With the release of Sims3 looming I find myself wondering if all things in the world eventually become corrupted by money. Sure, Sims was extremely popular, increasing the female gaming population greatly. It was then followed by Sims2, which has taken what Risky has dubbed ‘playing dolls for grown-ups’ to the next level.
Don’t get me wrong, I myself am a huge fan of the game. The problem as I see it is that this new release is merely a money milking device. The advances between the original Sims and Sims2 were amazing. Graphics were greatly improved. Interactions between characters were increased and there was the addition of wants and fears for each character, making game play both more challenging and more goal based.
The major change though, the one which had everyone talking was that your characters no longer lived indefinitely and the children of your in game persona would now age and progress through 6 different stages of life. This effectively allowed you to now play through generation after generation of your families, increasing their empire and wealth along the way in true rags to riches fashion.
These changes and advances made the $90AU you paid for the game when it was first released well worth while and got me back into the game all over again. This doesn’t seem to be the case with Sims3. Everything I read about the new game is vague and very quick to gloss over the advances for the new release. Their biggest selling point seems to be that you can now walk from lot to lot, but really, who wants that? Even if you were interested in it, the novelty is hardly worth another $90, plus all the money for the expansion packs that are sure to follow.
The result is this quite a few of my friends, along with myself, although avid fans of Sims2 have now decided to boycott the new game. If they had anything worthwhile in this new release it would be all over their advertising, as it was with the second version. In conclusion, Maxis would have been better off to simply release more expansions and item packs for Sims2. This is merely my opinion but seems to be support by many Sims fans I’ve spoken to. If we’re right, I’m ashamed that a game which I like so much has been overcome by the corruption of money to release the waste of time that is Sims3. If we’re wrong, well, let’s just say it’s a pity that the advertising campaign for what could have been the next big thing for a lot of female gamers is severely lacking and that in itself is a disappointment.