I remember reading an interview with the creators of Baldur's Gate. When asked whether characters would
have to eat in the next game, one of them said something like, no,
and they won't have to go to the bathroom either. Such things are
too mundane for an epic RPG.
I thought of this interview when I first played the Sims. Here was a game where your characters not only have to eat (this is common in most roguelike games, and Betrayal at Krondor had it too), but, well, have to go to the bathroom.
And the game was a huge success.
In fact, the Sims is entirely about mundane things. You won't fight dragons. You won't save the world. Your characters (sims) will eat, go to the bathroom, invite friends over, watch TV, play pool, get a job, study, advance in their careers, and hopefully make a lot of money to spend on better homes and gardens. There is not much else to spend it on.
If you have some of the expansion packs they might also go on a vacation, have a hot date, have a pet, become a star, or even tinker around with chemistry sets or get abducted by aliens. But the more exotic features like magic and genies are just add-ons that some players aren't all that fond of, and the designers wisely included them in a way that you will never encounter them unawares. Mainly it's still the adventures of everyday.
And this recipe proved incredibly successful. By early 2002, The Sims had sold more than 6.3 million copies, making it the best-selling PC game of all time, outselling blockbusters like Myst or Will Wright's own SimCity. Four years after its release the game still sells for the original price, something unheard-of in the industry. The Sims prove at least four points:
The Sims are available for Windows, Mac, and PlayStation 2. The PSX 2 version has, due to the nature of the platform, full 3D, not isometric, view; new objects and characters; more customization; level-based gameplay additional to the open-ended one of the original version; and the possibility for two players to play in split-screen mode. Versions for the Nintendo Cube and the Xbox are in development.
Seven add-ons have been released:
I played it rather intensely for a while soon after it came out, but later lost interest, hastened by the fact that I resented some attitudes prevailing in the fan community.
Nevertheless I have started my own sim site, How to be a Sim. Since my interest in the game isn't all that big any more, it is growing slowly, but it is growing.
What's the value in playing a game like The Sims? Besides having your game-playing mind sent in directions it rarely travels, it's fun. What other reason is there to play a game? But if you need a larger context to place things in (and when your game machine costs as much as a small recreational vehicle, a larger context helps), it proves that Real Life™ has commercial potential as entertainment. Television has been onto this for a long time. "Reality" shows are huge ratings wells, sucking in millions of people who may not realize they are having their own lives repackaged and sold back to them. Me, I've been coming home from work for a week and "relaxing" by making sure my sims get off to work on time. The other night I was paying some bills, and I looked up, and Otto was paying his.
Unlike many of the other additions, this one adds a lot of depth and new features to the game itself, rather than simply a number of new items to build and interact with. If you were to purchase only one of the expansions, this is likely one of the better selections.
Now and then I come across new sites I think are worth mentioning.
The old links I moved to How to be a Sim. Look under Nostalgy
.
In many ways, the Sims are unique and first-of-a-kind (no, make that one-of-a-kind: up to now, they have not been imitated either). There is a tradition of "LifeSims" in Japan, best known probably Princess Maker; but here it is one person whose fate you decide.
Overall, an outstanding game in every respect, and much more realistic than Maxis' recent blockbuster The Sims years later. Two thumbs up!
What is it?
