My recent bout of playing The Sims Social is also my first experience playing a Facebook game. I had always resisted them in the past as being "not so much a game, as clicking on a bunch of stuff." And having played Sims Social somewhat intensively for the last few weeks… I think I still kinda believe that.

 

What makes a game a game? I would say that "strategy" is one element. I also think that "the potential for failure" is another element. Competitive play is another possible component, although not strictly necessary. (There are plenty of games, both real-world and video games, which are single-player. Tetris, Zork, and Solitaire all come to mind.)

The Sims Social has little in the way of strategy. Your goals are probably best served by picking a skill (like Writing) and working to maximize it, rather than splitting your time amongst a lot of potential money-makers (Writing, Painting, Cooking, Shaping Hedges, etc). And… that's about as far as the strategy goes. We can offer each other hints, like "you probably want to spend your money on your house, rather than on your outfit, because your house value is what lets you unlock the ability to get more garden plots." But that isn't really strategy per se.

 

As for the potential for failure, there is none. There is no worst-case scenario here. Your Sim cannot die. In the PC/Mac version there are a number of failure states, including death (both accidental, deliberate, and age-related), having your children or pets confiscated by the Social Worker, and being dumped or divorced. None of those things happen in the perfect, ageless, perennially sunny world of The Sims Social.

 

Every day I log in several times during the day. I click on a bunch of things, rack up Simoleons, use them to buy things to boost my home value. Sometimes I click to ask my network of friends to click on something, so that I can earn a new thing to click on. We are all just clicking on stuff, to no real end.

 

So why, then, do I keep playing? The social component is part of it. I have a few friends, and we all help each other out. It makes me happy to know that I can help a friend with just a few mouse clicks. It's like the lowest form of social interaction. 

 

(Oh, and I really want to hit house level 50 so I can buy more garden plots! I don't know why I do, but I do.)