Is The Sims an RPG? Part 1 (of 6)

(Spoiler: yes)

It's something I've been noticing for a while, now, and every time I've brought up this question in the Sims community, I invariably get the same reply: "no, it's a simulation! That's why it's a life sim!"

Which............ okay, yeah, The Sims is a life sim. But what does that mean?

Well, it simulates real life, doesn't it?

But so what? Dungeons and Dragons simulates being a wandering vagrant who murders goblins and takes their stuff.

Vampire: The Masquerade simulates being a goth vampire.

Pendragon simulates being a Knight of the Round Table.

Calling The Sims a life sim is, in my eyes, incredibly reductive.

Let's look at what an "RPG" is, shall we?

An RPG typically has one or more (usually more) of the following elements:

• Some kind of attribute system
• Some kind of skill system
• A chance-based conflict resolution mechanic
• Random encounters
• A world (and story) designed by a Game Master
• The ability to make characters which, you, uh, roleplay as. Being a roleplaying game and all

In this blog series, I'm gonna argue that The Sims has all of these.

But let's do them one at a time. First up...

Attributes

First of all, an RPG usually has some form of attribute score. These are things that defines who your character is.

D&D has ability scores. Your Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, Charisma, and so on. Pretty much unchanged from its 1974 roots to 5th edition... or 5.5e, or 5e 2024, or whatever we're calling the new edition-which-isn't-a-new-edition.

Fallout, both the video game series and the TTRPG by Modiphius, has S.P.E.C.I.A.L. scores. Strength, Perception, Endurance, etc etc.

Star Trek Adventures has attributes. Control, Daring, Fitness, Insight, and so on and so forth.

Pendragon has traits. I love these! Thirteen different pairings of 26 traits that exist in a push-and-pull with each other. If you're Chaste, you can't be Lustful, if you're Prudent, you can't be Reckless, if you're Valourous you can't be Cowardly.... putting a pin in this one for later!

Animon Story has different attributes depending if you're using the 'mon, or the 'mon's human buddy. Kids get traits--Logic, Reflex, Spirit--while the Animon themselves get Stats. Power, Heart, Brains.

The Elder Scrolls has attributes. In every game until Skyrim, these were Strength, Endurance, Intelligence, Personality, Luck etc, which would in turn determine your hit points, magic points ("Magicka") and stamina, but in Skyrim, HP, Magicka and stamina were determined directly by the player.

........and you get the idea.

Now, the question is, does The Sims have attributes?

Well... it used to.

Back in The Sims and The Sims 2, you had Personality scores. These were a lot like Pendragon, in point of fact!

Image courtesy of Giant Bomb; c'mon EA, sell The Sims 1 on Origin already!

Just like Pendragon, these Personality scores conflicted with one another! The more Neat you were, the less Sloppy you were. The more Outgoing you were, the less Shy you were. There was a push-and-pull of positives vs. negatives.

The Sims 2 had this same system!

But by the time of The Sims 3 and 4, the system had been replaced with a Trait system. The point-buy of TS1 and 2 remained (that is, you had a limited "budget" of personality points you could allocate), but you were much more limited in the number of Traits you could amass--especially in The Sims 4--but the idea was that it was much harder to program a whole spectrum of personalities across the 10 points per Personality type (5 per positive/negative), and so, Traits were designed to say "if you're a little Messy, now you're just Messy. If you're a little Shy, now you're just Shy".

Here's a blog by TS3 Co-Lead Designer Ray Mazza that explains the rationale better than I can.

I don't know if I necessarily agree that it's better, but I can see how it's more visible to players. If you want to make a Messy Sim, it helps to see them be Messy! I can also see it from a budgetary point of view--programming isn't just code, it's labour. And labour equals time. So the longer something takes, the more labour it requires, and therefore, the more money it costs to pay these developers for their labour.

Naturally, EA doesn't want to spend more money than they want to have to--they're only worth 38.10 billion dollars, after all! It's not like they're made of money!

Pictured: EA chairman & CEO Andrew Wilson

But, when all is said and done, The Sims has--or at least used to have--an attribute system.

Next time, on Nobody Poops on Television: Skills, and does The Sims have them?