Introduction

What the heck is The Sims?

The Sims is a game for the PC that was released on Feburary 2000, the time where only Windows 95/98 and 2000 were out. The graphics were out of this world when it came out and the gameplay was unlike any other. There was also no primiary objective to the game, you just played the way you wanted.

Many players wanted to be successful to earn many simeleons (The Sims currency) and move in the huge mansion that could be seen in the neighborhood. Players had to keep the Sims happy by fulfilling their needs...or they could just trap them and kill them off via a pool or room.

The game was the most groundbreaking simulation at the time along with becoming the best-selling PC video game in history before it's successor The Sims 2 came out.

Origins

Who made it and how was this game idea born?

Will Wright, the creator, suffered from a fire that burned every one of his posessions and needed to find a new home. With this experience, he pitched the idea to Maxis in 1993, but they rejected it due to them believing that the computers at that time couldn't handle such a game. Two years later in 1995, he pitched it to EA Games, and it was finally accepted.

In early development, it was originally designed as an architecture simulation with the Sims just there to evaluate the houses, but it was then decided that the Sims were more interesting.

EA Games named it Project X at first, but then changed it to Dollhouse. They soon realized that it would be hard to market to young males so it was renamed to The Tactical Domestic Simulator. Finally, they named it The Sims in 1997 and it was promoted for the first time on the install CD of SimCity 3000.

Sims

Let's create a family! Even yourself.

You could play one of the premade families the game comes with or create your own as long as it's an adult or a child. With an optional biography, you can choose the sim's first name, gender (male or female), skin complexion (light, tan, or dark), specific head and body, personality (neat, outgoing, active, playful or nice). The player can also choose what they will wear from a variety of choices (many at that time, which grew from every expansion pack released).

Whether it be just one or a family of six kids or even a couple or roomates, it's all up to you. Just keep in mind that you can only have eight sims per household.

Once finished and the family is loaded out of the Create A Sim screen and moved into a lot, the player can no longer change the face, name, and personality. The only thing that the player can change is a Sim's biography by holding the CTRL key and clicking on the Sim's thumbnail.

As you play, you'll notice that the language they speak isn't real. This is known as Simlish, which was invented by a team. Before, it was limited but now it has a wider vocabulary. Some sites even exist with which phrases mean.

Houses

Build and furnish a house whether it be your own, dream home, or the smallest.

Since Will Wright needed something to build his house this explains why building houses is so easy from starter homes to large mansions and castles on the game. It's literally up to you how you want to look like from color, landscape, roof types, paint, wallpaper, wood, stone, etc., With over 150 building materials and furnishings from the base game, you will have no idea where to start.

There are, however, limitations thanks to the tile system the game uses. Items must be placed on a square and rotated to face a 90 degree angle exactly. Walls and fences, however, can be diagonal. Furniture and Sims cannot be diagonal when taking up one or more of these squares.

As the player, you can purchase many objects for Sims to use from TVs, showers, beds, fridges, decoration, even toilets, since these will fulfill a need, raise a skill, or just there to look pretty. Each item has its own number, acting as a score, of what it will give to the Sims when using it. Example being a cheaper bed with no comfort yet has a score of 3 sleep while a much more expensive bed has a 5 score in comfort and 10 in sleep.

Controls

You literally make all decisions. Even going to the bathroom.

While The Sims do have have some free will (if enabled by the player), the player makes the choices. Although, Sims can ignore what you tell them to do and do something else. There are certain interactions that must be done by the player since The Sims are not fully automated, such as paying their bills by themselves. Unless you want to see their house be repossessed, it's best to play with your full attention.

Visiting Sims cannot be controlled unless cheats are used, but it's very important to keep your Sims' need of socializing up or they will go insane. Gaining popularity is a great bonus, but not really required.

There really is no wrong way to play this game. You can challenge yourself to play for an amount of generations to see how far you can go or just keep playing until none of your Sims are alive and start with a new family.

Needs

They're so needy.

Like us in reality, the Sims have needs and if you don't fullfil them, they can go insane or even die.

• Hunger: The hunger need is very important since Sims can die without eating or drinking something that will fill their bottomless stomachs. When the bar is half full, you must feed your Sim or they will start to comment and pause about needing to be fed.
• Energy: Along with eating, you need to let your Sims sleep or they will run out of energy and fall asleep on the floor or find a place to sleep if they're the neat type. Then this need and hungry are low, the chance of death is even greater.
• Comfort: Sims are very picky with what they are sitting on and even the showers they use. Chairs and beds each have a score of what it gives to the Sims. The more expensive, the better the score of comfort to keep this bar full.
• Fun: Everyone can't stand being bored or else they're go crazy. Sims do the same when this bar drops past the quarter empty mark, so be sure to get them to play or watch something depending on what type of Sim they are.
• Hygiene Being clean, while not highly important, can affect your Sim's social life. For the messy Sims, this doesn't really matter, but for neat to very neat to neatpicky, it is a must to wash your hands, take out the trash, shower, and clean everything to make the house, and themselves, spotless.
• Social: Some Sims need a lot of interaction while some are just fine with talking over the phone, so be sure to have at least the latter in their homes. You can even invite guests over or set up a party. Not enough social and they can go insane here too and it'll be met with a trip of the Social Bunny.
• Bladder: When you gotta go, you gotta go. Matched with a walk of trying to hold it in. But yes, you do need to tell them when to go.
• Room: The decorations, the furniture, it must all be fabulous! Or enough to fill this bar so that they're happy. You can decorate with paintings, wall art, wall stencils, statues, rugs, and structures.

Traits

Everyone is different.

Players have up to five traits to create their Sims with: Neat, Outgoing, Active, Playful, and Nice.

The game has "points" in each of those categories and the player is required to customize their Sims' personality. These points will affect how your Sims will interact with others as well as how some of their needs are affected.

If the player wishes, you are allowed to have all traits the exact number filled, but even with many Sims with the same personality, they still behave differently.

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