Sims movie pitch goes over about as well with gamers as Spore DRM

Everyone who read them knows that videogame bloggers aren't exactly the most open minded, non-judgmental crowd. And everyone who knows the film business knows that getting good Internet buzz with the fans isn't exactly they key to huge box office. If you want a mass market hit, you need to please a much bigger crowd.

Nonetheless, the online reaction to Davis's revelation, in an interview with collider.com, about his take on turning "life simulator" "The Sims" into a movie is probably not a boost for the project. Here's the nutshell of what he said:

The Sims, as you know, you can control your imaginary world, right? And our movie, a young man, a 16 year old kid of a 14 year old kid and his friend get their hands on this thing called the Sims Infinity Pack, right, which kind of this very strange video game store which was there just for that moment, and seemingly wasn’t all that. But what they realize is that they can scan their world in, because this is the most life like, real Sims game ever. And as they are playing this they are all of a sudden realizing is what they are playing on the game is having an effect on the real world. So in effect, through the game, they are able to control their world. It’s wish fulfillment, and obviously it turns against them.

And here's what some of the videogame blogs are saying:

Destructoid: The Sims movie producer John Davis at least recognized that there’s a fundamental difference between the two mediums, although his plans to compensate for it don’t look particularly promising and mostly serve to highlight the pointlessness of bringing videogame franchises to film.

Newsweek's Level Up: [T]he logline of this in-development adaptation of The Sims is rather dispiriting. Not merely for its "Small Soldiers" meets "Jumanji" lack of originality, but also for having shifted the movie's focus to boys from girls.

Wired's Game/Life: Davis' idea might have made sense in 1982 -- assuming there was no completely unrelated videogame license unnecessarily tacked on to the thing -- but with our current, more cynical world, and no useful doppelganger for the gangly geekiness of Anthony Michael Hall, this idea just can't work

Joystiq: It's fucking terrible.

Of course, if you think videogame bloggers are judgmental, they're nothing compared to videogame blog commenters. That's where the real pain comes (trust me, I've been on the receiving end). Suffice it to say the online buzz isn't good.

Given that the "Sims" game franchise has appealed to a much broader audience than those who write and read videogame blogs, and the movie (should it ever get made) is certainly intended to do the same, maybe John Davis and Fox don't care too much about all this. But it probably didn't make their day.