Sunday Browsing: The Sims Social

Facebook games have come a long way from the days of Packrat and Mafia Wars. Loads of the big console publishers have seen the ludicrous success of Zynga and are getting in on the action. In the past year, Ubisoft have fielded Assassins Creed: Project Legacy, Square Enix have Final Fantasy: Knights of the Crystals, Atari has just provided Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter and EA have The Sims Social.

Google Plus is going for web-browser gaming in a big way as well, with last month”s launch of Games for Google .

Since a large chunk of my Sundays seem to be spent clicking on these attempts at sucking the into the murky waters of microtransactions, I”ve decided to launch this new weekly column focused on browser games. First up: The Sims Social, which has been available in open beta for a few weeks now.

At heart, it”s The Sims but faster. You have the classic meters that go down over time: social, fun, food, bladder, hygiene and sleep. These decline over time and you only need to perform four of the appropriate action to fill up the meter. Make Sim friends with your Facebook friends and pootle about little house and gain simoleons to buy new furniture, build new rooms and so on. Click on an object to bring up a radial menu, choose what you want to do. Practice skills like writing and cooking to level up and visit other people”s houses to improve your friendship. Same old, same old, right?

Not quite. For those of us who know The Sims, the differences are jarring. Firstly, there are no jobs. We all seem to be perpetual Open University students who just lounge around at home, occasionally slapping some paint on a canvas or jamming on a guitar to feel like we”re achieving something.

Secondly, playing on your guitar improves your fun levels but not your skills. And learning to cook will improve your skills but not assuage your hunger. It”s an annoying little time sink and I don”t see any advantage from a business perspective. On a best online casino slightly different note, playing lightsaber wars with your torch appears to be a seduction tactic in the Sims Social universe. Geeks represent! ;)

Third and finally, the entire game seems to be geared around spamming your friends. It”s virtually impossible to progress without being prompted to post on at least three Facebook walls. Bought a double bed? Sorry, can”t build it yet. You need a wrench, four pillows, four “dreams”, 8 “loves” and a “bling”. You could try generating them yourself through the suggested actions but it”s far faster to just spam your friends with messages saying “Can you help me build my bed by sending me 1 soft pillow? They”re free to send!”. Bought an expansion room for your house? Sorry, you need to ask three friends to help you out. It”s just not possible to build a house by yourself. If you go over to a friend”s house and see something incomplete, you can”t click on the object and volunteer to help them out. Nope, gotta wait for that help request. Not just on the wall, either. You get the notifications in game as well for a double whammy.

It”s sad, really. This could be quite a fun but every time I log in, I”m greeted with a scene like this:

The game is still in beta so it”s entirely possible that all this will change as times goes on. On the other hand, what websites aren”t in beta these days? Facebookers, head on over to The Sims Social to virtually shag all those friends you”ve secretly been lusting after. They won”t even know…

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