'The Sims' is the most popular computer game in history

I think I played one of the first Sims back in the day but haven't touched it since. Am I really missing that much??




By PATRICK KAMPERT
Chicago Tribune

When Jennifer Kersten was passed over for a job after a grueling interview, she went home and played The Sims on her computer. She created characters based on the people who rejected her, then killed them off over and over by drowning them in a swimming pool without ladders and starving them in a room with no food.

"I'm quite normal and professional," said Kersten, a 35-year-old Web site producer in Milton, Wis. "Until I get home and get into the game."

When it comes to The Sims, the most popular computer game of all time, Kersten's not lying -- she's the norm.

The Sims and its various expansion packs -- Livin' Large, House Party, Hot Date, Vacation and the new Unleashed -- have sold 17 million units combined. And in November, people can subscribe to The Sims Online and play with other gamers. Talk about a parallel universe.

But despite profits that would make Britney Spears jealous, what makes The Sims such a cultural phenomenon is the psychology and sociology. In a sense, a Sims participant gets to play God.

You create the characters. You decide on their personality, their jobs, their clothes, their houses. You must feed your Sims, try to make them happy, make them use the bathroom and help them deal with romance and the workplace. Yet the designers programmed a degree of "free will" into the game that makes the characters unpredictable -- and utterly compelling to millions of people, who find playing The Sims is a lifestyle diversion that competes for their time with watching television and other activities.

So where did The Sims come from? After the success of his Sim City game, Will Wright and his team at Maxis in Walnut Creek, Calif., set to work on a scaled-down game that would turn the attention to homes instead of skyscrapers, neighborhoods instead of cities. To make it interesting, he created Sims (short for "simulated people") to populate those neighborhoods. He soon realized that the people he'd created were a lot more fun and interesting than the buildings -- and The Sims was born.

Crystal Lake, Ill., resident Kathryn Oliver uses The Sims as "a distraction when I'm restless," she said, though it has not cut into her book reading. She said the free-will aspect of the characters takes some getting used to.

"They don't always do what you want them to do," she said. "You can tell them what to do and sometimes they'll change their minds."

But she occasionally finds the social interaction between Sims characters a source of frustration.

"The relationship stuff is kind of an annoyance," she said. "You try to get them to make friends, and if they don't talk about the right things, there's a minus sign that appears above their heads. And if they don't talk to the other characters enough, they're not their friends anymore."

Oliver is drawn more to the chance to advance the careers of her Sims characters and to design houses and build neighborhoods. But many Sims fans get stoked by the social aspects of those neighborhoods, often putting Sims versions of themselves, their families and friends into the game.

"I think creating people in The Sims in some ways is similar to how writers create characters in novels," said John Suler, a psychology professor at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., who has written extensively about cyberspace. "Some re-create people they know because they need a model of some kind for a Sims character, and so they fall back on the models from real life that they are familiar with."

In some cases, Suler said, people use The Sims just to vent. (Put that nasty boss in a locked room with exploding fireworks.) In other cases, they may use The Sims to sort out their feelings toward someone else. In all cases, Suler said, the psychological aspect makes The Sims a big draw.

"Everyone gets the opportunity to create characters that reflect who we are, what we hope and dream, what we fear. It's a very empowering experience," he said.

Adding to the allure is that Wright and Maxis have encouraged Sims fans to be creative. Besides the user-friendly official site (thesims.ea.com), hundreds of Web sites are devoted to The Sims. Many of these sites have heads, "skins" (bodies), homes, walls, carpeting and so on created by Sims addicts that can be downloaded into your own game. That's like the record companies encouraging Napster and bootleg discs. But, what the heck, it's working.

"I would only give us part of the credit," Wright acknowledged. "The fans are really responsible. The fans are in some sense co-developing the game."

"The Sims design team hit on something by allowing players to swap Family Albums (Sims characters, including personalities) and even skins with each other," said T.L. Taylor, an expert on Internet sociology and a professor of communication at North Carolina State University. "The Sims actually creates a community of `people labs.' "

The Sims also is the first computer game to attract just as many women players as men, a fact that has blown away the industry, which had relied heavily on either gory, gun-toting games or Tolkienesque, male-dominated fantasy worlds.

"Essentially what you've got is a dollhouse with animated characters. Women like to decorate, and, hey, you can decorate without spending a lot of money," said Heather Castillo of San Francisco, who founded the subscription-based SimFreaks Web site -- www.simfreaks.com -- which gets 30,000 visitors daily.

And don't forget the relationship aspect of The Sims, added Sarah Cutrone, 21, of Long Island, N.Y.

"I think that this game appeals more to women because it is a lot about social interaction and less about shooting and action," she said. "Plus, we get to dress our Simmies up in pretty clothes!"

It was a Sims romance that upset Georgia Porter, 39, of Rocky Point, N.C. The problem was, her Sims husband wandered off and took a liking to a Sims woman in another neighborhood. Porter's anger burned offline, as well. So her beleaguered husband brought home flowers after work the next day to apologize for what his Sims counterpart had done.

"I can't count the number of times my real-life husband has gotten into trouble for things his Sims self did," Porter, a former social worker, joked. "He doesn't quite understand."