I could cite spring, Bambi or the birds and the bees as the inspiration for this list, but the real reason I’ve been thinking about child-rearing in games has much more to do with the recently released PS Vita game Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines. Childhood is a cruelly short, almost non-existant period of a character’s life in Oreshika (which I reviewed here on Paste a while back) and clan members do precious little parenting outside of combat training. But still, the clan’s family tree is a big part of what makes the game memorable, and it got me thinking about how other games have handled the mechanics of having and raising kids.
I’m not necessarily talking about virtual pet games, or games where one character happens to be a parent, or even games where the next generation functions like an extra handful of quarters at the arcade. I’m also not talking about the pseudo-instructional babysitting sims in conspicuous pink boxes that have been around since well before Babysitting Mama made it’s very delible mark. Instead, let’s take a look at some games where caring for your character’s kids is more than just a matter of keeping everyone’s meters full.
1. Crusader Kings II
Crusader Kings II contains all of the features you’d expect from a land-grabbing, title-usurping medieval strategy game, but for many of its fans it’s the game’s social mechanics that make it such a fascinating thing to play. Children are necessary if you want to keep your dynasty going, and some of the simplest strategic moves that you can make involve selecting their tutors almost as carefully selecting their suitors. Random events will help shape every child’s personality as they grow, and depending on what expansions you have you may even end up with a literal antichrist on your hands. That certainly makes your fiefdom a little more exciting when that child inherits their parent’s holdings and starts scheming for themselves.
2. Shelter
I waffled about whether or not to include this one on the list. In a sense the offspring you’re safeguarding in Shelter and its recently released successor Shelter 2 qualify as just a handful of quarters—individual buffers between you and a “game over” screen. So long as you can keep at least one of your babies alive, you have a chance to win. But the difference between how this mechanism plays out in Shelter compared to The Deer God, Tokyo Jungle or even Massive Chalice is that Shelter makes you care, and it makes you care deeply. It makes you care to the point that you can feel the game’s cold, cruel talons gripping your heart every time another creature’s cold, cruel talons grip one of your babies. Even a gentle breeze through the grass will be enough to startle you and send you sprinting, counting the fragile bodies bounding after you to make sure that everyone is accounted for. Shelter 2 twists the knife by allowing you to name your offspring, ensuring an extra sting when instead of losing Cub #2, you lose ‘Little Sammy’. It’s actually something of a blessing that you don’t have to spend time educating your babies in either of these games, because you’ll have enough on your plate worrying about how (or even if) they’ll survive.
3. The Sims
There are a lot of different ways to play The Sims. In quite a few of them child-rearing may never enter into the picture, but for many players it’s a significant part of the equation. Plenty of Sims-fans prefer “legacy” play, building a family tree that grows wealthier and more successful over time as each generation builds upon the foundations left by those that came before. It’s not unlike Crusader Kings II or Oreshika when you think about it, but The Sims provides a much more detailed social simulation than either of these other games do. Procreation and parenting are much more hands-on, starting from a fateful WooHoo between partners and passing through every single stage of life. This is why there was such an uproar over the removal of toddlers in The Sims 4. In The Sims 3, tending to toddlers is one of the best ways to ensure that your young sims start out on the right foot. Virtual parents who take the time to diligently teach toddlers how to walk, talk and use the potty are rewarded when their children age up and receive more beneficial personality traits. Toddlers without these advantages will still know how to walk, talk and relieve themselves like any other sim, but they have a higher risk of developing negative personality traits that could pose a problem down the line. This carries on throughout a sim’s childhood with their performance in school tied to similar perks, while children who are consistently neglected may end up being taken away by protective services. All said it’s not the most subtle or elegant system, but it does the trick.
