Sims Expands Again, Gets Story

etoychest

First, the press release, care of EA:

Electronic Arts announced today that The Sims is launching a new line of games – The Sims Stories. These laptop-friendly games will feature engaging characters and easy-to-play storylines that are sure to entertain both the novice and experienced player.

The Sims Stories games are the latest offering from the popular Sims franchise, which has been translated into 22 languages and sold more than 70M games around the world -- that’s more than enough to give a game to every single person in the UK! Its popularity is due in part to The Sims appeal beyond a traditional gaming audience; more than half of The Sims players are female.

The first of these games, The Sims Life Stories, introduces an all-new Story Mode with two stories that follow the lives of Riley Harlow and Vincent Moore, two very different characters who have reached similar crossroads in their love lives. A comic romantic plot centered around engaging characters guides players through twelve chapters of this one-of-a-kind entertainment experience. Players can take their Sims through unique and entertaining storylines filled with romance, intrigue and dramatic twists. Will female lead character Riley ditch beau number one to marry and have kids with beau number two? Will successful entrepreneur Vince ever find love, or the culprit who’s been foiling his heart-earned efforts to find it? Players can discover these answers and more, or enjoy classic open-ended Sims gameplay.

“Everyone loves a good story. The Sims Life Stories gives players two wonderful romantic comedies to enjoy,” declared Rod Humble, VP Head of Studio for The Sims Division. “For those who are interested in The Sims, The Sims Stories are accessible and fun for everyone.” According to Humble, the world of The Sims provides the perfect place for these romantic comedies to unfold. Built around virtual people called Sims, daily activities—from sleeping and eating, choosing outfits and decorating the house, even cooking and getting a job—are controlled by the player. The Sims celebrates the choices that we make in life. What’s more familiar than being confused by life and love?

Designed to be laptop-friendly, The Sims Stories are accessible and fun for everyone. The Sims Stories are standalone entertainment experiences that do not require companion products from The Sims library – just pick up your laptop and play!

The Sims Pet Stories and The Sims Castaway Stories are scheduled to ship in Summer 2007 and Winter 2008, respectively. These standalone products will not require expansion packs or stuff packs from previous The Sims or The Sims 2 collections.

I'm not exactly sure what it means that these games are designed to be laptop friendly. I'm assuming they are not taxing on hardware, though laptops today are considerably closer to their off the shelf desktop counterparts, at least they seem to be.

So yea, the Sims, but with a story and premade personalities. Any takers?

Szechuanosaurus

etoychest wrote:

I'm not exactly sure what it means that these games are designed to be laptop friendly.

Text adventures. EA have lost it.


It's an odd departure. Part of the appeal, I imagine, of the Sims is it's sandbox gameplay. I guess it's interesting that they're exploring new ideas with it, but I'm not sure if this is a step forward or a step back.

seeraphael

So it's like, an RPG/adventure, the difference being that instead of saving the world and rescuing the princess, you get hooked up with the neighbor down the street, buy furniture, marry, and have a family? Baldur's Gate: the soap opera, only without spells and combat?

I dunno about this. I think it's not really for us.

Fats

No thanks.

Sometimes I wonder what games we'd have right now if Maxis had never been bought by EA. Then I get depressed.

Couscous

So this is ust EA trying to whore out the Sims franchise even more?

UncleSporky

The Sims is about open ended gameplay and crafting your own story. This is just making it like any other game with a plot. They're turning a simulation into a non-simulation, defeating the purpose. I've disliked that idea since the first Sims games on handhelds like Bustin' Out and the Urbz. Even Sims on DS had some kind of "running a hotel" plot. Lame.

etoychest

UncleSporky wrote:

The Sims is about open ended gameplay and crafting your own story. This is just making it like any other game with a plot. They're turning a simulation into a non-simulation, defeating the purpose. I've disliked that idea since the first Sims games on handhelds like Bustin' Out and the Urbz. Even Sims on DS had some kind of "running a hotel" plot. Lame.

See that was what I thought, but didn't say anythign since I'm not a Sims player. I thought the draw was creating your own virtual family and then torturing them like rats.

UncleSporky

etoychest wrote:

UncleSporky wrote:

The Sims is about open ended gameplay and crafting your own story. This is just making it like any other game with a plot. They're turning a simulation into a non-simulation, defeating the purpose. I've disliked that idea since the first Sims games on handhelds like Bustin' Out and the Urbz. Even Sims on DS had some kind of "running a hotel" plot. Lame.

See that was what I thought, but didn't say anythign since I'm not a Sims player. I thought the draw was creating your own virtual family and then torturing them like rats.

The draw is that you can do anything. Some people like to torture, some play it straight, others like to cheat by marrying into money and offing the spouse, and I've even heard of people who use it strictly as a home-designing CAD program, which is awesome.

Undead Scottsman

Fats wrote:

No thanks.

Sometimes I wonder what games we'd have right now if Maxis had never been bought by EA. Then I get depressed.

Meh, Spore is coming. EA can whore out the Sims as much as they want so long as Will gets to make Spore.

Conditional_Axe

I imagine that this will appeal to a certain type of Sims player, the kind that likes to create elaborate fanfic about their neighborhoods. i'm not making judgments, I'm just saying.

Lindsay Lohan

It makes some sense though. People love games they can play in quick bursts, especially on the road, so they call them laptop games to reflect the fact you don't need to have hours available to play a game (like I tend to do if I boot up the Sims). They then are taking something that casual gamers love, quick simply gameplay and merge it with more human/social experiences by using the Sims. It will appeal to alot of people and will likely sell pretty well.

dsplaisted

According to the website, you can play in story mode or in the classic open-ended mode.

Quintile

The console versions of The Sims (and The Sims 2) features a story mode where you have objectives you have to complete in order to proceed to the next location.

The PC (and Mac) version of the games do not feature any sort of story mode. This game seems to be adding that kind of gameplay into the PC version.

It's basically for players who enjoy playing the Sims, but get a bit lost in the sandbox.

Pendegast

Sounds like it could be fun; I'm looking forward to seeing how the various choices are implemented and how much control you actually have (i.e., is it going to be worked into gameplay, or is the Sim-game going to periodically pause for a cutscene and a numbered selection?). Hopefully the former, but I'm not optimistic...

bongi

playing as the families with "stories" in the sims 2 is actually pretty fun, mainly because they have established jobs, families, houses and social networks so i could definitely see this also being fun