Project Mayor - Update

It was quite a day! I didn’t imagine I would be back to share more updates with you, but a walk outdoors can unlock so many ideas!

While reviewing the Reputation system to transform it into the Social Classes system, I started reflecting on the way I see most people playing, and it's not uncommon for many players to frequently neglect the Influence and Lifetime Aspiration systems.

When presenting the idea of Project Mayor, the main influencing factor behind it was the concept of role reversal. We move from the position of gods into a more personal and closer sphere, which made me reflect on social dynamics and how we establish connections.

I wondered if I could revitalize these two systems to attract more attention to their functions. And well… of course, I could!

The Influence Meter is now called the Authority Meter. As a player and having been part of the community for years, I know that many players have a certain "sadism." Will the semantics here be able to grab the players' attention?

The cool thing is that, associated with the Social Classes system, the Authority Meter measures the level of respect your Sim receives from others. By the way, respect and obedience. This creates a power dynamic. I hope it inspires players to explore this part of the game more.

Along with this, I changed the name of the Lifetime Aspiration to "Personal Achievement Meter," because that’s exactly what it is. Lifetime Aspiration seems too abstract to me. This meter measures your ability to fulfill long-term desires in your Sims' lives, so what this meter is, is a personal achievement meter, if we brought it to real life.

Therefore, it now also includes new descriptions for each level. And these titles are closely related to the Social Classes System + Authority Meter. These three systems now combine their adjectives to create semantic coherence for the gameplay proposal.

With that in mind, I realized that the needs had room for improvement, so I changed their names. Hunger is now called Nutrition, Fun changed to Leisure, Comfort became Well-being, Social is now Connections, Bathroom is Sanitation, Hygiene became Self-care, Energy changed to Disposition, and Environment is now Infrastructure.

These terms reflect a broader, yet more personal idea of the game in a more "urban and global" sphere.

I looked at the traits and noticed that I tend to shy away from traits like Relaxed, Serious, and Lazy, because they are words with a strong emotional connotation. I don’t think this is necessarily bad, but I know that if I adapted the traits to new terms, I would explore gameplay mechanics that I wouldn’t otherwise. So now the traits are:

Messy - Organized
Reserved - Extroverted
Unmotivated - Determined
Conservative - Spontaneous
Impatient - Understanding

These new terms offer a fresh understanding of the traits we already know. In the end, the mechanics remain the same, nothing has changed in that sense, but the semantics, terms, and interpretations present us with a new context.

I also made small changes regarding Hobbies, changing Cooking to Gastronomy, Arts and Craft to Design, Physical Conditioning to Health and Performance, and DIY to Manual Creativity.

You will have the chance to play closely with your Sim, but the data and interfaces will give you a broader context. He’s still your individual Sim, but now he’s part of the city, and you can discover how he is viewed, perceived, and where he fits in these stereotypes.