The "Sim" Phenomenon
Created | Updated Jul 8, 2004
Sim City, the urban simulation game, was a gaming phenomenon that surprised the world roughly twenty years ago. Since then there have been several versions of the game, such as Sim Rollercoaster, which are essentially the same game concept applied in different environments. Today, The Sims, the wildly popular life simulation game, has followed in the footsteps of those simulation games and has grown to truly epic proportions. There have been eight incarnations of The Sims in the PC version alone, with yet another currently in the works. It has even found its way into the video game market.
Sim Online
There are countless websites devoted to everything from customizing game elements to cheats and playing tips. On thesims.com, the official The Sims website, there is an entire online community comprised of The Sims authors, or people who use the snapshot and photo album features in the game to write graphical stories with The Sims characters. You can find everything from amateurish short fiction to long, elaborate novels all accompanied with The Sims screen shots that illustrate the story.
Sim Addiction
Some people have been known to spend hours on end playing either Sim City or The Sims, getting so deep into the world of the simulations that reality takes a backseat to each game’s addictive powers. Where does this fascination come from? What is it about games like Sim City and The Sims that makes them such a phenomenon? It may have something to do with their appeal to the average person’s desire to play God and have the ultimate control over simulated situations and characters.
What are these Sim games?
The Sims can be described as a microcosm of the older game phenomenon, Sim City. Both games were developed and marketed by Maxis, a sub-division of Electronic Arts.
Sim City
Sim City started out slowly, and nobody thought that it would ever catch on. But much to everyone’s surprise Sim City eventually grew to become one of the most popular and long lasting games in the industry. Today there are several updated remakes available. The major appeal of Sim City is the ability to control and determine the aspects of the simulated city’s development. The player is able to build and shape their city from scratch into whatever they wish it to be.The Sims
Similarly, The Sims gives the player that same ability over the individual families and people who live in such a simulated city. The player is able to create a Sim (simulated person) from scratch and shape them into whatever they wish by controlling every aspect of their life and environment.
So why are they so popular?
Where Sim City allows wide control over a large city, The Sims allows fine control over a limited number of individual Sims. Both games hold a similar appeal, that of control.
Building Stuff
A major similarity between Sim City and The Sims is the concept of building something.
In Sim City the player builds a city by adding elements and controlling its growth. The challenge in the game is to balance all the variables and run a successful city.
Similarly, one of the most popular game aspects of The Sims is the chance to play amateur architect and build Sim houses from scratch. With the proper cheat codes an unlimited amount of Simoleons, the game’s currency, are instantly available for use in constructing and furnishing any imaginable house. This facet of the game, alone, is enough to hold players riveted to their computer screens for hours as they build ever more elaborate houses and design ever more complex landscaping.
The challenge and satisfaction to be found in building and controlling the growth of something concrete, if simulated, is one of the reasons why both Sim City and The Sims are so popular.
Simulated Life
The Sims also has the appeal of living the simulated life. The player can live vicariously through their Sims, controlling everything from bathroom trips to the Sim’s physical and personality attributes and complicated inter-Sim relationships. There is a tendency for many people to create Sims that are patterned off of themselves and other people that they know, giving the player simulated control over those people.
It is even possible to take a Sim up the ladder of success to positions such as a famous scientist, a high ranking military officer, and even the Mayor of Sim City by controlling the Sim’s performance at their job. Working Sims make a salary in Simoleons, which the player can then use to buy house improvements like better appliances and furniture or more elaborate decorations. The player then has the ability to control the Sims’ use and enjoyment of these increasingly more expensive possessions.
The Sims offers its players possibilities in jobs, money, and possessions that reality often does not. This very materialistic aspect of the game allows the player to see and feel their Sims’ successes as their own, or that of the people the Sims are modeled from, because they control if and how their Sims succeed.
Feeling Needed
The simulation algorithms in both Sim City and The Sims were designed with real life and human behaviors in mind, although the algorithms are only extremely simplified versions thereof. The effect is that the city in Sim City and the Sims in The Sims require constant attention and direction from the player in order to accomplish anything.
Left to their own devices, Sims tend to act rather stupidly. They will choose the actions that satisfy their whim of the moment over the action that might be better in the long run.
In Sim City the city is literally dependant on the player for every aspect of its growth and maintenance.
This can give the player a feeling of being needed, which again ties into the control aspect. It is a fact of common sense that someone who is needed has control over what or who needs them. This adds yet again to the appeal of both games.
So the answer is . . .
The feeling of control Sim City and The Sims give to the player are a large part of the reason for the success of the Maxis simulation games.
Control
Being able to build things lets the player feel in control of how the Sim city or the Sim’s house grows and changes. Being able to control every aspect of a Sim’s appearance, behavior, and life gives the player the ability to invest emotionally in their Sims and literally live the Sims’ lives for them. The attention needy nature of the Sims and the Sim city gives the player the ability to control every aspect of gameplay completely.
Playing God
The control these simulation games give the player can leave them with the incredible feeling of playing God. Who doesn’t want to play God, at least a little? The Maxis simulation games lend themselves to this desire for control that can be found in most people. Accordingly, the Sim games, from the original Sim City down the line to the most recent version of The Sims, have become a true gaming phenomenon.
