God Games

The rules of everything

You are God. The sun rises because you placed it, the seas rear because you made it, and the people live their daily lives of ambient sandboxing because you allow it. Don't get me wrong, you're not the 'brimstone and fire, all must obey my dictatorial wrath' sort of god. (Unless you want to be but that's typically a lot more trouble to pull off than it's worth) You're the kind of handy-man god who travels around fixing problems, which is rather active of you for a deity now you think about it. But you're not doing any of this because you particularly want to, maybe you're the altruistic type and all that but everyone has their limits, no this is more of a duty. Because helping the people makes society run smoother which then allows it to expand and the grander life is the more you get to play with- except with a larger populace comes more problems to solve. Eventually you'll notice that you're not really having as much wild untamed fun and you expected to be having, rather just stolen moments here and there, you're really spending most of your time fixing relationships, or clearing bypasses or managing species, and then it hits you; you're not a god at all, you're just a glorified busybody. That is my experience with the God games genre.

I've had the inkling to talk about God games after the recent early access release of a game I've waited a long time for which, whilst it doesn't fit perfectly into the margins of a 'God Game', it certainly does run many pertinent parallels. That game is Starmancer, and it's actually more of a management build-a-base game in the vein of something-like Dwarf fortress, but when you really break it down to the essence that isn't a million miles away from what God games are. God games throw the player into the shoes of show sort of administrative entity that presumes to have control over the lives of all they observe. This entity manages, constructs, problem solves and works as some otherworldly foreman in a lot of these games, with the whole 'god' aspect only really becoming apparent due to the layer of separation between the player and the character's within the world. Wherein lies the confusion, at least for me, about what constitutes a 'God game'.

 For example, in Stellaris you theoretically take control of the leader of a civilisation and control every aspect of that intergalactic societies growth, diplomacy, economy and combat. You are the supreme leader. Except, this civilisation has an elected leader, one who will undoubtedly (through the course of your game) die and be replaced with another leader. You remain in power regardless. In fact, it's totally possible to have no idea that elections are even happening despite the fact that's supposed to be your position which is drastically changing. So are you 'god' in that game? Does that count as a God game? I think that, frustratingly, we're looking at a 'yes' and 'no' situation here, where less 4X managerial oversights hanging over the player is preferable. But then, in Tropico things on that front are handled pretty casually, but you're still very distinctly identified as El Presidente and can even be killed off by rebels if you do a bad enough job. So is Tropico a God game series? In truth, I haven't the foggiest; but you know who would know? 

Peter Molyneux, the man, myth and game developing legend himself. Black and White, his first foray into this sort of game, is easily one of the most influential of the genre and pioneered so much of what makes God Games what they are in today's world. And you know what, I've never played it or it's sequels. That's right, I'm a heathen and I present myself for the custom summary execution accordingly. Before I do I should talk about what exactly it is Black and White gave to the player, you know, for prosperities sake. That was a game which literally put you into the shoes of a god as they ruled over various tribes who, curiously, actually judged your actions to try and figure out your moral alignment. It's curious, as many God games purposefully place you outside of the magic box and thus free of direct judgement, but I suppose the appeal of being worshipped or feared was strong enough to erase such contention because Black and White is widely love to this day.

My first God game, that I can remember, was actually a more stylistic one which caught my eye called From Dust. That was a game where you weren't so much a 'god' as you were an elemental force of- okay, you were totally a god. Basically you played this floating invisible ball that could manipulate the elements to help out a tribe of peoples with their fight for survival. Usually by moving water to put out lava and stuff like that. What drew me to the game was the sandbox premise of screwing around with elements, but obviously that's not what these games are about and I found myself a little disillusioned by that fact. Since when does God have responsibilities? Tasks? Hard lines to which he is forced to abide? Maybe Black and White would have been more up my alley, but I suspect that this might be a genre founded on a false reputation of total, unerring, freedom rather than a true 'god like' experience. Which sucks for me, but I suppose is what the audience has been trained to want now. 

Struggling to grasp what was actually a God game and what wasn't, I resorted to the ever-unreliable Steam store page to help elucidate me, when I realised that I had Spore: the highest rated God game on the platform. Now there's a game with a lot of freedom, as you raise a civilisation from being a cell on an asteroid to a space-faring race of war like gorilla people; if that's what you're looking for. (I always was) Spore leaned a lot in creativity, with having you design so much from the clothes and spaceships to the very bone structure of your civilisation, and it did so in a fairly intuitive and fun way. But it wasn't a sandbox, there were rules and you were never in that position of 'screw around with everything' that the genre might imply. At this point I think it's pretty clear what the actual barrier is between the promise and reality is, isn't it? It's the medium. These are games, and thus that demands some conflict for the player to tackle. Games can't really let the players do everything they want, else they risk losing their attention too early as the breadth of the possibilities get explored too quickly. Therefore challenges are crafted, Gameplay loops are installed and suddenly your godlike abilities aren't feeling too godlike anymore.

The only exception to this rule, as far as I understand it, would be the Sims; or rather how the majority of people say that they play the Sims. I'm a masochist so I'll just go ahead and say it, I don't cheat when playing the Sims. (At least not the later ones, the early ones forced my hand by being the slowest things imaginable.) This is pretty much the purest example of a 'do anything game', because they readily give you the tools to create humans, craft houses, sometimes even decide the shape of an entire city. (at least they did in Sims 3. 4 is, naturally, less creative) In my eyes, playing around with the lives of the virtual Sims represents the only example of the God game genre that totally lives up to the promise of it's name, as you become the amoral god of these doomed people, toying with their lives and removing the ladder out of the pool whenever you see fit. A true all-powerful despot for the ages!

So as you can likely tell; I'm not actually a big fan of the God game genre. I think it's an interesting dichotomy of concept vs execution wherein if the original premise where ever actually achieved you'd have a game which isn't very interesting at all. Even with the Sims, when you start installing cheats and doing whatever you want it gets boring pretty quick and I know I'm usually onto to the next game pretty fast; so does this make this a genre built on lies? I don't think so. More one built on a general shared understanding between the game developers and the players that not everything needs to be ridden to the letter. Some see this as exciting and freeing, I see this as a genre that will never achieve it's truest potential. I suppose ultimately it just lands on a matter of taste.