The Sims is the strategic life-simulation developed by Maxis. Being aimed at showing the daily activities of the family, the game is great in considering the roles of the family members and the distinguishing those in accordance with the gender roles. Playing this game, students are to understand its main idea and the peculiarities of successful development of the plot. There are a lot of different versions of The Sims, still the main idea is as follows.
The players are offered the house and the family members. The players are responsible for the daily activities of the characters such as washing, teeth brushing, eating, washing up, cleaning, etc. if people do not take the trash off, they may get sick as the bacteria are delivered. The same happens if the characters do not take the bath. Eating is also important for healthy existence as well as sleep.
The day and the night are the background attributes of the game. Additionally, parents have to go to work and children are to attend schools and colleges. Everything is like in the real life. The players are doing all possible to make sure that their characters enjoy life. Playing the game is like a great adventure where people have an opportunity to live the life they are dreaming of.
The game teaches players the responsibilities the family members have. Before getting down to the game the players are to choose the names, the members, their age, gender and number (about children). The family is offered a particular sum of money they are to deal with. The gender roles are also considered as a father is usually considered as the feeder of the family while the mother is staying at home with children and cooks dinner.
The job opportunities and the way to plan the budget are offered for training. The players are to check how much money they have and how much they can spend on food, traveling, other activities. The family members in The Sims have a number of necessities and these necessities presuppose their status and activity. As it has already been mentioned Sims are to eat, they are to have a rest otherwise, they may be depressed. Sims have to communicate a sit is also important.
Thus, it may be concluded that he main idea of the game is to show children the family and gender roles. Moving the characters, making those perform their responsibilities the players get to know what may be if one does not eat, why parents have to work and where they put the money they get.
Additionally, the players learn to be responsible for their lives and for the lives of their children (the smaller members of the family). The players are also offered an opportunity to check the number of careers. Moreover, children are taught to study as only in this case they may expect to occupy a good position, earn enough money to make sure that the furniture on their home is comfortable and they have an opportunity to get enough delicious food.
The players understand what the family means, the make sure how difficult fathers (men) have to work and how hard mothers (women) are to complete their tasks about the house remembering about their working responsibilities as well. The game is educative and deserves attention, however, some research shows that women are less interested in such games (Hartmann and Klimmt 924).
Works Cited
Hartmann, Tilo and Christoph Klimmt. “Gender and computer games: Exploring females’ dislikes.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11 (2006): 910–931. Print.