There are many
simulators of life, e.g. SimCity and Sims are the ones that most come to mind.
Their point is to simulate real life with all its intricacies as much as
possible, making decision making, planning, gathering information and similar
cognitive tasks the goal of the game, thus teaching players how to “do it right”.
Why not Sim for Parents?
In this I mean a simulator for taking care of babies, infants and children.
While obviously there is no one “right” way to do it, most parents come totally
unprepared for the task. There are obviously “courses” to teach young parents,
but in this technological age, why not use the same technology young
parents use in their daily lives to teach them about what’s coming?
I propose to develop a
game that “runs” a child’s life at its core, from the very first childbirth,
through diapers, crying, sleep (or lack thereof), feeding, etc. While
obviously, some of the problems are physical, e.g. lack of sleep and
breastfeeding, one can come to terms with it via the avatar. For example,
integrating this into a Sim environment, the avatar can experience sleep
deprivation akin to parents’ and therefore cope with stress in a totally
different way. One must also make many joint decisions with the spouse, even
more so with children than any other endeavor in their lives. While negotiating
and discussing it prior to the child's arrival is often the case, the “real deal” is
often a whole different ball game.
I suggest that the game
be played by both parents, simultaneously, to practice joint decision making
and taking care of the child. This can give parents an invaluable gift that
life does not give: several attempts at the same thing, i.e. the parents-to-be
can try different approaches in the simulator and see what happens, if they
like it, accept it, change it.
Obviously, the AI of the
game is problematic, since there are many different theories, practices and
approaches to how children develop. To complicate things more, the only
agreement among practitioners is that each child is different. However, this
can still be simulated in the game. For example, the parents, in order to win,
must “raise” several children, each one with a different attitude. The parents
thus need to practice both recognizing their Sim-child temperament, as well as
how to deal with it.
One can insert a lot of
scientific knowledge about child development at different ages, together with
common problems that parents have to deal with, e.g. gasses, fever, etc.
The game should also be
connected to experts in the field, i.e. players who really want to learn more
should be able to connect to practitioners either in their local environment or
via web to international experts. Furthermore, as in any game in our age, this
can be a social game, in the sense that players can chat and collaborate in tips
and attitudes, very similar to the real life.
To conclude, I believe
there is enough knowledge and technology to create a realistic simulation of
child development and parents’ influence on it. Many theories can be
incorporated into the game, as well as many children’s temperaments. This can
be an invaluable asset to parents-to-be in encountering problems before they
happen in a realistic way.
