Remembering my Sim (who was a pickpocket), pool mishaps, and the virtual chaos that made The Sims so entertaining.
The Sims (2000) may have stood for several symbolisms about life, but when I first played it 25 years ago, all I remember is forcing my character to dance to my ‘90s style boombox. It was the only remaining piece of entertainment left when a robber decided to ransack my home while my Sim was sleeping. Ironically, my character was exhausted from a day’s work as a pickpocket.
The very first time I played the game, Windows XP hadn’t even released yet and I was only allowed after finishing my homework from 1st grade math. Now, I am in my 30s, writing for a living and recently married with plans to travel the world.
It is a game like no other. The word sul sul alone or the aloha-like greeting in Simlish, the fictional language used by the characters in the game, reflects the quirky charm of the series. In a slew of adventure-filled role-playing games and third-person shooters reminiscent of Hollywood action flicks, The Sims offers players a virtual sandbox of simulating domestic life in a suburban household. They control a Sim, a characterized version of a human being that represents the player in the neighborhood.
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There wasn’t any end goal when you launched the game. In the hundreds of hours I logged across its four iterations (aptly named The Sims 2, 3, and 4), the core gameplay remained the same: it was about handing the player tools to play with life. Once a lot was chosen, it was up to the player to make their Sim happy by managing eight status bars: hunger, comfort, hygiene, bladder, energy, fun, social, and room. Think of these needs akin to a simplified version of American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s theory of a person’s path to self-actualization.
Sure, there’s an entire bar dedicated to bladder, but just like in Sims and real life, a person is only as strong as their internal plumbing.
The bigger picture
Playing The Sims on and off for the past two decades has made me introspective. I clearly remember the anxiety I felt when I accidentally killed my older sister’s Sim when it visited my house in the game. My brother suggested removing the pool ladder, and we found out Sims left in the pool without a ladder would ultimately swim endlessly to their doom. He said it was a rite of passage. Apparently, it was something the community had discovered after the game’s release.
After a quick phone call to my sister a few days ago and apologizing again for old times’ sake, my thoughts somehow led me to think more about the allegories between The Sims and real life, and the obvious correlation of consumerism directly affecting a person’s happiness. After all, buying a big TV in the game fills one of the status bars namely Fun, which is one of every Sim’s basic needs to survive.
Contrary to the notion that beyond the life simulator aspect of the game, it’s a mere digitalization of wealth accumulation—similar to the classic board game Monopoly, which serves as a microcosm of capitalism—this is a misnomer to both.
The latter is an invention of American writer, feminist, and game designer Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Magie when she filed her patent on the game called Landlord’s Game back in 1904. She was inspired by the book Progress and Poverty (1879) given by her father James Magie, an anti-monopolist, newspaper publisher, politician and a contemporary of US President Abraham Lincoln in his travels in Illinois back in the 1850s.
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What followed was a series of deceit and wrongful representations as it would take decades and a lengthy lawsuit in 1973 to bring Magie’s critical role in the development of what is now known as Monopoly into the mainstream. A deeper dive into Mary Pilon’s book The Monopolists Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game (2015) is a story for another day.
Back to The Sims. Its inspiration was brought on by the experience of its creator Will Wright after losing his home in the Oakland and Berkeley Firestorm in 1991. It was one of the most devastating wildfires in California’s history at the time. The fire left more than 3,000 homes destroyed with $1.68 billion worth of damages and 25 people who perished in its wake.
Wright managed to get all his family out safely away from the devastation. They returned to their home a week later, but all that welcomed them was rubble. Recognizing he needed something as basic as a toothbrush and underwear, Wright conceptualized the blueprint of The Sims. It was never just about amassing more belongings or if happiness could be bought. I believe the essence of The Sims is more about the reacquisition of life and how to build one from scratch.
Where is the franchise now?
It is a timeless classic, quite literally in a sense since the original game doesn’t have aging as part of its core gameplay. Aging was only added to The Sims 2 (2004). By introducing a broader concept of time and Sims dying of natural causes, it further gave the community more ways to play each of their respective virtual dollhouses.
Challenges soon became a staple of the community, with players adhering to self-imposed rules introducing more ways to play in the Sims world. One of the most well-known is the 100 Baby Challenge, where players attempt to give birth to 100 children in as few generations as possible. History Challenge is another, wherein players are entailed to play through multiple generations starting from the prehistoric age. This means no fancy house materials and luxuries.
Community-driven challenges like this help reiterate how limitless the game could be, that’s why people have the prerogative to define and set the limitations themselves.
Wright’s last involvement with the game was back in Sims 2 (2004). Since 2014, its developer studio Maxis along with publisher Electronic Arts have released three mainline titles to the series and are yet to release a sequel to The Sims 4. Additional content has continued to support the base game also known as paid downloadable content (DLC) through expansion packs and kits allowing players to reimagine the lives of their Sims on a bigger scale.
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The Sims 4: Life and Death Expansion Pack (2024) is probably one of the most intriguing DLCs for the franchise yet. For starters, death is no longer the end for Sims. Players are now introduced to playable ghosts with a separate skill tree and aspirations. As players progress through these goals, they get points that lead to a better quality of life—no pun intended. A Sim can even go toe-to-toe with the Grim Reaper as retribution for the life that was just taken with a possibility of reincarnation.
I have yet to explore all the expansion packs for The Sims 4. And I must say, there is an overwhelming yet relieving impact knowing the direction the franchise is headed. The very first time I played the game, Windows XP hadn’t even released yet and I was only allowed after finishing my homework from 1st grade math. Now, I am in my 30s, writing for a living and recently married with plans to travel the world.
The Sims franchise has continuously grown and evolved beyond imagination. It has even become a beacon of inclusivity in an industry that yearns for it. To further reflect its real-life source material, The Sims has introduced customizable pronouns in 2022 to better represent anyone’s individuality in the game.
Much like its creator Will Wright, who never fixated on a “winning” concept for the game, perhaps we, too, should also reflect on a world that is not defined by winning, but rather living in a world with an abundance of meaning.
