Life Simulator

Overview

Many videogames can categorized as one kind of Simulation or 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 could be a simulation of experiencing an urban environment from a car. Life Simulators (or Artificial Life Games), on the other hand, are a sub-genre of the more general title of Simulation Games and are games in which the player focuses on sustaining and maintaining life as an objective. While many games require not dying in order to win, Life Simulators differentiate themselves as the goal is generally not only to survive the game, but rather to thrive within it. To this point, Ernest Adams mentions in his book, Fundamentals of Game Design, that Will Wright, the creator of The Sims, has referred to his work as a “[s]oftware toy … entertainment software that you just play around with, without trying to defeat an opponent or achieve victory.” While a player can certainly experience a “victory” in an Artificial Life Game (in The Sims, gaining skill points or money or even working all the way up a career path), these goals are usually determined by the player rather than the game.

Adams also clarifies the definition of Life Simulators further, writing that “[ty]pically, [Artificial Life] games focus on maintaining and growing a manageable population of organisms, each of which is unique.” Within the vast genre of Simulation Games, Adams’ definition of Artificial Life Games helps set some boundaries: the player not only endeavors to keep some sort of organism alive, but these beings must be at least somewhat individualized. Thus, games like SimCity, SimTown, or SimEarth, though important in the history of Simulation Games, lack this element of individualization and are therefore better, and more specifically, classified as a Construction and Management Sim.

History

Though some disagree with the designation that Life Simulator Videogames have existed since John Conway’s game, Life (1970), hit the gaming world, it is common knowledge that these games gained popularity and recognition with Will Wright’s creation, The Sims, in 2000.

Life

Life was quite simple a simple game in which a player sought to support cells in a two-dimensional world, following very basic rules in order to keep the cells alive, sustaining cell life by avoiding over or under crowding the cells. Conway himself took his inspiration from as early as the 1940s when mathematician John van Neumann expressed the desires to create a device that could show respawning in this way. Over different levels, the player creates increasingly difficult patterns with the cells, still within the rules of the conditions in which the cells can respawn or die. Though Greg Costikyan, in his article “I Have No Words & I Must Design,” disagrees with defining Life as a game, saying that, “despite the evocative name, it's merely an exploration of a mathematical space,” whether or not Costikyan is correct in his depiction of what is and is not a game, in Life, the player manages the maintenance of a life form, albeit a slightly less individualized one than Adams’ definition requires. In spite of this, Life inspired other Life Simulator games and therefore is a key part of the genre’s history.

Little Computer People

In 1985, David Crane came out with Little Computer People (essentially a Dollhouse Game), which allowed players to control the motions of a little man living his life in his house. The little man could interact with the player, informing him or her that his needs were not being fully met, or playing games with the user. This game was somewhat of a failure as the market for such games that lacked what players felt was objective, had not yet been developed. As in the later, similar game, The Sims, the avatar is capable of performing tasks without prompting from the player, though successful maintenance of his life requires player intervention.

Dating Sim

Around this time, the first Dating Sims, such as Tenshitachi no gogo. The player engages through the avatar of a teenage boy who must manage the affections of several women at once, including one he seems to have willed into being and two of his stepsisters), also started becoming popular, later developing even further into its own complex and robust sub-genre of Simulation Games.