What The Sims Taught Me... #BeatTheBlock

Sims is one of the games that I can remember playing from a very young age and I could play it for hours and hours on end. I had a copy of The Sims for Playstation 2 when I was 9 or something and I was devastated when it broke even though by that time copies of it were dirt cheap, now I think they give them away.



The reason why I'm writing this post is because something I said in a previous post (It's Inspired! #BeatTheBlock) sparked the idea, and I thought to myself that there is so much more that could be said about Sims. It has taught me a lot about characters and characterization. It's weird that I haven't realised any of this before, and I'm going to share it with you...so not all gaming is bad for you, playing The Sims for several hours is actually quite therapeutic to your writer brain.



You might have been asking yourself since reading the title...what the hell has he learnt from The Sims. You might even be thinking of things that can be applied to creating characters and three-dimensional worlds via the simulation masterpiece that is The Sims.





The Sims is a game about controlling the lives of people, or Sims and they do everything you tell them...as long as they're feeling up to it, so treat them right! Or not, it's fun to rile them as well.



The Sims is based on reality, using 8 motives: Hunger, Comfort, Hygiene, Bladder, Energy, Fun, Social and Room. So in order for your characters to be at least a little bit realistic you must flesh them out with these needs, and if they're not fulfilled then they'll get into a hissy fit. I also like to know all the aspects and Sims is a great way to get to know people. They have needs, they need to eat, they



need to drink, they need to go to the bathroom A LOT and they need showers or they will start to smell! And it's all of these things that adds to the realism in your writing.



I hated it when I couldn't fulfil all of the needs and my character started to smell, pee themselves, break things, electrocute themselves etc. but of course it's a whole different ball game when you're writing because you get to have total control of your characters. Use these needs and how they interact with people to create your characters.



As well as the above needs you also get a limited number of points to put against the following personality traits: Shy/Outgoing, Grouchy/Nice, Serious/Playful, Sloppy/Neat, Lazy/Active.

Going from 0 - 10; left to the right, so the higher the scale the more they have that trait. It's really helpful if you're trying to create some imperfections for your characters and that's just a few above, if you researched personality traits you'd find hundreds of words to describe your characters.




I mentioned imperfection, and it's a great word! No character can be perfect and you MUST think about giving them some less desired traits as that's what will make your characters real. So if you're not a total social butterfly and you don't people watch then this, my friend, is the next best thing!



I'm not sure if that's everything I have to say about The Sims and character creation, but I'm sure it's enough to get you thinking.




Do you have anything that you'd like to say?


I really hope that you've enjoyed this post. Keep on writing and keep on playing The Sims!





-Joseph