Simplification: The Sims and Utopianism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2004vol14no2art1268Keywords:
computer games, The Sims, Utopias, speculative fictionAbstract
'The Sims' is currently the best-selling computer game in which the players interact with a screen world, building and decorating houses, and striving to direct and control animated three-dimensional figures. The game's positioning of the player is very similar to the reader-positioning affected by the speculative genre of utopian narrative fiction.
Metrics
References
Aarseth, E. (1997) Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press.
Aarseth, E. (1999) ‘Aporia and epiphany in Doom and The Speaking Clock: The temporality of ergodic art’, in Marie-Laure Ryan (ed) Cyberspace Textuality: Computer Technology and Literary Theory. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, pp. 31-41.
Alleva, Richard (2003) ‘Keeping up with the Simses’, Commonweal 130, 4: 22-24.
Bean, Thomas W. and Moni, Karen (2003) ‘Developing students’ critical literacy: Exploring identity construction in young adult fiction’, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 46, 8: 638-649.
Debord, Guy (1977) The Society of the Spectacle. Detroit, Black and Red Press.
Douglas, Christopher (2002) ‘You have unleashed a horde of barbarians: Fighting Indians, playing games, forming disciplines’, Postmodern Culture: An Electronic Journal of Interdisciplinary Criticism 13, 1: 1-20. Retrieved June 28, 2004, from http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/text-only/ issue.902/13./contents.html
Frasca, Gonzalo (2001) ‘Simulation versus representation’, Ludology
http://www.ludology.org/articles/sim1/ simulation101c.html
Green, B. and Bigum, C. (1993) ‘Aliens in the classroom’, Australian Journal of Education 37, 2: 19-41.
Hertz, J.C. (1997) Joystick Nation. Boston, New York, Toronto and London, Little, Brown and Co.
Hourigan, Ben (2003) ‘The utopia of open space in role-playing videogames’, Ezine: Special Issue DAC 2003 Conference Papers. Melbourne DAC, 17.8. Retrieved June 15, 2004, from http://www.fineartforum.org/ Backissues/Vol_17/faf_no8/reviews/hourigan. html
Jameson, Fredric (1975) ‘World-reduction in LeGuin: The emergence of utopian narrative’, Science Fiction Studies 7: online. Retrieved June 7, 2004 from http://www.depauw.edu/ sfs/backissues/7/jameson7art.html
Jameson, Fredric (1991) Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London and New York, Verso.
Jenkins, Henry (1998) “Complete freedom of movement”: video games as gendered play spaces’, in J. Cassell and H. Jenkins (eds) From Barbie to Mortal Kombat. Boston, MIT Press, pp. 262-298.
Juul, Jesper (2001) A Clash Between Game and Narrative: A Thesis on Computer Games and Interactive Fiction. English translation of a Masters thesis [electronic version]. Retrieved June 12, 2004,from http://www.jesperjuul. dk/thesis/6_readings.html
Kirksaether, J. (1998) ‘The structure of video game narration’, Digital Arts and Culture. Retrieved June 29, 2004 from http://cmc.uib.no/dac98/ papers/kirksaether.html
Le Guin, Ursula (1969) The Left Hand of Darkness. New York, Harper & Row.
Manovich, Lev (2001) The Language of New Media. Boston, MIT Press.
Marin, Louis (1990) Utopics: The Semiological Play of Textual Spaces (translated by Robert A. Vollrath). Atlantic Highlands NJ, Humanities Press International, Inc.
Pearce, Celia (2002) ‘Sims, battle bots, cellular automata, God and Go: a conversation with Will Wright’, Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research 1, 2: 1012, http://www.gamestudies. org/0102/pearce
Ruppert, Peter (1986) Reader in a Strange Land: The Activity of Reading Literary Utopias. Athens, Georgia, University of Georgia Press.
Suvin, Darko (1979) Metamorphoses of Science Fiction. New Haven and London, Yale University Press.
Suvin, Darko (1998) ‘Utopianism from orientation to agency’, Utopian Studies Spring 1998 [electronic version] Retrieved June 17, 2004 from http://web5.infotrac. galegroup.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/itw/ infomark/685/572/5106
The Sims (2000) Macintosh PC Game. Designer: Will Wright. Developer/Publisher: Maxis/ Electronic Arts.
The Sims Deluxe Edition Manual (2003) Singapore, Electronic Arts.
The Sims website: http://thesims.ea.com/us/about/ tips
Turkle, Sherry (1996) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Zancanella, Don et al. (2000) ‘Computer games as literature’, in Andrew Goodwyn (ed.) English in the Digital Age. London and New York, Cassell, pp.87-103.