Difference between revisions of "Life Simulator"
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| − | + | == Defintion == | |
Though many forms of videogames can be said to be simulations of one kind of another (a First Person Shooter game like Goldeneye could be seen as a simulation of a spy experience or a driving game like Grand Theft Auto, a simulation of driving around an urban environment), for the purposes of this wiki, Life Simulator games will refer to games in which the player focuses on sustaining and maintaining life as the objective of the game (whereas in a game like Goldeneye, the objective is to complete a mission or kill enemies). While Life Simulator videogames have existed since the early 1970s with John Horton Conway’s The Game of Life, they have gained popularity and recognition particularly since the release of Will Wright’s game, The Sims, in 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life). In his book Fundamentals of Game Design, Ernest Adams writes, “[ty]pically, [Artificial life] games focus on maintaining and growing a manageable population of organisms, each of which is unique”(Fundamentals of Game Design). There is much overlap within the types of simulation games that exist, though Adams’ definition provides some clarification and boundaries to the genre of the Life Simulator game: in a Life Simulator game, the player endeavors to keep some sort of organism alive and these beings must be at least somewhat individualized. Thus, a game like SimCity, though important in the history of Simulators, lacks this element of individualization and is therefore better classified as a Construction and Management Sim. | Though many forms of videogames can be said to be simulations of one kind of another (a First Person Shooter game like Goldeneye could be seen as a simulation of a spy experience or a driving game like Grand Theft Auto, a simulation of driving around an urban environment), for the purposes of this wiki, Life Simulator games will refer to games in which the player focuses on sustaining and maintaining life as the objective of the game (whereas in a game like Goldeneye, the objective is to complete a mission or kill enemies). While Life Simulator videogames have existed since the early 1970s with John Horton Conway’s The Game of Life, they have gained popularity and recognition particularly since the release of Will Wright’s game, The Sims, in 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life). In his book Fundamentals of Game Design, Ernest Adams writes, “[ty]pically, [Artificial life] games focus on maintaining and growing a manageable population of organisms, each of which is unique”(Fundamentals of Game Design). There is much overlap within the types of simulation games that exist, though Adams’ definition provides some clarification and boundaries to the genre of the Life Simulator game: in a Life Simulator game, the player endeavors to keep some sort of organism alive and these beings must be at least somewhat individualized. Thus, a game like SimCity, though important in the history of Simulators, lacks this element of individualization and is therefore better classified as a Construction and Management Sim. | ||
Revision as of 22:29, 6 April 2014
Defintion
Though many forms of videogames can be said to be simulations of one kind of another (a First Person Shooter game like Goldeneye could be seen as a simulation of a spy experience or a driving game like Grand Theft Auto, a simulation of driving around an urban environment), for the purposes of this wiki, Life Simulator games will refer to games in which the player focuses on sustaining and maintaining life as the objective of the game (whereas in a game like Goldeneye, the objective is to complete a mission or kill enemies). While Life Simulator videogames have existed since the early 1970s with John Horton Conway’s The Game of Life, they have gained popularity and recognition particularly since the release of Will Wright’s game, The Sims, in 2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life). In his book Fundamentals of Game Design, Ernest Adams writes, “[ty]pically, [Artificial life] games focus on maintaining and growing a manageable population of organisms, each of which is unique”(Fundamentals of Game Design). There is much overlap within the types of simulation games that exist, though Adams’ definition provides some clarification and boundaries to the genre of the Life Simulator game: in a Life Simulator game, the player endeavors to keep some sort of organism alive and these beings must be at least somewhat individualized. Thus, a game like SimCity, though important in the history of Simulators, lacks this element of individualization and is therefore better classified as a Construction and Management Sim.
