The Sims(TM) 2 at Rutgers University
The Sims 2, developed by EA
games, is one of the best-selling computer games in the nation. The whole premise of the game is
every-day life: players control virtual people, or “sims,” in a real-world
simulation. Sims can raise
families, maintain relationships, get jobs, practice hobbies, and much more, all
according to the desires of the player.
While the game is (practically by definition) mundane, it compels the
player to engage in the lives of these virtual people, acting on the sims’ wants
and
fears.
As a tool in language education, The Sims 2 brings students into this
every-day world, immersing them in the target language. Not only are students exposed to daily
vocabulary which can be hard to establish in a classroom setting, but this game
further entices students to narrate the lives of their sims, adding a
compositional element while still maintaining the premise of
“play.”
Henry Jenkins, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT,
promotes this idea of narration in The Sims:
Will Wright [creator of The Sims] frequently describes The Sims as
a sandbox or dollhouse game, suggesting that it should be understood as a kind
of authoring environment within which players can define their own goals and
write their own stories. Yet, unlike Microsoft Word, the game doesn't
open on a blank screen. Most players come away from spending time with The
Sims with some degree of narrative satisfaction. Wright has created a world
ripe with narrative possibilities…1
Using The Sims 2 for language education then follows quite
naturally, as students learn best through narrating and authoring in the target
language. Language skill
development becomes a secondary goal, with students learning through the process
of developing their sims’ lives.
Offered in all of the major
languages taught at Rutgers, The Sims 2 has
brought well over a hundred students into the lab in its pilot project alone,
logging hundreds of hours over the course of the semester. We are thrilled with the enthusiastic
response from instructors and students alike, and look forward to the
development of additional projects in the future using The Sims 2. Moreover, it gives us high hopes for
integrating even more forms of technology in the language classroom.
1. source: http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/games&narrative.html | 
