Tonight's Random Topic - The Sims
It got me thinking...
According to Wikipedia: The Sims (circa 2000) is a social simulation video game which allows players to create and control virtual people, called "Sims", and manage their daily lives in a suburban setting. The game features an open-ended gameplay, where players can choose their own goals and objectives, and customize their Sims' appearance, personality, skills, relationships, and environment.
Friday Night Zoom with an Old Friend
I was on a zoom earlier this evening with a dear friend from college who is also an avid Simmer; currently captivated by The Sims4. Based on our conversation, I thought I’d make a quick post about some things I noticed and what it may mean.
Like most people, I experience moments where ideas, conversations, or people have a certain energy or light around them. Much in the way a mirror reflects some element of brightness that can capture an onlooker’s attention, tonight’s conversation had THAT going on.
For the record, before tonight, I knew little about The Sims (main series, 2, 3, or 4 ) or its predecessor SimCity (circa 1889). Sure, I had a general awareness of its existence and knew of the very dedicated and loyal (dare I say fanatic) community of players. That said, I’m the last person to know what the future might hold for EA (Electronic Arts, Inc.), Maxis (developer), and Will Wright (original designer).
However, It Got Me Thinking
Question/observation: Is an acquisition, merger, or funding/growth opportunity upcoming or already in the works for EA?
I see The Sims as a massive opportunity within the VR space.
Start with a highly engaged community of players, many of whom are lifelong devotees. Add 24 years of world-building and social interaction data - 35 years if you include SimCity.
Now consider…
The degree to which we humans might want to escape from the ever-increasing chaos around us.
How much we might increasingly crave an ability to “control” our world.
How nostalgic we might become for a previous time in our lives.
How much free time we may have as we move toward a post-labor economy.
Add to this recent surveys that went out to players. One of which apparently included an UNLIMITED field for user feedback. I guess someone REALLY wants to know!
“UNLIMITED” - Typical Survey Form?
Or AI interface via a company whose LLM has a 1mil+ context window?
In the last day or two, Google opened access to their 2-million-token context window of the Gemini 1.5 Pro AI model. In addition, Llama 3 and Microsoft have ways to extend their context windows to 1 million tokens.
In light of the prompt to submit “UNLIMITED” feedback, has EA partnered with a an LLM company in order to gather data to some specific end?
I wonder if it’s been designed to gather info which demonstrates an exceptional level of current player engagement. Might this allow EA to improve their valuation? Why? Well, what if it’s in advance of an acquisition, merger, or as part of a funding/growth opportunity?
It’s interesting to me that, according to this friend, EA’s been rolling out some bundles and expansion packs of late and they appear… increasingly underwhelming. Hmmm, what’s up with that? Deliberate?
What better way to gauge what will excite, outrage, or nominally engage loyal users? How might this information be used?
Looking to Make a Particular Weight Class?
They’ve also been getting lean. In February 2024, according to an article in Mashable, EA let go 700 people, about 5% of their employees. They also cancelled games and planned to shut down at least one development studio.
Yes, there was an epidemic of job cuts across the gaming industry around that time. However, a lean company with three decades of user data, UNLIMITED feedback, and perhaps some intentionally engineered tests to solicit current UX, generate a “wish list” of roll-outs, and get at specific drivers/tolerances re player engagement… to me SOMETHING’s afoot.
Will there be a merger or acquisition of EA?
Will EA burst onto the VR scene with some type of exclusive partnership?
Is there a big LLM/AI player in the mix?
Time will tell.
Additional Thought - Added 9-11-24
Have you heard of the Persona Hub? According to an article in Medium in August 2024, “Persona Hub is an innovative, persona-driven data synthesis methodology that leverages a collection of 1 billion diverse personas to generate high-quality synthetic data.”
It got me wondering… might Sims data have been used to create these personas? Check out my new article to follow my thought process! CLICK HERE
Image Notes - Generated via DALL-E 3