The Sims

Title: The Sims
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: February 4, 2000
Date Played: February - September 2000
Time Played: 20 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
I remember exactly where I was when I first heard about The Sims. I was walking home from High School with a friend, and we were just around the corner from my house when he said, "oh man, do you have Sims?". To which I replied "Sim City?", he then proceeded to explain to me what kind of game The Sims was. I dont know why I remember this moment, perhaps it is because I was caught off guard by the best selling PC game of all time? I was always the go-to guy for information about hot new titles.

The principle of Sims is very easy to grasp, it is basically like playing with dolls, (or G.I. Joes if you will). At first you make a dude (or a gal), they in turn have wants and needs, you fulfill those wants and needs. And that is basically the game of Sims in a nut shell. Not a complicated formula, but an addictive one.

I totally get why it is so successful too, every single person has fond memories of playing with their favorite toy as a child, and this game evokes those memories.  This is what we wished our toys would be like, that they would move around, have their own thoughts and needs.  Not to mention that up until this point, and even now in 2011, there are not many games that a female gamer can connect with, so all of a sudden this huge untapped audience gets unleashed on video gaming.

The Sims is a game where most spend hundreds of hours playing out their fantasy families, or sadistically murder the mini dudes, and dudettes. I however did not get addicted to Sims, and only played enough to understand what its all about. Perhaps this was due to the lack of any real objectives within the game (mechanic which was added in future Sims iterations), but after building a few houses (by far my favorite part of the game), and living out the lives of a few of my Sims, I saw everything that it had to offer and was done with the game.

It is fun to build your own houses and live out a simulated life of a person, and Sims does a great job at allowing you to do that. Lack of objectives is a bummer, but The Sims 1, was definitely a good stepping stone for this extremely successful franchise.