Paralives includes features that The Sims has lacked for decades

A new update on the autonomy system of Paralives showcases one key advantage over The Sims series, as characters can make independent decisions, including using the bathroom and developing new hobbies. 

If you're a fan of life simulations then Paralives can be considered one of the bigger upcoming games in the genre as a major rival to the behemoth that is The Sims 4. As revealed in a new Patreon post by the development team, stated how: "Your characters will be able to decide to perform some interactions on their own". This includes the ability for your characters to go to work, find new activities, and even use the bathroom. Characters will also die if they are not fed regularly / do not feed themselves. 

This is quite the departure from the more managerial style of EA's The Sims franchise, as those who want a more manual level of control can revert back: "Players will have the ability to turn off the autonomy in the options menu, if they prefer to control every single interaction their Parafolks do". This doesn't mean absolutely everything, though: "However, some things will autonomously happen, no matter what, like for instance, your character dying of hunger if you locked them in an empty room between four walls". 

While characters in The Sims series can die of starvation, this can only be triggered by literally leaving Sims in a room with no food to speak of, including no refrigerator or pantry, and they can starve. However, if there's another sim around, the bar can be filled up automatically, so it's not exactly the most realistic system. 

No release date for Paralives has been announced yet, but the game has a landing page available on Steam. It's yet to go into early access or go gold. More updates are expected to roll out soon: "We’re eager to build upon this first version of our autonomy system to do more and more! Parafolks could automatically clean the house or highly skilled musicians could decide to play music in their spare time, for instance. Adding more deaths to the game is also something I’m really looking forward to". 

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