Newbie

So the weird thing is that when my Sims guy died, I tried to quit out of the program. And then I saw this pop-up window –

What exactly did this mean? If I didn’t save my “unsaved changes,” would that bring my Sims guy back to life? (Since his death was an event that apparently hadn’t been saved yet on my hard drive.) If I clicked “no,” would he be there next time? Could I maybe still save him? Would the pizza delivery person be faster next time?

This was a tough call, but I decided to click “yes,” save my changes and let him rest in peace.

I think that I’m better off accepting that I stink at this game and trying to get a fresh start. I’m going to go back to the tutorial (and maybe even read the manual). That’s what I should have done in the first place. But I didn’t. I had to be “Mr. Extreme” and try to do it on my own!

In the immortal words of Scarlett O’Hara (you remember “Gone with the Wind,” right kids?), “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

I’m with you, Scarlett.

So I got my Sim a telephone so he can order a pizza….

Here he is right after he ordered the pizza….

He had to wait a long time for that pizza….

And then, finally, the pizza delivery person came. That’s her in the bottom right-hand corner of the image….

But it was too late….

That’s the Grim Reaper looking over some paperwork, probably my crappy life insurance policy.

YIKES!

The same thing that happened to Henry Jenkins’ son happened to me. Both of our Sims died of starvation while waiting for take-out pizzas.

I’m sure I’ll learn something from this, but I’m not sure what it is yet.

Well, for starters, maybe the next time my wife and I do take-out, we’ll get Thai food.

I interviewed Henry Jenkins the other day for a podcast I’m producing for the “Got Game” site. Henry is the Director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program, and he has an amazing number of great ideas about pretty much everything. I spoke with him about one of his passions, learning games, and it was a really neat experience. (To sample some of Henry’s writing, visit his relatively new and quite cool blog.)

So what does this have to do with my blog? Well, Henry told me a story about playing “The Sims” with his son. It seems that his son didn’t have a real sense of budgeting just yet and spent practically all his money in the game on a gigantic wide-screen TV. So he didn’t have a whole lot of money left after that. His Sim couldn’t even afford to buy a refrigerator where he could store food. And then things got much, much worse when he lost his job and his kid got hit by a car (!). Also, he was starving to death (sound familiar?). Henry, being a generous sort, advised his son to have his Sim buy a phone and order a pizza. This would be a relatively cheap way to keep him alive, he suggested. Then in a completely brutal twist, just as the delivery person was ringing the doorbell to bring the pizza, the Sim died of starvation.

It’s a sad story, but it does illustrate that “The Sims” can be an excellent learning game: Henry’s son learned to work within a budget.

But wait a second.

They deliver??!!

I am going to order a pizza for my Sim.

So I’m still a little afraid of diving back into my real Sims world (things are getting tricky here, aren’t they?), so I return to the tutorial again. I figure it can’t hurt to be sure of myself before I try to save my starving little guy….

Again, the tutorial is a very pleasant experience.

Here we see Tutorial Joe dancing with musical notes popping out of his head. I can never get my little Sims guy to do that! He’s more likely to spend his time shrieking in horror (I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…). Anyway, I’ve got Tutorial Joe up and shaking his booty to a salsa beat.

And while I’ve learned to master some easy tasks in the game, I’ve also learned what’s hard for me. It’s keeping track of everything. The Sims are sort of like real people in that they have LOTS of needs. Here’s a close-up of Tutorial Joe’s needs from the above screen –

In the game, you’ve got to stay on top of all these things and take the correct actions to keep your Sims healthy and happy. And this is only one small piece of the puzzle – the Sims even have memories that impact their day-to-day lives (for instance, Tutorial Joe was recently fired from his job and he’s afraid of fire – go figure). Now I certainly multitask all the time in my real home and work life, but it’s somehow a lot more difficult in this game.

Again, this is the kind of thing that makes me feel old. If I were younger, I’m quite sure I’d be able to play the game, talk on my cell phone, listen to my iPod, text message all my friends, TiVo “Entourage” and write this blog… all at the same time… without missing a beat.

I’m back on the “Sims 2” tutorial trail today.

When you play the tutorial, you don’t actually use your own characters (the ones that you can create yourself). Instead, you use a fellow called “Tutorial Joe.” He seems like a fine well-meaning sort, but he doesn’t have a job, and in “The Sims 2” you’ve got to have a job if you want money to buy stuff. So I make Joe check out the Help Wanted section of the newspaper (funny how the game is utterly “old school” here – who finds a job in the newspaper anymore?).

The first job that Joe seems qualified for is working as a mascot for a local sports team. Sounds like it could help him get into shape… and it could be kind of glamorous. So why not??? Joe accepts the job and the game tells me that a car pool will be coming tomorrow at 2 p.m. to gather him and bring him to his new gig. This is bad news. It means I will have to make sure Joe is actually ready for that car pool – you know, cleaned up and wearing his duck suit, or whatever else a mascot wears. Joe can’t do that stuff on his own. I’ve got to help him. And that means that I’ve just made a commitment!

Utterly shaken, I send Joe into the kitchen and make him juggle water bottles….

When I get to the first “Sims 2” screen, there is an option called “Learn to Play.” I’ve circled it in red here.

I’ve never clicked this button before, preferring to move directly to “Pleasantville,” which has sadly proven none too pleasant. But today is the day that I must humble myself and “learn to play.” Click….

The tutorial leads me by the nose through the various steps of the game. I usually don’t like being led by the nose (or any other body parts, for that matter), but today I find it rather comforting. I just do what the screen tells me to do (click here, click there), and I start to play the game.

Early in the tutorial, I learn how to find and center my characters on the screen. This is a hugely valuable piece of information. Up until now, my game “play” has largely consisted of losing and then trying to find my Sims people. It’s pretty much always followed the same pattern:

1. The Sims wander away.
2. I can’t find them.
3. I quit the game and go make a sandwich.

As you can imagine, this has limited the amount of fun I’ve had with “The Sims 2.”

I’m very excited about this new breakthrough, but I’m going to stop the tutorial now. I plan to take it all in small chunks because I think it will give me the best chance to retain this new information. After all, I don’t have as much RAM (in my brain, that is) as I used to.