Apropos of nearly everything I’m currently studying in my class on information organizations and social software, The Sims is developing a new “relationships system” that tries to simulate the dynamics of real-world social networks:

The new Relationships system, now in preliminary internal testing, tracks positive and negative interactions between players over time. As positive relationships are built, you will gain friends. Much as in The Sims, you will need to pay at least a little attention to your friends to keep the relationship strong. To make an enemy, you will need to undertake a pattern of negative interactions (most of which require the target to accept them) to build that negative relationship. The end result is a friendship web that actually reflects your social activity, and not some abstract measure of how many times you have chosen the “make friend” or “make enemy” interactions.

The system has a detailed set of rules determining how daily interactions determine relationship scores. It is far more nuanced than anything the YASNSs have come up with. For example, you cannot just declare someone to be a friend—your friends are the people you interact positively with on a regular basis. Similarly, neglected relationships decay over time, so unmaintained social networks will eventually collapse. Most interestingly, relationships are two-way, so just because I am your friend doesn’t mean you are mine.

There are still issues, of course. For example, in the last paragraph I wanted to write, “Just because I consider myself to be your friend doesn’t mean you consider me to be your friend.” But there is no “considering” going on here at all. Unlike in the real world, in The Sims relationship strength is externally determined and objectively measurable, like gravity. The system revels in its explicitness, with a special UI for displaying “friendship webs.” And they couldn’t resist giving it a competitive edge:

In addition to the most liked Sim list (the most incoming friendships, or lifetime relationship scores at or above the “friend” level), we will also show the friendliest Sim (the most outgoing friendships, or lifetime relationship scores at or above the “friend” level), the most infamous (the most incoming enemies, or lifetime relationship scores at or below the “enemy” level) and the meanest Sim (the most outgoing enemies, or lifetime relationship scores at or below the “enemy” level).

That seems like a horrible idea. I imagine a ton of annoying avatars hugging everyone in sight to boost their scores on the friendship boards.

I also would take issue with the idea that [more time spent together] necessarily equals [stronger friendship]. Sometimes I hardly see the people I consider to be my best friends (especially during the latter half of the semester). But it’s great to see that game designers are putting so much thought into this stuff. Some cool job opportunities there for sociologists…