The Sims

Overview

Created by Will Wright and released in 2000 by Maxis and Electronic Arts, The Sims received immediate acclaim. Its success led to seven expansion packs, a full-fledged sequel, and a number of console-based spin-offs. A film adaptation is also said to be in the works.

The premise of The Sims is simple. You are given control over one or more Sims: semi-autonomous suburban dwellers. Through your attention, or lack thereof, your Sim can move up the ladder and become an astronaut, or famous politician, or die in a corner of their house, crying in a pool of their own urine. The choice is up to you! Being washed, awake and fed is key before heading off to work in the morning. Such upkeep will ensure your Sim will receive bonuses and promotions. Social life, including having friends over and throwing parties, is also key to your Sim's happiness.

The game's build feature lets players become architects and interior designers. You can modify the size and shape of your sim's home dramatically, add second stories, and choose from literally hundreds of pieces of furniture and decor; some of which can positively impact your Sim, and some of which is purely cosmetic.

Expansion packs for The Sims include Livin' Large, House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed, Superstar, and Makin' Magic.

Gameplay

By playing The Sims, you control little people known simply as their title suggest, Sims. Perhaps one of the most unique aspects about this game is that there is no larger objective; simply put, there is no way to win this game.

Creating Your Sim

To begin, players may create a new family from scratch, or may choose to play the pre-existing Sims in the neighborhood. Though the tools used to create Sims in the first Sims may seem outdated, players had the choice of creating an adult or child. Then then could choose the skin tone (white, tanned or black) and could choose from various faces and clothing combination's (the clothing combination's also dictated what body type the Sim would have). The personality of the Sim-to-be was broken up into five categories (or ten if you consider the opposites for each personality trait). The five categories are:

• Neat (or Sloppy)
• Outgoing (or Shy)
• Active (or Lazy)
• Playful (or Serious)
• Nice (or Grouchy)

Each personality trait would dictate how Sims would react to certain situations and what career would fit them the best. For example, a very Active Sim may excel better in the careers that require more physical exertion, as opposed to a lazy Sim who would excel slower. Another example would be that a serious Sim may have a hard time accepting playful social interactions, like tickling or jokes.

Build and Construction Mode

Once the player's Sim was created, the player could move into a house, or move onto an empty lot and build their house from scratch. The player could build rooms, and place doors and windows and place wallpaper and floors. Once the player finishes with Construction Mode, the player enters Build Mode and furnishes the house. Building and furnishing a house is also dependent on the Sim's funds. A Sim who has fewer funds won't be able to build much of a big house, and will have to settle for lower quality furniture.

Needs

Once the player has finished building/decorating their house, this is where the main gameplay comes in. The player must take care of their Sim(s) and are - to simply put it - physical and emotional needs that a Sim would need to fulfill in order to live a content life. The needs include:

• Hunger
• Energy
• Comfort
• Bladder
• Fun
• Social
• Environment

To fulfill a need, the player would have to interact with certain objects in the house that would relate to that need. For example, sleep would replenish Energy, and a TV would replenish Entertainment.

Mood

The daily assessment of a Sim's needs would be determined by the Mood. The lower a Sim's needs, the lower the Mood, and the Mood would affect a Sim's desire to do certain things. For example, a Sim with a low Mood would refuse to go to work or maybe be more grouchy towards other Sims.

Careers and Skills

Throughout the game, the player may allow their Sim to become employed, and climb the career ranks. To excel in their careers, Sims would have to gain a certain amount of skill, so that they may gain the necessary skills to advance (much like real life).

The skills are:

• Cooking
• Mechanical
• Charisma
• Body
• Logic
• Creativity

A Sim's personality would determine how fast they would be able to build a skill. For example, a serious Sim would excel in the Logic skill, an active Sim would excel in the Body skill, and so forth.

Sim children didn't have careers, but they did have to go to school. Too many school days missed or constant low grades would result in military school.

Death

As mentioned before, there is no objective in the game (which means there is no winning), but there is a way of losing. The most obvious would be starvation, or burning up in a cooking accident (more are added on as the expansion packs were released). Once a Sim died, their grave remained on the lot, and would float through the house during the night times. A living Sim could interact with a dead Sim, though not directly - for example, if the dead Sim had a bad relationship with the living Sim, the ghost could easily haunt them.

Success

The Sims has been one of the best-selling games on the PC, knocking Myst off the number one spot. The game received many positive reviews for it's refreshing gameplay, and is one of the games where women were in the majority of those playing The Sims. The game's success can be largely credited to its accessible gameplay and the subject of the game's content: Life. It is a game that anyone can look at, understand, and get interested in playing; from little Suzie at the 25 cent Lemonade stand, to Grandma Gladys who still watches I Love Lucy the game appeals to a large and varied demographic that puts most developers to shame.

ESRB

The ESRB rated the game Teen for Comic Mischief, Mature Sexual Themes, Mild Animated Violence.