Micro-Blog: The Skirmish Game as a Sims-Like
The Sims is a series of games that despite its obvious "genre" (that of simulation) actually has a lot going on that defies neat categorization. While players have the opportunity to sculpt their Sims, shape their preferences, decorate their homes and give them simple commands, the titular dolls of your dollhouse still act (and act out) independently of what you might think is best. To be a player in the Sims is less to "simulate" a life for yourself, but rather to be the "handler" of the lives of others. Which brings us to war games... There's this habit in tabletop spheres of defining tabletop games, especially tabletop roleplaying games, as "collaborative story telling games." It's a habit I myself used to fall into, but these days I do my best to push back against. While I think tabletop game s can be about shaping a collaborative story, scripting character arcs to be played out at the table, collaboratively writing worlds to be enga...
