Video game The Sims turned into reality TV show

UNITED STATES • Deep down, Mr Rayvon Owen already knew he was gay when a classmate introduced him to life simulation video game The Sims back in 2003, when they were in sixth grade in Richmond, Virginia.

"I grew up in a very conservative, religious home. My mum was super strict and over my shoulder a lot, and when I started playing The Sims I would show her this happy typical family with a white picket fence," he said.

"And she was like, 'Oh good, I like this game. You get a job, you manage money, get a wife and kids.'"

Mr Owen laughed. One of the most popular games in the world, The Sims has for two decades provided young people with a virtual social sandbox to explore the joys, terrors and mysteries of adult life for the first time.

While puerile toxicity does characterise some precincts of gaming, The Sims has long been at the vanguard of mainstream entertainment inclusion simply by giving players choices.

Mr Owen, 29, a singer now living in Los Angeles, did not discuss his sexuality publicly until 2016, after appearing as a finalist on American Idol.

This week, he is scheduled to debut as the host of a different reality television competition: The Sims Spark'd, a new show based on the game.

While competitive e-sports have long been broadcast around the globe, Spark'd is poised to become the first mainstream reality show based on an electronic game.

And as a reality show, it hews closely to the tried-and-true formula popularised by hits such as Project Runway, with 12 contestants competing in various in-game challenges - "Design two rival families from different neighbourhoods", for example - while vying to win US$100,000 (S$139,000).

For contestants - 10 women, two men - the series draws mainly from Sims content creators with significant followings on YouTube and Twitch.

While there are some relatively minor conflicts, Spark'd is not heavy on interpersonal drama. The cameras do not follow the contestants back to their hotel and the overall vibe of the show is wholesome rather than salacious.

Instead, the show focuses on allowing the contestants to tell stories in the game that reflect their own lives and experiences. Issues of gender, sexuality, race and class figure heavily.

In that sense, the true narrative emerges from the personal meaning the game seems to hold for both contestants and judges, almost all in their 20s.

"The theme of the show and the game is you come as you are and play however represents you," said Ms Tayla Parx, 26, a singer and songwriter who is one of the judges. "For me as a bisexual black woman, I always found the game really valuable.

"Being able to play with family dynamics and sexual dynamics, it's made to explore the boundaries of you in a way that's really beautiful. The worst that can happen is you rebuild again if you don't like it."

"It's all about, how do we make the game reflect the world we live in?" said Ms Lyndsay Pearson, the general manager of The Sims for the video game company that publishes it, Electronic Arts.

"The world we live in changes and the stories our players want to tell change and we embrace that. For the show, that's really what we want to come through."

Within the game, individual computer-controlled characters interact with one another without regard to gender or racial appearance until they are prompted by a human player.

"Honestly, the game was always a therapeutic experience," said the show's host, Mr Owen.

"The show is fun and it's exciting to host, but there is a deeper meaning that relates to this whole journey of coming out and getting into a place of self-acceptance, not just for me, but for a lot of people."

NYTIMES