Schiller and the Sims

The main argument of Friedrich Schiller's philosophy is that humans have developed fragmented personalities due to their highly specialized schooling and environment. Schiller believes that this causes a person to be more like a piece of a puzzle rather than an individual. He also observes that each person is governed by two equal but opposing forces: the sensuous drive (passion) and the formal drive (reason). This theory of fragmentation is illustrated in the videogame The Sims.
The videogame revolves around players balancing time between a character's physical wants/need and intellectual/emotional ambitions. The wants and needs represent the sensuous force as described by Schiller. Since the sensuous drive focuses on instant gratification, this parallel makes sense. The Sim character is living "in the moment" when a player focuses on drives like hunger and cleanliness. Players of the game will realize what Schiller meant when he said "man in this state is nothing but a unit of quantity" (Schiller 462). The more a player focuses on satisfying the sensuous drives of his or her Sim character, the more he or she will come to realize that it becomes a game of "how much." How much food will it take to fill the hunger bar? How much time watching television will relieve the Sim's boredom?
Eventually, the focus on the "now," or sensuous drive, reveals to the player that the Sim he or she controls is little more than a hollow shell. Without the satisfaction of the formal drive as well, there is no development of personality or identity. The Sim may look human and act human to a certain extent, but it is really nothing more than a cold, digital copy of the human form.
If physical needs represent the sensuous drive, then the emotional and intellectual ambitions represent the formal drive. The ambitions of a Sim character range from finding a certain job to finding a life partner. The satisfaction of these drives allows players to meet the more practical goals their characters have. After all, a Sim needs money to buy food, clothing, and maintain his or her house. To be able to keep up with these demands, players have their Sims find jobs. Naturally, the higher the rank in any chosen career, more money is made. When more money is made, it is easier to satisfy a Sim's more long-term goals.
While there is a nice feeling that comes with seeing a Sim's bank account grow each day, the home become more comfortably furnished and the fridge well stocked, there are some dire consequences. With so much time and energy devoted to work, a Sim has little left over to engage in social interaction. Friends and family fall by the wayside. The Sim may have more of a personality because of its more practical nature, but it is only defined by its job and possessions. In essence, the Sim is a robot, cold and emotionless. It is driven only by the promise of a job promotion and enough comfort at home to function.
To avoid this extreme personality or lack thereof, players must learn to strike a delicate balance between the two drives. It may take some time, and more than a little trial and error, but players can eventually find a nice balance between reason and passion. This balance will give the Sim a much more natural human feel, rather than being hollow and cold. It may still be a digital copy, but it will be much more attractive to players.
While players may be able to balance a single Sim with a fair amount of ease, they will find it much more difficult to reconcile their playable character with the computer controlled avatars. One would be under the impression that a character not controlled by a human, and therefore not subject to flaws in human decision making, would automatically find the magic balance between passion and reason. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
It seems that every non-playable character (NPC) is completely ruled by the sensuous drive. Often times they will let themselves into a player's house at all hours of the night to eat his or her food, watch television, or, quite ironically, play videogames. This dilemma only gets worse as a player acquires more and more high-quality items. NPCs seem to have no regard for what the player wants. It seems quite ironic for NPCs to be controlled by a computer, a device that is supposed to be completely rule by reason, and operate solely for the fulfillment of their passions.
Taking all of this into consideration, it becomes increasingly difficult for players to enjoy the game. It is almost impossible to have a balanced character and fit into the pre-rendered community. The style of gameplay almost forces players to choose between passion and reason to get anywhere in the game. This is a rather large contradiction for a game that is supposed to be a simulation of real life. In real life, a person cannot afford to be completely ruled by either the sensuous or formal drives. It is not only impractical, but it is dangerous to a person's physical and mental health.

Works Cited
Schiller, Friedrich. "Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man." Critical Theory Since Plato. 3rd
ed. New York: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005. 460-472.