Simulation in Games

Simulation Games are highly in use by post-modern video gamers. In order to understand simulation processes a specific notion of virtuality and the distinction of virtual reality is needed. It is necessary to take a closer look how it is entangled to gaming.

When speaking of simulation there is the fact that it has traditionally been used to explain and predict the reaction of systems.

Simulation means to „model“ an origin system by the use of another system, which is similar to the original (ibid.) The simulation concludes traits of the original system and a model of its reactions. This modelled system responds to particular excitations (by input information).

In contrast to a simple video (which remains uncontrollable and firm) a simulation is based on the players interaction. Thereby the systems behavior will change. So video games structure simulations (ibid. p.224). It might seem that the concept of videos and simulations is identical because they show a sequence of pictures. That is not the case since simulations can’t be decoded just by their output. Due to the fact that a simulation isn’t a chronological narrative. Furthermore they (video games) mean a cultural „paradigm shift“ because they are constructed for the masses the very first time. Simulation games have diverse genres for instance to exemplify urban vitality (SimCity), living life as a human or supernatural being (The Sims).

Video Games are based on their iterative usage. Games make players conscious of the fact that they can start afresh: Players can repeat their session over and over again. A plain game could be played only once but simulations explicitly involves repetition.

The following section will be trying to provide an overview about “simulation” as a generic form of computer-games as well as it’s going to exemplify characteristic aspects of “simulation games” by the example of the game series The Sims (Maxis, 2000-2013) on the one hand and Gran Turismo (Polys Entertainment/Polyphony Digital, 1997-2017) on the other. Most of the topics are mainly based on the assumptions established by Seth Giddings and Espen Aarseth, which can be looked up in The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies (2016). Providing an adequate and valid definition of “simulation-games” turns out to be an exceedingly challenging task, not only because the term “simulation” inherently contains a massive variety of definitions and meanings. Looking at some examples of use, the problem, resulting from plurality and especially diversity of games considered as “simulation-game”, becomes even more obvious: The spectrum extends from “bird’s” or “god’s eye-perspective-games” like The Sims to military-strategy and economy-strategy games like the Anno series (Max Design/Related Designs/Blue Byte, 1998-2019) towards various vehicle simulations. All of them can extremely differing from each other in terms of viewpoint, gameplay, interface or used controller (e.g. a steering wheel used for racing simulations or a special joystick to operate an aircraft in Flight Simulator (Microsoft, 1982-2020)). According to Giddings, simulation-games often follow a “sandbox” – system, therefore one can state that an “open-ended structure” can be seen as a characteristic aspect of this generic form of computer-games. This leads to the conclusion that, on the player’s part, testing the system within an arranged setting of variables is one of the key features of “simulation games”.