[MUD-Dev] Virtual worlds as a Society of Mind

[Ted L. Chen]

Daniel Harman  asks
> From: Ted L. Chen

>> I think The Sims is an excellent example of this in action.  It's
>> restricted to object interactions, but each piece of furniture
>> and food broadcasts what it does, etc.  Best simple description
>> of it is from the Gamasutra article

> I haven't played the SIMS (just not into this whole God game with
> no explicit goal genre), how does it model the higher order
> behaviour like the need to replenish the fridge so as to ensure a
> supply of food in the future?

They ignore it.  The Sims models behavior only on a
need-satisfaction basis.  Hunger, comfort, hygiene, bladder, energy,
fun, social, and room.  Each world object broadcasts a fullfillment
of one or more of these needs and there's no issue of resource
management.  Sometimes furniture breaks, but it's up to the player
to tell the Sim to fix it.

In effect, the Sims is a game of setting up potential fields on a
grid and seeing these little automatons running to the highest
potential at any given time.  Like a sinister rat-cheese experiment.

TLC


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