Social simulation games are a subgenre oflife simulation games that explore social interactions between multipleartificial lives. Some examples includeSimCity,The Sims andAnimal Crossing series. The earliest created for educational purpose, then gradually evolved to social and entertainment use.
There were social simulation games before there were video games. The earliest forms being physical cities created for educational purposes made of miscellaneous household items. School teacher, Doreen Gehry Nelson created in-class city building that eventually helped shape the gameSimCity and more. Her city simulations allowed students to imagine, build, and re-build a city in their own image incorporating real world learning. The Nelson siblings, Doreen (school teacher) and Frank Nelson (architect), can be accredited for the creation of the roleplaying game,Purium, which was purposed at a 1971 Smithsonian Institution workshop. LaterPurium became an inspiration used for the baseline of future social simulation games.[1]
Claire Curtin, an educational software producer, co-designedThe Sims with Will Wright and Roxana Wolosenko. The three designers invited skilled teachers like Doreen Nelson to create informational teacher guides to facilitate gameplay inMaxis games.[1] WhenThe Sims was released in 2000, it was referred to as "almost the only game of its kind".[2] But there are several important precursors toThe Sims and the social simulation genre. Firstly, one of the game's creators Will Wright acknowledged the influence ofLittle Computer People,[3] aCommodore 64 game from 1985. The games are similar, althoughThe Sims is described as having a richer gameplay experience.[2] Secondly,Will Wright also acknowledged the influence ofdollhouses onThe Sims,[4] which have generally also informed the gameplay of this genre.
Animal Crossing was released in 2001 for theNintendo 64 inJapan. While released towards the end of the life cycle of the Nintendo 64, it developed a following that led to it being ported to theGameCube and released throughout the world. As the game's popularity has surged, this series has also been described as a social simulation game.[5][6]Story of Seasons, a series that began in 1996 and is often compared toAnimal Crossing,[7] has also been described as a social simulation game. Its social simulation elements are derived fromdating sims,[8] a subgenre that dates back to the early 1980s, with games such asTenshitachi no gogo[9] in 1985[10] andGirl's Garden in 1984.[11]
Since the initial success of these games in the early 2000s, video game journalists have begun to refer to a group of similar games as belonging to the social simulation game genre.
Several other social simulation games have emerged to capitalize on the success ofThe Sims.[12] This includes several sequels and expansion packs, as well as games likeSingles: Flirt Up Your Life with heavy similarities.[13]
A farming sim is a specific type of social simulation in which the player tends to a farm at the same time they influence game play by interacting with other townspeople. A direct connection can be drawn from early games in the genre such asHarvest Moon (1996) to the more recentStardew Valley (2016). Other games, such as theRune Factory series andHarvestella (2022) put a fantasy spin on the genre,[14] while there are also sci-fi examples such asLightyear Frontier.[15] The 2.0 update ofAnimal Crossing: New Horizons (2020) added the ability to create a farm and grow produce.[16]
City-building simulations ask the player to manage, build, and influence how a city evolves over time.SimCity simulates evolution over time by incorporatingJay Forrester's system of using feedback loops and changing variable.[1] Games likeSimCity (1989),[17]Cesar III (1989),[18]Pharaoh (1999),[19] andTheoTown (2015)[20] allow players to design the layout and functionalities of the city within the limits of the game. Games likeRollercoaster Tycoon (1999)[21] andZoo Tycoon (2001)[22] are similar in that players manipulate pre-existing game structures, but in these simulations the goal is to build and influence a theme park sim.
Life simulations involve players creating different avatars or sims, and then playing out different social behaviors in a pre-built simulation.[23] Depending on the variation, there is a level of randomness embedded into gameplay that allows the player to simulate alternate realities for their avatar/sims within the game's story or world.[24] Games likeThe Sims (2000) allow players to manage a household of sims. Players can design the way their sims look and act by selecting attributes that can influence their allotted gameplay interactions and behaviors. With the goal to interact as these sims in a larger ecosystem of characters.[23]
Princess Maker (1991)—byGainax, a raising sim which the player must raise an adoptive daughter until she reaches adulthood. The final result varies from a ruling queen, to an ordinary housewife, to even a prostitute if the player looks after her poorly.
Tokimeki Memorial series (1994–2014)—6 main games and a large number of spin-offs
True Love (1995)—a Japaneseerotic dating sim and general life simulation game where the player must manage the player's daily activities, such as studying, exercise, and employment.
Persona series (1996–2024)—6 main games and several spin-offs, although the first 3 games do not emphasize this aspect very much.
Real Lives (2001)—an educational life simulator by Educational Simulations where the player is randomly "born" somewhere in the world and often must deal with third-world difficulties such as disease, malnutrition, and civil war.
Democracy (2005)—a government simulation game that was first developed by Positech Games, with a sequel released in December 2007 and a third game in 2013.
^abcGingold, Chaim (2024).Building SimCity: how to put the world in a machine. Game histories. Janet Horowitz Murray. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.ISBN978-0-262-37759-1.
^abLorentz, Pascaline (2015).The Socializing Voyage of the Video Game Player: Growing-up with playing The Sims®. Brno: Masarykova univerzita.ISBN978-80-210-7868-0.
^Becker, Katrin; Parker, Jim R. (2011).The guide to computer simulations and games (1st ed (Online-Ausg.) ed.). Indianapolis, Ind: Wiley Pub., Inc.ISBN978-1-118-00923-9.
