EA's life simulation Sims 4 is getting a feature that lets you bypass creating its tiny dwellers via cold, harsh numbers. Soon you'll be able to create them using a 10-question personality test, which actually seems pretty effective.
EA explained that this in no way affects Sims 4's standard sim creation method, but is rather a "way to infuse a little personality and starting conditions into your sim before they even hit live mode."
They're not the type of questions you can fail, mind you, and they're all related to the game itself, and consequently the resulting personality you create.
Questions range from "What's the most important to me when selecting a place to live" and "What do I most want to do on a trip to Selvadorada", which try to determine whether you prefer substance over style and your touristic focus, to questions on what do you do with stacked documents, so as to check how you deal with disorderliness.
Sims 4 is sticking to its light-hearted guns though, and you'll frequently find that questions like "You found a strange plant outside. What do you do?" offer you an answer like "Eat it!" Whatever floats their Sim boat we guess.
In their Sims 4 video presentation, EA offered fans to answer the question of "Bugs, critters and all that?", to which the masses replied with a resounding no. Needless to say, you can guess that this will make your sim squeamish.
You don't have to answer all the questions, mind you, as they can be rerolled, should you find some that offend your sim-creationist ethical sensibilities.
Ultimately, while not an overly significant change, it's still a good one, because in spite of the video games' underlying, math-laden scaffolding, narratives always beat numbers when dealing with people.
EA
Will Wright, creator of Sims, SimCity and Spore, has in the meantime started a new project that's slated to arrive in fall 2019, and we're talking about , a mobile game that will use memories as building blocks.
You can check out EA's presentation on Twitch (the character creation part starts at around 17:30).
The Sims 4, life simulation game by Maxis and Electronic Arts
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