A game I enjoy playing is the Sims, particularly because the gameplay does not set up a determined narrative arc for the player. Rather, through a series of self-directed loops, you create the arcs that define your sim’s life journey. You are forced to set up a residence on a plot of land at the start of the game, but how you choose to make enough simoleons to maintain your living costs is up to you. You can venture down skill loops such as programming, writing, playing the piano, etc that allow your sim to “level up” in activity ability. You can also take on a career as a source of steady income. The skill loops directly feed into the arc of your sim’s career progress, as potential for getting promoted to a higher pay level depends on the level of certain skills. In some sense, skill chains are reinforced by accumulation and upgrading of as many different skills as possible which enables your sim to work more than one job or upgrade to a better job that requires a combination of higher starting skill levels (e.g. Level 7 in programming + Level 4 in Charisma). In a sense, these “loops” don’t depend on actual player skill and are more a reflection of how long you choose to let your sim engage in an activity (once a sim is engaged in an activity, the actual human interaction is quite passive). However, for players that prefer to operate their sims in a consistent routine to simulate daily living e.g. making breakfast, going to work, socializing, reading before bed, and taking care of the kids, there is skill to be had in improving the efficiency of this daily loop. One may find that their sim isn’t able to make it through the end of the work day without starving or that staying up a couple extra hours each night could boost their writing skill, etc. These observations lead to interesting tweaks in how players choose to time the various activities that make up a routine. Notably, the Sims does operate in a mode of churning out expansion packs that does help scaffold potentially new arcs your sim can venture on e.g. starting a new restaurant (“Dine Out”), moving into an apartment (“City Living”), starting college (“Discover University”), etc. These new packs come with new settings and towns as well, enforcing new location-based arcs.
