Chances are if your pc gamer (and even if your not) you must know the game “The Sims” I believe it’s considered the biggest selling game on the pc now taking the title away from Myst. The game has fans all around, selling multiple expansions based on all kinds of stuff. I actually own The Sims 1 and 2… and I hate the series.
My hatred for The Sims is not because of any game play concerns, or that I have a blood feud with Will Wright , my problem is with the game itself and the concept of sandbox style games. The main difference between what is considered a “game” and a “sandbox” is that the sandbox itself has no goal, no limitations imposed within the space of the setting. The player is asked to create their own fun and to play around with all the tools available for it, and I can’t stand that kind of game play. I’m just horrible at creating my own sense of fun in games which is quite ironic considering that I want to be a game designer, which is someone who creates fun for other people. By now you must be wondering why the title talks about a feature commonly seen in FPS titles and I’ve just ranted about something no where close to that genre. The reason is that both the concept of The Sims and God mode are more similar then you think.
The differences between a game and a sandbox are the main reasons why I prefer video games. I’m given a goal to achieve, whether it is to save the world or just get the highest score. There are rules in place so I can’t just skip to the end or give myself 2 billion points. I prefer to see what I can do within the confines of the rules of the game, not given free reign and told to make up my own fun. Recently I could point to the game Braid that is an example of a game. I’m given a specific tool set and constraints in each world, and it’s up to me to determine how can I use these to get to the goal. God mode in most titles to me turns a game into a sandbox.
For those not familiar with the term, God mode is a cheat in games (mostly action or FPS titles) that gives the player infinite health , and all the weapons and abilities unlocked at once. To me, that saps away all the fun and challenge of playing the game. Which in turn, makes these titles close to sandboxes in the way that there are no limitations imposed on the player. I’ve never had fun with playing God mode in titles, as I prefer having the challenge there. I can understand people who want to play games just to see the story, but when talking about action and FPS titles, the game play is usually the reason for playing not the story.
Now I would like to distinguish between the idea of an open world game, and a sandbox title. A open world game gives the player an objective whether it is immediate or requires a long play through to achieve, and the player can use any means at their disposal(aka in the game space) to win. Looking at previous titles that are called open ended, GTA is not an open ended title it is an 3rd person shooter with a Hub that is the city of the game. Crackdown is closer to the open world genre, as there aren’t any missions that pull the player into a small space to complete and the game space is open from the start. I would go as far as saying that Chibi Robo for the game cube and Star control 2 are open ended games.
For those of you have Half Life 2 you may have tried gerry’s mod, which is a sandbox tool using the physics of the world to create whatever you want. For some people I bet it is a lot of fun, for me I’m not a fan of it.The biggest thing The Sims 3 can do to possibly win me over, is to be able to interact with other players somehow. I think sandbox titles need to be developed to allow other players to view or interact with your works, as just creating stuff for no one but me sounds boring to me. . I do believe that we are seeing that now, and in the future with Little Big Planet which could be the first game with a sandbox mode that I’m salivating over.
So was there a point to this entry at all? Probably not, with Spore coming out very soon I’m wondering how much will the Sandbox style annoys me. Hopefully I didn’t offend the people who enjoyed The Sims, as my complaints about the game are more my opinion above anything else. It seems that my fears regarding Spore have been confirmed, from reading comments and early reviews. That there isn’t an actual “game” to play with Spore, and that your creativity can only go so far. Hopefully Spore 2 coming in 2210 will satisfy my monster making need.
Josh
