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The history of the Sims

The Sims is a very popular simulation game created by Will Wright before being adopted by Maxis and Electronic Arts, finally published and put into the gaming world in February 2000. Over eight years later and it has had many children games, not just patches and expansion packs for the original game, but also been adapted for games consoles and leading on to The Sims 2 in September 2004 and The Sims 3 due for release in Autumn 2009 as well as many other spin-offs such as Sims Stories, MySims, and The Sims Online.

So high was the success rate of The Sims that not only has it led to the birth of spin-offs and sequels but a film is also in talks, due to be official announced in 2009.

It started off as a basic concept in 1991 when Will Wright first created SimCity. SimCity was a hit, but people wanted to be able to play the characters, not just rule a town. The idea of a God game quickly grew. With other games slowly making an appearence in the market such as Black and White, it seemed to be a sort after and much wanted game.

A dollhouse-style game was the original idea presented to Maxis in 1993, Electronic Arts bought the rights to publish then named ‘Project X’ in 1995. By 1997 ‘The Sims’ was given it’s official title and being produced.

In the original thoughts behind the game, characters were pre-designed with fixed faces and bodies. Each expansion pack brought with it new characters that could be added to the families. You could give your Sims a basic personality, choosing their star-sign and levels of hygiene, laziness, shyness etc. These traits would then go on to give the Sim a basic range of skills required. For instance a lazy Sim would be less inclined to work or exercise than an active Sim. A certain amount of free will was also allowed, meaning that the characters would be able to ‘make decisions’ when left alone.

A language was also created for The Sims. ‘Simlish’ is thought to be a version of Ukranian, re-designed to sound more like ‘Double Dutch’ giving it a fairly childish appearence. There is thought to be a basic English-Simlish dictionary, but it is mainly body language that allows to you to understand the needs of The Sim. Certain phrases may have several meanings, so it is best not to rely on these simple words.

There are seven expansion packs for the original Sims game:

*Livin’ Large – a very basic pack adding new characters, clothes and jobs to the original game.

*House Party – allowing The Sims to throw parties by adding new objects.

*Hot Date – The Sims can now leave the house and ‘go on dates’, meeting new Sims and creating all varieties of relationships.

*Vacation – Holidays are a basic requirement of all humans, so why not allow The Sims a break too?

*Unleashed – by giving The Sims pets, new jobs and needs were added.

*Superstar – some Sims were given a celebrity status, other simply became fans.

*Making Magic – witchcraft and wizadry allowed The Sims to travel to distant lands, buying strange potions and casting odd spells.

Several compilations were also created.

This is the history of The Sims, but as with history in real life, a dynasty of Sims awaits to be discovered and new history is made with every expansion pack, spin-off and sequel.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 2:21 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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