Robyn Roste, Systems & Funnels

Goals and Aspiration Metre

Here’s the bit I’m stewing over: when you fulfil a Sim’s lifetime want on their goals and aspiration metre they get another one right away. What gives?

Goals and Aspiration Metre

My name is Robyn and I play the The Sims | Goals and Aspiration Metre

For the past month I’ve even fought adding it into my daily routine. I figure that’s crossing the line of acceptable 27-year-old behaviour. But I still want to.

The truth is, I’ve loved Sim-type games since my cool Uncle Ed first gave us techno-deprived Roste kids a Super Nintendo with a whole bunch of games, including SimCity (just the first one), in the late 1980s.

I don’t remember what the other games were anymore, except for Zelda, which I was amazing at but quit when my brother’s got ahead of me. Sim City was obviously the coolest game, because anything could happen. You start with empty land and have to create a successful mega-metropolis from sheer luck and taxpayer dollars. Well, and a good architectural design. At some point in the 90s our computer got an upgrade and we were able to run the Sims on it. I thought it was so neat, growing people and trying to manage lives and wants and needs. The Sims 2 is more of the same, I suppose, but I still find it challenging.

In fact, the only video game that has ever rivaled my affection for the Sims is The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition [Online Game Code] (1-4, maybe not 2).

Actually, Monkey Island 4 is really hard and I would be playing that instead of the Sims right now except I’m stuck at Monkey Combat and in November I got frustrated and quit. I always quit at this part. Usually I quit until my brother can tell me the combinations because for some reason I can’t figure out patterns, which is all Monkey Combat is. This lack of pattern recognition (aka “verbal reasoning”) is why I’ll forever only score “average” on IQ tests.

If there was a Monkey Island 5 I might play it more than the Sims 2. Yeah, I probably would.


2014 update: I totally do!

All that aside, I’ve been having disconcerting thoughts about my life and my reality, thanks to this little game called the Sims 2.

Goals and Aspiration Metre

In the Sims 2, there are separate boxes for wants and needs. The wants are things that reflect the Sim’s personality like asking someone on a date or getting a job promotion. The needs are things like sleep and fun. There is also a lifetime want. These are usually quite hard to fulfil (for example, Have WooHoo with 20 different Sims or Become a Mastermind Criminal) so it’s very challenging to work towards these goals while still keeping all the other Sims in the household fulfilled. When you get a lifetime want, that Sim is then happy and content forever.

But here’s the bit I’m stewing over: when you fulfil a Sim’s lifetime want, even though they’re happy and content, they get another one.

And I find myself thinking, hmm that’s kind of like me. I get an idea that I want to do something. And then I go for it, saying, “This, THIS is my lifetime want. This is what I want to do/be/think/learn etc.”

And sometimes I even dare to add “and THEN I’ll be happy/fulfilled/content,” after…despite the stupidity of it.

Unfortunately I’m finding my own lifetime want fluidity reflecting the virtual Sims I manage: As soon as I get what I want, I want something else.

Now, I know life isn’t static and once you get THE THING you long for life invariably keeps going, and doesn’t end where movies and books do, but in all honestly I’m still stunned every time I wake up and desire something new. And I’m starting to suspect that being content doesn’t mean what I have always thought it meant.

Maybe it’s just because I’ve been away from home for nearly seven months and I’m feeling lonely lately, but I’m feeling a new lifetime want coming on.

From playing the Sims I was inspired by the Goals and Aspiration Metre. Now, I know life isn't static and once you get THE THING you long for life invariably keeps going, and doesn't end where movies and books do, but in all honestly I'm still stunned every time I wake up and desire something new. And I'm starting to suspect that being content doesn't mean what I have always thought it meant.

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