I have been playing the Sims 4 ever since the game became free for the general public and I think I have an obsession.
Building houses.
Decorating the houses.
Editing the landscape.
Playing with genetics.
Dressing your sims.
Wait a minute. At around 30 hours into the game, I had come to a realization that the Sims 4 could be really beneficial for students – especially for architecture and basic biology courses.
- Architecture
The building controls are pretty easy to figure out and the learning curve is very easy to overcome. Not only will students be able to figure out the general layout of their building, but also create floor plans and place down basic amenities. With the limited amount of designs for furniture, users will place more emphasis on placement rather than design, which is what architecture majors should be focusing on. The Sims 4 could replace or even act as a supporting resource to any physical designs that students produce for their classes with the added bonus of playtesting their designs to determine whether or not the designs are realistic. This involves placing a sim in the building and determining whether or not certain appliances are usable or not. Although there are a couple of bugs, overall, the Sims 4 – should it be utilized in schools – would serve as a valuable application for architecture classes.
- Landscape Architecture
There are a plethora of landscaping options in the Sims 4 – from planting trees and bushes to increasing the altitude of land to make a pond or a small hill. These options are great for students to test and visualize landscape options in many different perspectives. A top-down view, as well as a rotating camera, are included to help students realize their vision with more attention to detail. And the opportunity to view others’ work in the gallery or to even filter the shown creations down to just followers can be quite useful in school settings where distractions need to be minimized. So this allows teachers and students to view buildings and landscapes from each other in a very simple way.
- Biology
While the Sims 4 genetics are far from perfect, the coding that goes into creating a child from two different sims is not entirely wrong either. Rather than having students rely on punnett squares only, having characters that display these phenotypes might assist students in better understanding what exactly is happening. I remember when I was first learning about genetics in middle school, the biology behind traits was a little hard to visualize – and it is better to have examples that look like humans since it promotes a connection and thus learning. Again, this system is not without many faults, but theoretically, this could be an important resource to utilize in classroom settings.
So, why not give the Sims 4 a try? If you like animal crossing, you would love the Sims 4. It’s free and extremely customizable.