Friday, March 14, 2014

Donlevy Likes to Play God


Is it the human condition that forms within us a God complex?

Nah I dunno, I'm only here to talk about games! And in particular, those games that have you take on a God-like persona, whether that means sending your delightfully ignorant peons to a certain death, or guiding them to fun and excitement! These are of course sim games, short for simulation. There's a ton of them out there, some more popular than others, but they all stem from the common theme of control and observation. It's much like watching your own little mad science experiment come to life.
It's both enlightening and frightening how much amusement one can have from such games, but I tend not to think much into it as I watch my loyal subjects do my bidding at the slightest whim, and praise my name as Mayor/Park Manager/God/etc. No, I don't have a God complex.


Yes, probably the most famous of these types of games is undoubtedly The Sims. I've talked about the series at different lengths, and I don't have much else to add, since it's still the best-selling game series on PC. It's The Sims. No matter which game you play, or which device/console/peripheral you play it on, The Sims remains largely the same: you create your Sims, build a house for them, and watch them live out their day to day lives with either extreme or minimal input at your behest. Give them six-figure jobs and let them drink away their riches? Or take away their pool ladder in protest, and regret your decision as you beg with Death not to take them. Ah Sims. What a marvellous series. Will Wright, the creator and designer, called it something along the lines of a "doll-house-simulator," and it's a fitting description, although with more of a general appeal, and not one restricted by either age or gender. It's truly a game series for anyone.


SIMilarly, there's SimCity (I'm sorry), around since 1989, and also designed by Will Wright. Across all the SimCity games, you are the mayor of a city (duh), and must construct roads, zones, police stations, hospitals, and power plants to make your city the best that ever was, and ever will be. The original version of SimCity had several different versions released, along with five sequels, including the notorious recent release in 2013. First however, a confession. I am terrible at the SimCity games. I can never really construct a city and have it run wonderfully indefinitely, and I usually end up calling in a disaster in frustration. Yes, a hallmark of the series are disasters that can occur either randomly or by your own will, and these range from floods, to riots and to UFO's. I suppose there's something to be said for watching your bright and brimming city build up, only to have it destroyed by a giant robot. In fact, in the case of the awesome Super Nintendo version you see in the picture above, you can call in freaking BOWSER to come and wreck your city. That's so cool! All those finicky and ungrateful citizens demanding their taxes be lowered? Send in the Koopa King himself to instill fear and terror!

The thing about SimCity, and to a lesser extent The Sims, is that the games are actually part of a (far) larger series of Sim games, developed by Maxis. Yeah, Maxis pretty much ruled the simulation genre with an iron fist for the longest time. I'm woefully ignorant of most of these games, sadly, but I know that a great many of them exist, such as SimEarth, SimAnt, SimTower, SimHealth (really), and more. It's insane.


A personal favourite of mine though is definitely the RollerCoaster Tycoon games. Wow! I'll say right away that I'm far more versed in the first two than I am with the 3-D third entry, but many of the main mechanics stay the same throughout, and they make up some fantastic games! As the name implies, you construct roller coasters, among other things, for your amusement park as you build up from either a pre-made entry park, or from scratch. You raise and lower prices of items and fees, direct the flow of the park with pathways, and punish those ungrateful little twerps who only come to your park to mock it, laugh at it, and throw trash all around the park, sometimes vomiting along the way. Ah, when it comes to these special people, my parks have a simply policy: put them in the Pit of Shame (sometimes the Fence of Shame, if I can't lower land). Since you can pick up any park guest via a convenient "tweezers" icon, I simply pick them up and place them in their respective Pit or Fence, where they can contemplate on their actions in their helpless state. Oh, this game is so much fun. Of course designing the roller coasters is a definite highlight, of which they can also break down unintentionally (or morbidly intentionally), with sometimes fatal consequences. You must adapt to these events, and how you handle the overall management of the park is the biggest and most satisfying draw of the game. Seeing your small park grow and flourish with the ebb and flow of the many guests is a great pleasure.


There are other cool sim-like games too! Take for example, ActRaiser on the SNES, shown above! A launch title for the SNES developed by Quintet (responsible for Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma -- collectively known as the Soul Blazer trilogy on the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo) and published by Enix (now part of Square Enix), ActRaiser is part city-builder, and part sidescrolling action! As The Master, you reconstruct civilizations that have been thwarted by Tanzra, and you do this by first entering a sidescrolling action segment in which you control an animated idol/statue, defeating enemies and a boss on each level. After doing so, you enter the city-building mode, where you construct buildings, pathways, and flora to better the civilization.

Donlevy Side Note: The previously mentioned, and awesome, Soul Blazer actually plays like ActRaiser in some respects, with a hero that acts out the will of a God-like deity, and reconstructs villages via releasing souls sealed away in labyrinths. Excellent game. Recommend. 

UPDATE

Okay, so, I totally forgot about one of the more unique God-like games out there. I was reminded of the peculiar Spore by my good friend Booth, and I can't resist the urge to mention it here.


What is Spore? It is, in principle, around five different games that make up one whole experience. Spore is highly customizable, in that at each stage you have the opportunity to create or edit your creature, buildings, vehicles, and eventually even spaceships, as you recreate life from it's earliest beginnings, to the search for the stars. You begin by controlling a little amoeba-like cell as you click around to direct your little friend to find food in the form of protein cells, and eventually, other amoeba creatures. When you have reached a certain millennium, your creature sprouts legs, and you then control them individually as they procreate and form packs, and you must protect them and others from other enemy creatures that are not your allies. After you have developed a brain, you enter a Tribal stage, which plays out like a rudimentary strategy game. You control groups of your creature as you conquer other local tribes with either savoury or unsavoury means. How you shape your creature's tribe will influence your creatures society later on. They can be peace-loving pacifists, or you can make them a bunch of freeloading assholes. The next evolutionary stage is the Civilization stage, which plays a lot like...well, the game Civilization. It's a more expanded form of the tribal stage, with vehicles and buildings to customize to your hearts content. And then, finally, you reach the largest and most prominent stage in the game: the Space era. It look millions of years to reach this point, but your funny and awkward, and sometimes violent, amoeba has finally reached the stars. Here, you have the freedom to explore stars and their planets, of which you may find other creatures or Evil Empires of Doom, or you may terraform a barren (or not-so-barren, if you're evil) planet to be shaped by your will. So yes, if you are that immature, you may indeed make a planet with no defining feature save for a penis shaped ocean. But Spore is pretty rad, and while I think the space stage kinda steals the show, the game as a whole is really cool, and while it may not scream "simulation," I doubt I'll ever talk about this game in any other context. So there's that. Still, fun game! And really, really weird at times. Like, creepily weird. ("Does that creature have a leg as a nose?")

As always, there are a ton of other games worthy of playing God that I didn't get the chance to mention, like for example Populous!


Or how about Black & White?


Granted, a few of these games straddle the line between between "simulation" and "strategy game," but I think the overall premise of control and observation blends well into the strategy sphere of gaming. And obviously some games with simulation in their title, like Flight Simulator or Train Simulator don't exhibit gameplay found in God-like games.

But that's really all I wanted to say. I like God games. I like playing God. And I feel that there's an inherent enjoyment to be found in all of us when we see our creations come to life, be it in real life or in a capable videogame. Interactivity in gaming naturally lends itself well to that sort of gameplay and style, and you can be sure that as newer and more advanced games are released, our creations will evolve as well, and in new and exciting ways.

3 comments:

  1. Spore was another interesting one. Probably the most actual God-like game. Or not, I suppose a God-simulation game about evolution is kind of an oxymoron or a paradox or something. Anyway I'm rambling now. Good one though, as always!

    - Booooth

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    Replies
    1. Spore is probably the most unique of the God-sim games, because it's kinda like 5 different games in one. Damn, I should have added it!

      Thanks man!

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    2. Ah you know what, I'm going to add a bit on Spore right now! Full credit to you sir for reminding me of it!

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