Ayiti vs. The Sims
I would like to post a brief reflection on the game Ayiti: The Cost of Life, which was recently brought by my attention by a friend.
Not an educational game, but rather a serious game with a specific message, Ayiti puts you in control of a family trying to survive in Haiti. The player assigns tasks to the members of the family (go to hospital to improve health, get some education at school, work at the family farm, get a job, etc.) and all these tasks have an impact on aspects such as “Happines”, “Health” and “Education”. You can see the progress of the three needs in bars that fill with care and empty with time.
Ignore the setting for a moment. Think of the actual gameplay based on giving slices of time to different activities in an attempt to keep a number of mood variables high. Yes, correct, we are talking of the best-selling PC game “The Sims”.
In essence, what we get is a (very simplified) Sims clone. But The Sims is about progress in a capitalistic society, gathering riches, getting a better house, flirting with members of the opposite sex, getting a big swimming pool and, long story short, to have the ultimate virtual doll-house representing the ideal of success in western society.
With the same gameplay, in Ayiti the priority is not getting a better swimming pool to attract more friends to your place, but actual survival. You quickly notice how it is not possible to raise a member of the family to be educated, healthy and happy. Most of the family must be doing work shifts most of the time to keep basic subsistance. Altough it is possible to keep a low level in all areas, it is not possible to excel in all of them, and the game is about sacrifice and surviving rather than about fulfilling dreams.
Ayiti transmits a necessary message: The dream we live in The Sims is happening today with 2/3 of the world being so far from it, that survival means success and the dream makes no sense at all.
In game design it is often said that the perception of progress is a key element of interesting games, and in The Sims the progress is reflected on better properties and social relations. Ayiti reflects a reality in which no progress is possible, the best you can do is to avoid failure. Maybe it does deserve the label “educational“.
