This is something I’d normally save until The Sunday Papers, but I think there’s a debate here you comments-threaders would enjoy. After reading Tom Chick’s interview with the Sims Producer MJ Chun where she elegantly ducks a question on why they don’t include religion, Troy Goodfellow starts wondering about – er – the problems of – er – being a Good fellow. He thinks a strict idea that religion or faith should be popping off to Church on a sunday is misplaced anyway. And there’s little in the way which the sims are twisted which allow to pursue humanity’s non-materialistic side.
But look at the Sims trait list. No altruistic only ambitious. No kind hearted, but there is mean spirited. No generous, but there is mooch. Hopeless romantic, but no celibate. All the best virtues are lumped into one large “Friendly” category that is used to force you to make your Sim accumulate friends. The “Good” trait is the catch all for the Christian virtues we’ve been raised one. Not that the traits are everything, but they do – in general – point toward characteristics that are about gathering, collecting and self-improvement. They are a representation of how the game sees story telling.
And it is interesting that secularised non-faith based spirituality is included in the form of Ghosts – which, as an atheist of a hard-science bent, always grated at me – but avoiding anything else. Even away from the matter of faith, while I’d disagree with a reading that made the Christian Virtues actually connected with Christianity rather than core human altruism, the relative dearth of positive traits does speak towards a worldview. And, as Alice and Kev has painfully shown, a characters more empathic traits can provoke as much drama and heartbreak. In fact, it’s only in the context of the good that human cruellness has meaning. That’s drama.
The more I think, the more I’m disappointed by any attempt at simulating a faith in the game when the Sims dealt with human sexuality so elegantly – and without igniting a tinderbox which it could easily have done. And the more I think, returning to one of my standard motifs, the more I wish there was a serious competitor to the Sims which took a radically different view of human nature.
Thoughts?
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As a fairly hardline, science-oriented atheist myself, I don’t really get why the Sims inclusion of ghosts would be annoying. The series has always been very far from a po-faced straight simulation. I mean, at various points it’s had things like a Tragic Clown that emerges from the painting of the same name, Death showing up in person to collect Sims, plant people, vampires, life fruit, etc etc etc.
In the world of the Sims, the player is the Higher Power, and the Sims know this. When one of their needs is particularly low, or something is blocking their path, they look up at you, wave their arms around and complain, as if to say “This is your fault. Sometimes they’ll just look up, as if to acknowledge the fact you are watching them. the “god” of the Sims is actually rather mundane, and they have no real reason to worship it (you). So to me it just doesn’t seem to make any sense for Sims to form religions.
Really? I’d like it if my Sims sacrificed their children to me. Also I’d like a ‘turn to pillar of salt’ command.
There is religion, at least in my game. My sims have started the religion of Simtology. The story starts with a simple man who wants to be a writer.. and goes down hill from there http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/06/15/the-diary-of-elrond-hubbtard-my-new-job/
I wonder how people reacted to Black and White 1 and 2 in this regard since the in-game people literally worshiped you and your hand and you were in fact a God. I don’t remember any out cry but it may be because I couldn’t hear them over the out cry from gamers saying the games sucked.
People get a lot less upset about fictional religions in fictional settings (like Black and White) than they do about religions as depicted in a theoretical simulation.
Was there any major out cry over Civ 4 or M:TW 2 for having diffrent religions (that exist) running around trying to convert each other and killing each other based mostly on religion? I know it is historically correct in both cases but it may have caused some kind of uproar.
IT seems a lot of games slip under the radar of these kinds of people , they only pick out one once in a while with the rest of us snickering saying “If you think that’s bad you should see this game” but we don’t tell them about that game because we don’t want them to get even more angry.
Man, if only you could mod the game rules. That’d be awesome. I’d love to see what people came up with.
A game where you’re nice to everyone is just as boring as a “reality” TV show where everyone is happy and loving. It don’t make good TV, it don’t make good gaming. Destruction, hate, and violence – that’s where the money’s at!
“Your ideas of the 7 deadly sins are Catholic which is far from Christian with constant idol worship and worshiping of a man over God so . . .”
Jesus Christ, why do people tolerate Serondal’s posts? He really is one of the worst commenters on this otherwise fine little blog.