God game

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any material not supported by sources may be challenged and removed at any time. This article has been tagged since March 2007.

This article is about the computer game genre. For the novel by Andrew Greeley, see God Game (novel). For the game developer also known as God Games, see Gathering of Developers.

Screenshot from Populous for the Amiga.

A God game is a computer simulation game that casts the player in the position of an entity with divine or supernatural powers, and places them in charge of a game setting containing autonomous mortals to guard and influence.

In many God games, the player does not win or lose per se, but is challenged to attain and maintain a level of success and with the absence of goals or objectives the player often experiences a greater deal of freedom in such games than other genres.

The genre has drawn the interest of some of the best-known game designers in the world, including Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds, Bruce Shelley, Don Daglow, Peter Molyneux and Will Wright. Often this category provided the game that launched the designer's career.

1 Nature of god games
2 History
3 Scope of God games
4 Sub-genres
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Nature of god games

Throwing huge rocks in Black & White might impress the game world's people enough to worship the player-god.

God games are characterized in that actions taken by the player tend to be optional interventions into the system of the game world, for instance in the form of miracles or invoking calamities, rather than being a necessity for its continual progression. Unlike normal strategy games, the user does not directly control the simulated inhabitants ("sims") of the game world; as a God, the player can affect the world and influence his subjects but not directly control them: i.e. there is a minimum of "click-select-order" gameplay.

In Black & White, renowned for its innovative and experimental user interface, the user interacts with the world either through the "Hand of God", which can move or form the world, or even grab villagers (generally a frightening experience for them). Performing physical miracles that might earn the user worship in early stages of the game; mana that is earned from worship can be used to perform miracles by gesturing arcane signs. The Sims, on the other hand has a more conventional interface where the user directs their sims' desires through HUD icons. In Populous the sims were directed by placing "papal magnets", which attracted them, as well as by offering revelations to selected subjects making them prophets and instruments of the user's will.

In God games, the game world is often relatively self-sustaining and persistent. There have been assertions that any "game" without win and loss conditions should not be considered a game by definition. Possibly the most famous of these was made by Will Wright, who prefers to call his creations software toys rather than games. Examples of such God games are Little Computer People and The Sims.

[edit] History

The first God game of this kind on a console was Utopia by Don Daglow on Intellivision (1982), while the first such game on a personal computer was Populous by Peter Molyneux of Bullfrog Productions (1989).

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

[edit] Scope of God games

God games come in a wide variety, from abstract or mathematic simulators to creative or conventional games. In most God games the game is observed from an aloft, elevated perspective, however Little Computer People was viewed from the side. Many popular God games, like Bullfrog's Populous and Lionhead's Black & White are games of territorial domination while others, like SimEarth, are not. In some notable games, like Little Computer People and The Sims the player controls only one or some very few simulated individuals, providing for and guiding their lives, while in some God games the user plays a godlike entity that controls entire continents or worlds. In Black & White, the player guides a nation of up to thousands.

City, nation, and world level god games, where the player manipulates tens to thousands of followers, include:

Utopia by Don Daglow, published by Mattel for Intellivision (1982)
Populous by Peter Molyneux at Bullfrog for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST (and later for other systems) (1989)
ActRaiser by Tomoyashi Miyazaki, published by Enix for SNES (1990)
SimEarth by Will Wright, published by Maxis for many systems (1990)
SimAnt, where the player controls an ant colony in a suburban backyard (1991)
SimLife, where the player controls the evolution of creatures (1992)
Black and White by Peter Molyneux, Ron Millar et al at Lionhead and distributed by Electronic Arts (2001)
Evolution by Crossover Technologies, a simulation of species evolution
Viva Piñata by Rare, a simulation where players manage a garden to attract and mate piñata animals (2006)

Individual level god games, where the player manipulates one to a handful of creatures, include:

Little Computer People by David Crane, published by Activision for Apple II and Commodore 64 (1985)
Alter Ego by Peter J. Favaro, published by Activision for Apple II, PC and Commodore 64 (1986)
Dungeon Keeper and Dungeon Keeper 2.

Spore by Will Wright (yet to be released) has been advertised as providing elements of both these variations.

[edit] Sub-genres

City-building games, like SimCity, form a subgenre of god games. The chief difference is that in such games the player normally has no supernatural abilities to influence the world or its inhabitants. Economic simulation games, like Railroad Tycoon and other Tycoon games, form an even more specialised subset.