Is The Sims A Virtual Dollhouse?

I think some people here are taking "virtual dollhouse" a bit literally. For instance, a game like Minecraft is called a "sandbox." It's not a literal sandbox in that you're not building in a virtual box with nothing but digital sand, but it encapsulates the sheer degree of openness of imagination that an actual sandbox presents to a child playing in one - they can imagine anything, they can build anything with the sand within the boundaries of the box, and they're only limited by their imagination and how clever they are at manipulating sand. Actual sand boxes don't have creepers running around exploding, they don't have hammers and swords that you use to burrow deeper into the earth, they don't have wild animals running around, etc, etc. You see where I'm going here? The Sims may not exactly behave like a real doll house - sure, the Sims move and are free thinking while dolls are stationary and mobilized when you move them and place them, and you design homes and structures in the Sims whereas you don't have as much control in a real doll house, but it still is a virtual dollhouse down to it's core. You're creating a world, an imitation of reality, and you're acting out life and fantasy with the characters (Sims, dolls, whatever) within your world, using your creativity, imagination, and the characters you have decided to populate your world with. That's how dollhouses are at their core, and that's how the Sims operate at it's core. Like Minecraft though, it transcends physical dollhouses and expands on the concept and evolves it into something that can never be achieved in a real dollhouse, but it still remains that it captures the same concepts of imagination and life imitation that children experience when playing with dollhouses.

"TheGreatGorlon;c-16945290" wrote:
I think some people here are taking "virtual dollhouse" a bit literally. For instance, a game like Minecraft is called a "sandbox." It's not a literal sandbox in that you're not building in a virtual box with nothing but digital sand, but it encapsulates the sheer degree of openness of imagination that an actual sandbox presents to a child playing in one - they can imagine anything, they can build anything with the sand within the boundaries of the box, and they're only limited by their imagination and how clever they are at manipulating sand. Actual sand boxes don't have creepers running around exploding, they don't have hammers and swords that you use to burrow deeper into the earth, they don't have wild animals running around, etc, etc. You see where I'm going here? The Sims may not exactly behave like a real doll house - sure, the Sims move and are free thinking while dolls are stationary and mobilized when you move them and place them, and you design homes and structures in the Sims whereas you don't have as much control in a real doll house, but it still is a virtual dollhouse down to it's core. You're creating a world, an imitation of reality, and you're acting out life and fantasy with the characters (Sims, dolls, whatever) within your world, using your creativity, imagination, and the characters you have decided to populate your world with. That's how dollhouses are at their core, and that's how the Sims operate at it's core. Like Minecraft though, it transcends physical dollhouses and expands on the concept and evolves it into something that can never be achieved in a real dollhouse, but it still remains that it captures the same concepts of imagination and life imitation that children experience when playing with dollhouses.

I can agree with some points but "sandbox" is a common gaming term now and not used to force players to think of an actual box with actual sand. It's just to refer to a game that allows almost limitless creativity. Indeed, it is for the reasons you stated that the word "sandbox" was chosen, but using "dollhouse" to describe games is not as established a practice. By your logic, ALL life simulator games should just be called dollhouse games, instead of just calling them what they are, life simulation games. You could reduce anything that involves people and imagination to "dollhouse", even creative writing, which seems a bit oversimplified. To me, describing it as a virtual dollhouse game is fine if you wish to do so and also enjoyed dolls when you were younger, but it seems to reduce the essence of the Sims since we don't normally ascribe the word to your regular ol' life simulation games. And for those of us who never saw the appeal of actual dollhouses but enjoy Sims, it definitely doesn't feel the same, so not thinking it as a virtual dollhouse is also fine.

@scrutyni That's fair, "sandbox" is indeed more of an industry term, and "dollhouse" isn't an established genre or anything. However, I don't feel like the point about logically applying that to all life simulation games and creative writing is fair, as the Sims specifically revolves around the two most important elements of play and imagination that ties it very firmly to the concept of a doll house - the house and the inhabitants. Specifically similar to dolls and their homes, you get to move furniture, decorate how you will, have your characters interact with the furniture and other parts of the home, and often with each other. That's not to say the Sims isn't still a life simulation game, it most certainly is, but it can be both a life simulator and fall into a category as a virtual dollhouse at the same time. As I mentioned, it has transcended beyond the simple scope of physical dollhouses and childhood play into something more evolved, but regardless of whether you enjoyed dollhouses or not as a child, I find there to be much too strong of a correlation between the most basic elements of the Sims and their homes and dolls and their houses to simply dismiss the notion that the Sims is a virtual dollhouse on some level.
It's much in the same way that one piece of technology today will still be called what it was called years ago - like the phone, for instance. They used to be wall mounted and corded, but now they're tiny computers we keep in our pockets. Smart phones have certainly evolved beyond the traditional phones from the past, but at their core, they still are phones and we still call them such. Even if you didn't like corded phones or even if you primarily use your smartphone for games or the internet, it's still a phone.

@TheGreatGorlon I don't disagree with your take, and I won't gripe on your and others' preference to call it a virtual dollhouse. I guess because my entire childhood, or what I remember of it, centered around video games rather than physical toys, there's definitely a disconnect to me, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Sure, technology has developed, but this development to me exists within the gaming realm and doesn't translate back and forth between a virtual game and toys of reality. I see the Sims as more just a video game inspired by life, just like a dollhouse is a toy inspired by life. The Sims's dollhouse-like features are inspired by actual humans' ability to influence architecture and decorate houses, as well as our own social interactions. Just as a child's imagination is inspired as such, so I feel I'd be giving too much credit to dollhouses for something that simply happens in (or is inspired by) reality. In the same vein, I haven't heard of people calling shooter or battlefield games "virtual action figures". And if you do know someone who does do that oof, well, I guess the problem is too much correlating things to other things when we should just view each entity as its own unique concept.

Now if you were consistently using a pose mod...lol. In the end, agreeing to either side is fine and reasonable, to each their own and this topic was based on feeling in the first place, so no one's opinion is any less valid no matter how literal they're taking it.

Sure, it makes more sense than calling it a life simulator. For better or worse we’ve veered a long way off from Will Wright’s original vision.

When I was a kid, long before the Sims was heard of, I use to make my own paperdolls and play just as I play in the Sims. I drew out everything. Paperdolls with their paper clothes and different paper hair much used like a wig. I drew their homes and had 3D models of my main families home. I even created an entire town that covered the whole of my bedroom floor. It had all kinds of shops and entertainment lots. It was my escape and what I loved to do.

As I got older and into my highschool years, call me a nerd or whatever, I continued to draw my paperdolls and expand my paper town even though I didn't play with them anymore I started writing stories for them. It was a combination of realism and fantasy.

When the Sims came out I was able to take that same creativity, imagination, and play into a virtual world. I only wish now that I had saved those drawings and stories.

Call this game what you want, but I think it's just a fun way to express your creativity rather you're a architect, artist, designer, story teller or just someone who simply likes to play the game. Male or female or something in-between older generation vs. younger generation, it doesn't matter, it's a life simulation game in which you use your imagination and creativity to play how you want to.

"TheGreatGorlon;c-16945521" wrote:
@scrutyni That's fair, "sandbox" is indeed more of an industry term, and "dollhouse" isn't an established genre or anything. However, I don't feel like the point about logically applying that to all life simulation games and creative writing is fair, as the Sims specifically revolves around the two most important elements of play and imagination that ties it very firmly to the concept of a doll house - the house and the inhabitants. Specifically similar to dolls and their homes, you get to move furniture, decorate how you will, have your characters interact with the furniture and other parts of the home, and often with each other. That's not to say the Sims isn't still a life simulation game, it most certainly is, but it can be both a life simulator and fall into a category as a virtual dollhouse at the same time. As I mentioned, it has transcended beyond the simple scope of physical dollhouses and childhood play into something more evolved, but regardless of whether you enjoyed dollhouses or not as a child, I find there to be much too strong of a correlation between the most basic elements of the Sims and their homes and dolls and their houses to simply dismiss the notion that the Sims is a virtual dollhouse on some level.
It's much in the same way that one piece of technology today will still be called what it was called years ago - like the phone, for instance. They used to be wall mounted and corded, but now they're tiny computers we keep in our pockets. Smart phones have certainly evolved beyond the traditional phones from the past, but at their core, they still are phones and we still call them such. Even if you didn't like corded phones or even if you primarily use your smartphone for games or the internet, it's still a phone.

I find The Sims at its core a life simulator, moreso than a virtual dollhouse. Main aspect is that yes, you may turn off autonomy and control your sims, but there's a whole neighborhood (or a whole world running in TS3's case) moving around, doing their own thing, an A.I. basically. The idea of tying The Sims to the concept of a virtual dollhouse just doesn't make sense to me, because that'd mean every single life simulator could essentially be tied to a virtual dollhouse when the game is trying to simply simulate life. It's a basic part of life to have a house, to furnish it, to use said furniture, to socialize, to take care of your basic needs, those things are tied to simulating life itself as an integral part of our lives is, you know, having a place to live in. Dollhouses are on their own a physical way of simulating life, albeit static of course since it's not a software.

For me it is, but that's just because of how I play and how I payed with dolls. I was always giving them careers, friends, romance, they were traveling, having families, going shopping...just like my Sims. And that's not restricted to girls. Boys have and pay with dolls too. They aren't something I see as restrictive.

So for me it is the same, though my dolls did always give me personally a little more organic whimsy. My sister and I once strung yarn throughout our entire room, zigzagging from bedposts to drawer handles and chair frames to have a zip line for our Barbies to get to their different locations (it totally worked too). So in that sense, I'd say my dolls were better in that they didn't limit me and my imagination.

With a computer game I have to wait for things to be implemented, and even then they may never come. I'm almost... preemptively limited in what I can do. Not bashing the games, I love them. Just thinking.

I was a tomboy as well - never actually had a dollhouse and never played with dolls. I was a teddy fanatic. But I think of my Sims as virtual dolls. Of course, there is more to it than simple play with dolls, but overall, I think of Sims as a virtual dollhouse. And sometimes fish in a tank.

I would say it’s very much like a virtual dollhouse in that it’s creative and imaginative play. My daughter and my son both play with dollhouse and I did as child as well. It is also a life simulator even though the game does not simulate many aspects of life. 4 in particular has moved away from that due to its utopian play style.