Emergent Storytelling Techniques in The Sims

Explore the evolution of emergent storytelling techniques across all four generations of The Sims in this 2018 GDC session presented by Maxis EA's Matt Brown. Delve into various methods used to empower player-driven narratives, including nurture, hierarchy, AI, self-evident dependencies, projection, and assumption. Examine concepts such as ambiguity, Simlish, randomness, autonomous feedback loops, suggestive control, and promise trees. Discover how story progression and inverse autonomy contribute to the game's narrative depth. Analyze the impact of perturbing the strategic landscape and learn about unexpected outcomes from introduced game mechanics. Gain insights into studies on play styles, the implementation of fear trees, and the intriguing concept of cheating death in The Sims universe.

Introduction
Nurture
Hierarchy
AI
Selfevident dependencies
Projection and assumption
My experience
Con
Ambiguity
Simlish
Randomness Urinals
Autonomous Feedback Loop
suggestive control
gender preference
once
promise trees
how they work
story progression
story progression prototype
inverse autonomy
N of M
perturbing the strategic landscape
summary
questions
cheat
death
fear trees
studies on play styles
are there any game mechanics introduced that didnt have the outcome you expected