a higher happiness level by buying objects you desire due to the set personalities of the Sim family that you can start with. It allows the players to create a sim or even families, choosing the types of personalities, what they look like, from their foot size to the colour and style of their hair. It is however limited in the sense that you can only be slightly overweight and slim, is this an attempt to appeal to its market by not portraying them in a bad light. Christian Pfeifer, the director of the Criminological institute in Germany researched the behaviour of twenty-three thousand children playing computer games and notes that "Over-consumption of either makes them fat, lazy, stupid, ill, sad, unhealthy. TVs and computers literally steal meaningful time for play, sport and fun from their lives. In addition, brutal films or video games displace things learned at school or from parents from their memories18. Its interesting that a game so free of inequalities wont allow obese, disabled or disfigured sims to be portrayed. The Sims can get married and have children, creating generations of families. It is not unknown for players to create themselves and their friends, playing out social interactions or seeing what their children might look like and grow up to be. The wants and needs of the Sims is also related to the other members of the family but these roles can be changed so that the order of their wants and needs can mirror their roles by creating a stereotypically Sim. While there is this feminization of the player, the kitchen depicts the role of gender and domestic space more unqiuely than any other room within a surburban home. Initially the it would be an area for servants amongst the upper class, the furniture positioned around the edges of the room. In suburbia the kitchen increased in size with an influx of "time saving" appliances, noted by Akiko Busch in her book Geography of Home19. Also while women in the past and to some extent now are bound to the kitchen, as equality has increased so has the opening or liberalising of the kitchen. Service hatches would lose their doors, walls would be taken down to make kitchen-dinners, then completely openplan materialised as depicted in "The Sims 2".

The game has the ability to create movies, allowing the players to express their artistic nature about many different social issues such as bullying, losing a girlfriend, job etc to a wider audience on the Internet. Viewers of regular television say that they grow to know the parts that actors play and see them as a friend. It is therefore not odd that the Sims symbolically take over as the friends from television, allowing the players to express the issues affecting them at a particular time. As in "Big Brother" where the inmates are shown having a shower or reading a paper on the toilet, "The Sims 2" also allows the player to view this with censorship. The censorship can be removed by downloading a patch off the Internet. The patch is a smaller program that updates the game already bought and can be create by anyone who understands the computer language in which the game was made. Allowing the creative subversion of others to be accessible by others.

As in real life the Sims are products of their environment and will have certain traits passed down through genetics before finally passing away. If a child has a bad upbringing, they will end up being unhappy as an adult. Its important to remember that the Sims 2 has a narrative where there is a large scope to venture off within the game and play according to one's subversions. The network of gamers sharing their personal environments on the Internet can download different hairstyles, homes, cars, Sims with individual personalities. Players can also download these subversive homes such as "Mr Sadistic" where two Sims of opposing personalities are confined within a small room with a ghetto chair, fireplace and clown painting. There is no natural light, bathroom, or food/water. The one chair directly opposite the clown painting is immediately taken by "Mr Victim", "Mrs Victim" becomes angry with the symbolic torture to represent real life people like the Victorian girls playing with their dolls would have done, this medium allows a premeditation of exploited control to a subversive end. The game is most popular with the age groups 14 to 34 therefore allows an older more explored subversive nature to impact the children attempting to understand social interactions of everyday life. The game allow sexual appetites to be indulged, Sims can have one-night stands, sleep with multiple partners, get divorced and have gay relationships. The pornography industry has embraced such games, games that allow an expression and interactivity of sado masochism or sexual experimentation. Obviously a player can choose to get married before sleeping with another Sim, but where is the fun in that. What are the ramifications on the real world of experimenting in such a virtual environment? With one Sim year equal to 4 real days, will players expect to achieve certain goals too quickly?

The domestic spaces in The Sims are more than a reflection of stereotypical gender conflict. Both male and female players are encouraged to be household consumers, feminised and capitalised by the system which creates them19.

The Urbz: Sims in the City is another game from the Sims franchise, taking the Sims from the suburbia and placing them in the city. In the Sims the city was never depicted, it was an area of make believe that the Sims would travel by car to work. The Sims live in a virtual suburbia that in essence locks you into the domestic space. Will Wright and his team of game designers have quite rightly approached this game differently. While the graphics and main game play with regards to the keeping the Sims basic needs catered for is the same as The Sims 2, the other part of the game is about gaining friends, building your reputation and popularity.

This game has been targeted at stereotypical city dwellers, they are image and attitude based, and the game has been marketed to portray coolness. It has initially been released on game consoles even though designed for the PC. There is a relevance to the size of a console that suits the smaller domestic space found within the urban density of cities, "a microcosm in a macrocosm". Its more goal orientated, which is represented by improving your social status to further your career, (its not what you know, its who you know). This game is two players for the first time; this allows the game play to be more public allowing one to share their image/attitude with real life friends. The game play also only allows the control of one Sim, your alter ego, rather than a family, harking back to the ideal that a city is unsafe where one keeps to themselves unless they chose to express their inner thoughts or feelings, some would say a socially inept lifestyle. You are able to choose different genres of character such as punk, goths snobs, skaters, ravers and arty types. The interaction between the sims is also more upfront in their approach and the language they use, whereas in The Sims 2 you could "irritate" other family members in The Urbz: Sims in the City the equivalent approach is to "act mean". The game initially starts with your Sim being fired from his job. An extension on The Sims 2 portraying the American dream, from rags to riches. The aim is to be the top-dog within the city, have everyone know your name, becoming the most popular and respected Sim. Once you are famous, the Sims face will appear on billboards and on the side of buses. There are different districts that affect the way your Sim grows as a person, how theyre reputation is affected by the different people who reside within these districts. Different approaches to the Sim customisation (clothing, piercing, tattoos etc) are needed to fit into the different districts. While still being able to buy objects of desire, accessories that aid your image initially are important, so your Sim will have to get a job but unlike The Sims 2 your Sim will go to work by playing little games. The little games mimic that of arcades, city based objects, which suits urban density of a city and the consoles that were first designed to bridge the gameplay between pcs and arcades. The Sims are more cartoonist with more obvious or pronounced features, this shows a greater level of diversity in creating a cultural identity for the different ethnic minorities presented within the fabric of the virtual city, as with the real city. Ann duCille explains how Mattel attempted to introduce a cultural element into their Barbie dolls, Mattel, facing criticism for not making their black Barbie dolls distinct from their classic white Barbies began producing dolls that reinforced and emphasised racially stereotyped physical features20. Its interesting that "The Sims 2" designers show the city as a melting point for different cultures but suburbia in The Sims as the preserve of the white heterosexual male portrayed by an environment that allows equality, treating each Sim with the same regard, their prospects in life or their interactions with other Sims irrespective of the colour of their skin, gender or sexuality. It simplifies society, removing its prejudices; it gives the Sims the same opportunities that arent representative of the society we live in. We live in a multifaceted society, that isnt represented through the Sims, for instance it is possible to download an Islamic pray rug but not program into the particular Sim to follow an Islamic way of life. Maybe this is because the creators of The Sims 2 research shows that ethnic minorities are moving to suburbia or aspires to. Looking to achieve and fit in with society through a lifestyle, a safe environment where their two point four children have the opportunity of a good school and university on the horizon. This in a large part is due to the way the game has been developed and is representative of a continued level of sexism within society today. The reason for this is that the people who developed the game were in their twenties, had recently left university and that fifty percent of the game designers were women, all of whom would have recently left the city or moved from the city. Forty percent of players playing The Sims are women21. However the top ten places in Britain that have the highest standard of living are ten suburbs surrounding London. The different music types present in either game compound this diversity where The Urbz: Sims in the City is more urban and diverse. The improved graphic systems allows real-time lighting and different weather condition, both of which adds to the atmosphere while compounding the stereotype that the city is an unsafe dark and seedy place. An new object called XAM, modelled after a PDA design allows you to stay in touch with your friends twenty-four seven to exchange money or swap objects.

In the The Sims 2 a Marxist society has been created that preaches capitalism. Every Sim receives a small quantity of money initially but they have to excel at their careers in order to buy objects they desire which inherently make them happy. The game could be used to political end and I would not be surprised if EA has investors intent on regime change in other countries. The Sims 2 was band in China in January of 2005 against pornography and illegal publications act of 1989. This happened to be the same year that the students protests for free media reform we suppressed in Tianamen Square. As for "The Urbz: SIms in the City" lets wait and see what its impact will be, it is however safe to safe that it probably will be successful but only because it inhances the negative stereotypical aspects of city living which will play to sociteys subversions, rather than embrassing the a cities finer social qualities.

So , are computers games that allow social interaction via the Internet from within our own domestic space as a medium breaking down the taboos and stigmas or redefining the boundaries within our unique societies? What does the future hold; will we meet our future partners over a virtual coffee after a videoconference with a genderless work colleague?



Bibliography
1 - M.Mcluhan, (1964) Understanding media: The extensions of Man (New York: McGraw-Hill)
2 - Roth Rodis, (1998). Scrapbook houses: A Late Nineteenth Century Childrens view of an American home.
3 - Phillipe Aries, (1962). The Invention of Childhood
4 - Formanek-Brunell, Miriam, (1993) Made to Play House: Dolls and the commercialization of American Girlhood 1830-1930 New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
5 - Cassell, Jenkins, From Barbie to Mortal Combat - p145
6 - Cassell, Jenkins, From Barbie to Mortal Combat - p146
7 - www.barbie.com
8 - Bausinger, H. (1984) 'Media, Technology and Daily Life', Media, Culture and Society 6(4348-9
9 - Statistics reported in Greenberg & Rampoldi (1994).
10 - Lea Ang
11 - D.Anderson, (1982) Informal Features
12 - Mike de Sousa, Girls, Software, and Gender The Coloumn: Issue 33
13 - Dr Kathyrn Wright, (2001), WomenGamers.com
14 - H.Lefebvre (1991) The Production of Space. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell
15 - D.Morris. C.Taylor 31 Aug 2003 Reinventing the Sims Retrived 02 Dec 2005. http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030908/xgames.html
16 - T.LeTourneau www.thesims2.ea
17 - A.Maslow. J.Evers18 Feb 2005 The Sims - Ruling the Virtual World. Retrieved 21 Oct 2005 http://www.digitmag.co.uk/features/index.cfm?FeatureID=1220
18 - A.Hall 27th Sept 2005 Scotsman: Computer games 'make for fat, stupid, lazy kids'
19 - Mary Flanagan 2003 SIMple & Personal Domestic Space & The Sims
20 - A.duCille Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandizing of Difference, in A Cultural Studies Reader: History, Theory, Practice, Ed. Jessica Munns et al. Longham, New York, 1996, p.558
21 - BW(Business Wire). 21 March 2002 The Sims becomes the Best selling Game of all Time. Business Wire, 30.


- "The Sims 2" for PC Software EA Games
- "The Urbz:Sims in the City" for Xbox Software EA Games
- A.Curlew post-2001 York University. Liberal Sims?: Simulated Difference and Commodity of Social Diversity.
- M.Flanagan. 2003 Hunter College. Friendsters, Tricksters, and Playculture: Games and Society Panel State of Play Conference
- A.Wishart 14 Aug 2000 Entertainingly Tedious - revue of the computer game The Sims Retrived 02 Dec 2005 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FQP/is_4499_129/ai_64694198
- M.Boal 29th March 2000 Three Days in the Most Surreal Game on Earth: Me and My Sims. Retrived 02 Dec 2005. http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0013,boal,13602,8.html
- A.R.Holz 02 Dec 2005 "The Sims 2" Retrived 02 Dec 2005 http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0002278.cfm
- The Sims. Gamespot Review. Retrived 10 Dec 2005 http://www.gamespot.com/features/6140557
- M.Fisher 15 Nov 2004 The Urbz: Sims in the City Review Retrived 10 Dec 2005 http://reviews.teambox.com/xbox/838/The-UBBZ-Sims-in-the-City/p1/
- G.Kasavin 23 Nov 2004 The Urbz: Sims in the City Review Retrived 10 Dec 2005 http://www.gamespot.com/ds/strategy/theurbz/review.html?page=2

 

Whew!! That was a lot of heavy stuff. I'm very curious about this essay. Who is the author? And, how familar is the author with the actual gameplay and the Sims Community?

 

Er...did you know that the golden age of Greece lasted about 30 years? Nevermind that. My mind was wondering. Like Kristal, I don't see the name of the author. Is it you, dtimms, by any chance? Looks like a term paper that would get an A from any sociology teacher. Do I agree? I'm not really sure what you're asking? Are we becoming isolated because we use computers? If that's your premise I don't agree.

My son grew up in front of a computer, playing shoot-em-ups. Now he's in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, living in an apartment with 5 other guys (one bathroom) doing graphics for a game company, walking the streets, learning the language, having the time of his life. Computer games opened up the whole world for him.

People screw up their lives for lots of reasons, and they can do it using computers, TVs, cars, guns, alcohol, pen and paper, or a big mouth. I see no particular reason to single out computers and computer games.

But maybe I didn't really understand what you were asking. If so, sorry. By the way, before you turn it in, have someone review it for grammar and spelling. Don't rely too heavily on spellcheck. It will fail to highlight words that are spelled right but don't make sense in the context used. But you probably know all that already and this is a draft.

 

The reason I wanted to know who the author was and if they were a sims player or a member of the community is because I agree with Josh, I don't think the author is truly familiar with the game and the community as a whole. There are so many angles to gameplay, the Capitalistic quest for money and "things" is only one portion of it.

With TS2, our sims were given aspirations and wants/fears. I think that your statement of the game exploring Mazlow's Hiarchy of Needs was very fitting there. Yes, one of the aspirations is Wealth. A Wealth sim is very boring for myself personally to play because he/she wants "Things". How many flower beds and statues can a person have? If you had read the "Favorite Aspiration" thread posted on this page, you would see that there are few references to Wealth Sims. Most of us here and in the Sims Community seem to favor Sims who want to learn skills and teach others (knowldege sims) or who focus on relationships (popularity, romance, and family). Those are the main 4 I gravitate to as I play.

A lot of your historical information about the way girls play and the way we as a culture "program" our girls to take on a certain roll seems a little irrelevent to me if the article is indeed a term paper, and the subject was the Sims and it's affect on Society as a whole. I'll echo Josh's sentiment that the article seemed biased against women, especially women who either looked towards non-traditionalist rolls, or taught their daughters that they didn't have to be "Little Suzy Homemaker" or "Blonde Bombshells" when they grow up. As a mother of children of both sexes, I personally feel it is my obligation to allow all of my children to explore the world around them, with my guidance, and to encourage them to follow their dreams and be everything they want to be. The other day, my 5-year-old daughter informed me that when she grows up she wants to be the pizza delivery person. Other times she has told me that she wants to be a singer and a Mommy. Oddly enough, for Christmas she has asked for a "Doctor Barbie" and a Care Bear that comes with a doctor's kit. Her father works in the medical field and she's always had a fascination with doctors. What your paper implies when it discussed the Barbies and the gender rolls is that I am wrong in purchasing the "Doctor Barbie" for her and telling her that she can be a doctor and a Mommy if she wants. Is that really the message that you're intending, if indeed this is your term paper for class? If so, I hope and pray your professor is not female!

Something else the article mentions that bothers me is the sexual content in the Sims.

 

I'm afraid I was really confused about the question being asked. I didn't pay attention to the title of the thread, which isn't quite the same as the last paragraph of the essay/term paper.

Josh and Kristal have said it all, though. I agree with them.

(Dropped by while at work. )

 

It was an interesting read until we got to the computer generation. It then seemed to come off the rails. Perhaps that is because, like the rest of us, I am more plugged in to today than to yesteryear and in consequence I feel better equipped to make objective analyses of contemporary issues with which I am closely involved than I am with historical issues with which I have no more than an apocryphal acquaintance. That is maybe a long-winded way of saying the obvious but it also highlights the surprising failure of the essay.

I suspect that the author either has little hands-on experience of the game or -- alternatively -- has rather too much ... but narrowly focussed and not therefore reliable as a foundation for an opinion. The author's thorough bibliography is indicative of a wide-ranging research however much of the first part of the essay consists of little more than a rehash of the mainstream socialogical view: that gender-role specificity has been for centuries repressively applied through play in the case of female children (with nary a scant nod that their brothers were being trained as cannon fodder with their wooden swords and hobby-horses ... I know which I'd rather choose to be if I were a 5yr old in 1800, or 1850, or 1900, or 1925, or any year since for that matter )

But what really spoils it is the sudden throwaway (unsubstantiated) stipulation that TS2 provides a "Marxist Society"! Only by the wildest flight of fancy could this sweeping generalisation stick to its target. Furthermore I prefer to see an author take some courage and boldly to conclude an otherwise well constructed article with some conclusive opinion rather than with some wishy-washy rhetoric. I have questions enough of my own, thank you very much. What are the author's opinions? How does the author answer his or her own questions? I'm not scared. I believe that most people will sustain more virtual relationships than real ones in the future. The real concern is less a sociological one than an economic one. If woohoo-ing is confined more and more to the virching interface then the population of the the developed world is going to nose-dive ... after a prolonged plateauing-out period with a load of old wrinklies like yours truly cluttering up the pensions system and geriatric medical facilities. To quote Jean Luc Picard: The economics of the future are a lot different ...

If my comments appear savage I make no apology. I'd give it an A because it is a lot better than some of the utter tripe that I got A-'s and B+'s for when I was an undergrad student. The trouble with academia is the entire system is institutionally constipated and rarely, if ever, enourages original thinking and fresh opinion ... such heady stuff is reserved for crackpots and fame-addicts; sell enough books and you can get any theory accepted into the mainstream. Is Doctor Spock back in fashion again?

 

By saying "Marxist society that preaches capitalism..." I belive that the original author was referring to capitalist socialism (e.g. free medical/mental health care, free emergency services, generous housing subsidy for each adult sim that strikes out on their own) rather than a utopian communist state where the rule is "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" or even "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others."

To be honest, I first read the treatise late at night through fatigue-watered eyes and parsed it as "Maxist Society" which would be correct...

The author actual misses the point by failing to realize that the sims follow a different system of goverenment all together. They live in a literal theocracy, ruled by by an omnipitant yet non-omnipresent (thus allowing for free will) deity who provides for their basic needs and lends a hand now and then but who doesn't have the time or patience to watch all of them all the time.

 

Wow!!!!! We are all so smart around here. I love you guys, ya know that? And Mirelly quoted Jean Luc Picard!!! ROTF!!!!

Sorry, please return to your educated discussion.

 

LOL WereBear. I did actually take that particular "wild flight of fancy" for myself and for what it is worth I strongly suspect that you're right. I did not come right out and say so in my commentary because to have done so would have undermined my argument that the piece is flawed. To be perfectly honest the phrase appears to be some sort of unholy "soundbite" included for its (hoped-for) gravitas rather that with a concern for transparency of meaning.

It was for that reason alone that I judged the whole as marred by an unneccessary decoration which detracted attention from an otherwise uncontentious review of a sociological issue. Without the Marxian allusion the essay is worthy of an A (it could achieve an A+ or ++ if the grammar, typos and spelling errors are also corrected )

 

That's why I haven't posted on this thread--don't feel like trying to sound as smart and philosophical as you guys.

 

And I can't read all that much with so many BIG words in one go, anyway. You know I can't concentrate for lon

 

I think this thread and the use of big words clearly illustrates the different levels of education here. Mirelly I believe has a Masters Degree, Lynet and WereBear I believe do also, Josh and I are both working on our Bachelors, and Babe and Person are still in High School.

If I'm wrong on someone's eduactional degrees, I'm sorry, I was just taking a guess.

 

Actually I'm in Middle School, but if you think I'm older than I really am, I guess that's a compliment.

 

Sorry, Person. I thought that you and Babe were the same age as my son, who's a Freshman in High School.

 

Don't be sorry. I'm intensely flattered that you believe I have a Masters Degree. A B.S. (so well named) in accounting or business or some such was as far as I got. Once upon a time I was passionate about lots of interesting things, from art to science, and read a great deal. Now I'm just coasting, playing the Sims and taking pictures of sunshine.

I didn't take the article above too seriously because there are events today that will vastly overshadow anything this computer game might do to society.

 

OOh Lynet! You majored in Bovine Scatology (to quote Stormin' Norman of GWI infamy) too! I was going to say that my "masters" involved a certain sort of field work ... I'm a specialist in BS

 

Thanks for the laugh, Mirelly. Just got off a phone call with my California daughter. Poor kid, her life's got more tangles than anything I've done with sims. Oh well, it'll work out, I'm sure.

Bovine Scatology describes so many college degrees, including mine.

 

Well. I'm 14. 123 I think is... 13. I'm in year 10 in high school. I have no idea about what grade that is.