Rod Humble worked at EA for years and worked on Sims 2 and 3. According to him, many men lied when asked about in-game activities.
In life simulations you can do all kinds of things and test different lifestyles, no matter how far they are from real life.
According to Rod Humble, players need their privacy. He finally left EA in 201 and is currently working on his own life simulation titled “Life by You”. In it he doesn’t want to collect any in-game data like it’s done with the Sims titles.
Respondents lied about killing and starving Sims
Humble remembers a focus group, a kind of game test, in an interview with PCGamer. Young men returned to the room and Humble asked them what they were up to in The Sims 3.
They replied that they had killed people, starved them, and hooked up with everyone in town. However, they did not know that they were being watched while playing. “Actually, you just redecorated the bathroom,” one said to one of them.
According to the director, it is important to be allowed to experiment, but then to distance yourself from it.
Here’s the trailer for Life by You:
Life by You – Announcement trailer for Paradox Interactive’s new life simulation game
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According to Humble, sometimes players want distance from their Sims
“When you hear us talk about playing a life sim, we often switch between first and third person,” says Humble. He finds it important to take on different perspectives in order to be able to try out a lot without directly identifying with the person being played.
In the upcoming title Life by You, it should be possible to switch to the first-person perspective and control the character from his point of view. However, players can switch back to the third person at any time and gain some distance.
In an interview with PCGamer, Humble also reveals more details about the gameplay: Players should be able to adjust the distribution of the Sims themselves using pie charts. So they decide for themselves which Sims have which skin color, gender or sexual orientation.
EA knows about Sims 4, for example, how many millions of “WooHoos” have been shouted at each other in the last year. The developers collect this and similar data, but Rod Humble wants to do without it. “It’s very important these days for this community to know that this is a private experience,” he explains.
What do you say about privacy in life simulations? Write it to us in the comments here on MeinMMO!
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