The Sims Phenomenon – Article

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few years you’ll have already heard of ‘The Sims’ and all its many variants and additions. The Sims Phenomenon has been one of the most intense and possibly unexpected gaming experiences since the advent of PCs. Imagine trying to sell the idea of basing a game around eating, drinking, chatting and building to some high powered executive peering at you over a desk when they’re used to being approached by designers making sports games or racing games. This was the hurdle facing Will Wright when he created The Sims and thank god that the EA executive took the risk of supporting it.
The Sims in their first incarnation was a PC game which although backed up with fairly substantial advertising, appeared to simply burst onto the scene and very quickly find its way to the top of the PC gaming charts. There was a real buzz surrounding this new game where you could completely quench any burning desire to become an almost God like dictator controlling individuals lives. The Sims fast became the most popular game in this genre even though there were previous games with similar ideas but what made The Sims so popular seems to be the fact people can relate to the situations in it more easily than they could managing a city, killing a dragon and so on.

People started to flood the web with sites dedicated to The Sims, but these were no ordinary websites, these sites were places where you can share the love you feel for your sims by showing off their houses, their relationships, make new items for them and so much more. People were becoming obsessed with it and The Sims became a hobby rather than just a game. There was an almost infinite number of playing hours available to you on the Sims because when you were bored with one family you could simply wipe them out and start all over again. I often found myself sitting for hours on end addicted to watching my little Sims chat away in a language which sounds like a cross between Swedish and gibberish. I would plan ahead who I wanted to socialize each Sim with, how I would pursue my goal of obtaining better items for my beautifully crafted home and how I would build my neighborhood.

The many websites dedicated to the Sims added to the community feel of the game because when you went to any of these sites you knew that you were not the only individual completely in love with the game. This participatory culture meant that the game extended beyond the PC screen and entered into individuals creative minds by encouraging them to develop their own accessories for their Sim characters. It was only a matter of time before the game needed to provide those loyal fans with some extra additions and EA did this regularly with their expansion packs. To date there are 7 expansion packs for the game available (Livin Large, House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed, Superstar, Makin Magic) and all have proven to be top sellers for EA showing that The Sims continue to be popular for PC users everywhere.

I can still remember the excitement of finding out there was going to a an expansion pack for The Sims. For months I had downloaded things from websites (and this was before we had a broadband connection!) and I had endured the stress of trying to download items and add them into the correct directory on my PC only to find that there’s a corrupted sim skin and the whole damn game crashes! Arrrgh. It was definitely a great relief to find out that EA were releasing their own expansions and I eagerly waited on each of them arriving in stores and purchased them on the day of release. The sheer excitement that starting up a new area in your game could bring was unbelievable. This game was definitely my favourite ever PC game and my two children agree. They were equally as addicted as I was and its one of the few times (pre broadband and internet chatting on MSN) that I recall arguing with them over whose turn it was on the PC. In my household we actually had to allocate time slots so we could all have our go on The Sims.

The Sims craze has continued to steadily grow since its original PC release. In addition to the fantastic expansion packs which keep the game fresh and entertaining, The Sims has taken the leap from PC game to console game since it is now also avaliable on PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and GBA. The introduction of a different style of gameplay for the console versions has made the Sims able to complete with goal oriented console games and continues to be popular in this area.

The recent release of The Sims Bustin Out has shown that there’s plenty of life left in the Sims franchise yet and people clearly still want to play these games. Others have come along and tried to emulate the design of The Sims but none seemed to have grasped the imagination of the player quite like The Sims has. Games like Black and White, Ghost Master and other inferior imitations like Space Colony, all aimed to replicate the success of The Sims and although they all had their own interesting areas, none quite matched the draw of The Sims. It seems that with the introduction of The Sims Online, the game that was once branded by Christians as evil and antisocial has increased its community feel by allowing people to play the game with others in different locations.

The upcoming release of The Sims 2 (due out late summer 2004) is sure to propel the genre back to the number one spot again and I for one cannot wait to rush to the stores to buy it. The good thing about the Sims games is that you’re in control. If you want to have polygamy, gay relationships, hermits, neat freaks or anything else in it then that’s your business. EA have given you the power to do so and as the game matures and develops the possibilities increase and the gameplay continues to become even more absorbing. The Sims phenomenon may well be a product of our culture at present where we all enjoy having a little more control in a society increasingly taking that away from us, perhaps that’s why the addition of Gay Marriages to The Sims 2 is so amusing. The guys at EA did it long before San Francisco… perhaps once more those who deemed The Sims evil will be raising their voices in outcry. I don’t care. I want my Sims and I want them now.

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