Why is it that when it comes to complaining about religion they have to go after The Sims series? There are tons of games worse than simulation games, you’d figure they’d get the least of the problems. Not so, according to an editor over at the NCRegister:
Sex is remarkably casual in the world of “The Sims 3,” and sleeping with your boss to get a promotion is even a gameplay option. In fact, dishonorable behavior is a perfectly fine choice since the game world is intentionally void of moral limits, although murder, smoking and drugs do not appear.
The designers are creating not so much a game or a narrative, but an environment and set of tools for people to create their own narrative. The assumption is that the gamer brings his or her moral values to the experience.
People can be who they want to be — unless, of course, you want to be a person of faith. Religion and belief still do not figure into the game at all. “The Sims 3” offers perhaps the only town in America without a single church or synagogue.
The game does, in fact, have a single throbbing core value: rampant materialism. It is the pulse at the heart of all “Sims” games. You’re not so much creating a life as you are creating a life upon which to hang lots and lots of stuff. You’re nurturing a tiny consumer.
“The Sims 3” is completely wired into the Internet, allowing you to buy (with real cash) more furniture, cars, clothes and stuff to add to “The Sims 3.” Then, you have to play the game until your characters have enough money to buy the stuff (with sim cash) in the game world.
It’s a world full of routine, mundane and often frustrating tasks where God is absent, love is simulated, and the sole gauge of success is material prosperity.
What’s silly about this is that many Sims 3 towns DO have a chapel or other religious building thanks to the players who create their own and upload them to the exchange. I built a chapel last week and it has been a fairly popular download.
If the creators HAD made religion an integral part of the game they would get flack from critics that the religion was too biased towards one faith or another, or that it was too wish-washy and made fun of religion. I have no problems with the moral options in the Sims – my characters reflect the kinds of hero, saints, and regular folk that make up a colourful, healthy town life.
Agree – the players should be the ones to decide in the end how to manage their religion if they want to incorporate it into the game. For all things that EA are at fault for, leaving religion out is not one of them 🙂
Eww, keep your religion out of my games. Let people decide for themselves if they want it.
People make me so angry. It’s a GAME.
Nobody wants Catholicism shoved down their throats.
Makes me want to cuss.
Damnit.
Ok, now I feel better.
Hahaha! Glad you feel better
Grr! People like that are just idiots! I don’t really know, but he/she sounds like a VERY annoying person sticking their heads into topics that they DO NOT belong in! Religion is a beleif, something people choose to believe in! I, as many others do not care at all for religion and think its all bull, but i will say that religion in a game will fuck up everything and everyone! The 2 MAIN things you should NEVER talk about with others is politics, and religion, because it starts the largest of fights, and throws out the largest of bull!! That person just made me mad!!
That article is idiotic. Thanks for sharing with us. I don’t want or need to pay $50 to have religion shoved down my throat, thank you very much. I will play my game how I want to play.
Just how I like my games. Religion free <3
”It’s a world full of routine, mundane and often frustrating tasks where God is absent”
That’s LIFE
the Sims is a LIFE simulator
I can’t decide. Does religion make people stupid, or does stupidity make people religious? In any case, it certainly seems as though the two go hand in hand more often than not.
I’d also like to know where this guy got his copy of Sims 3. I’ve been playing for nearly a year now and have yet to see a “sleep with boss” option.