We are half way through the inaugural season of The Sims Spark’d, a reality TV show based around being well good at The Sims. If you hadn’t heard, 12 Sim fanatics have been whisked away to… some studio, where they’re competing to win $100k by proving they are the bestest at The Sims 4. The first episode premiered last week on TBS, with the episode appearing on the BuzzFeed Multiplayer YouTube chennel the following Monday. Yesterday saw the second episode go up on YouTube as well. EA are as yet only dipping their toe in the murky sea that is reality TV, however, since Spark’d will only run for four episodes total.
Spark’d actually has all the ingredients that I love about terrible reality TV shows, plus it involves The Sims 4. On paper, it should be amazing. And indeed, there are already minor Twitter beefs between fans, and contestants complaining about the broadcast edit not showing the full truth. All classic stuff! But it’s clear that Spark’d will never achieve greatness unless EA loosens the apron strings enough to let their reality TV baby become a hot, hot mess.