The Sims

The Good
The thing to like about "The Sims" is that it's completely unlike any other PC game ever made; in fact, it's not even really classifiable.

There's a tremendous amount of fun in building and furnishing a little house and moving your little people around the house, watching them interact and carry on with their lives. "The Sims" is really just a huge interactive dollhouse with a goofy sense of humor.

The Bad
Unfortunately, dollhouses get very dull after awhile. The Sims has three major problems one hopes will be worked out someday:

1. Many of the game's success factors and feedback systems are just completely arbitrary. For a Sim to advance in her/his career, they need to make a set amount of friends. There's no rhyme or reason to this, it's just something slapped on to make it harder to advance.

Other game idiosynchracies are similarly arbitrary and inexplicable. Days come and go and are all identical; there's no weekly routine, no difference between Sunday and Tuesday. Sims with jobs are expected to show up every day or not get paid. This might not seem like a big deal, but in a game where a Sim with a job has trouble finding time to do anything else, two days off in seven would be a huge help. There are no seasons. Sims never leave the house except to go to unseen workplaces. Some aspects of life are precisely detailed (e.g. going to the bathroom) while others are forgotten (e.g. wahsing your clothes.)

1. Much of the game is spent moving the Sims around doing the most rudimentary things, like peeing or showering. While this is fun for the first few hours, it gets tiresome. There's virtually NO higher-level planning at all; you don't get to decide to go to school or join a cult or go on a diet.

Indeed, when you've played the game for awhile, you start to realize that the game is just an efficiency puzzle. Since it can take a Sim ten or fifteen minutes just to stand up and half an hour to answer the phone, the game simply becomes a "How can I do eight different things with the minimum possible amount of walking?" exercise. Deviation from the most efficient pattern is unrewarded; when it can take an entire hour for your Sim to get off the couch, pick up a plate of food and sit down, you soon learn that impluse activities - the sort of thing real people do - just aren't in the cards.

1. Following 2, the truth is that the Sims themselves are boring as hell. A simple five-point personality trait vairable system has NO impact on gameplay. All Sims are the same, and they're basically robotic. They're remarkably shallow in many respects and demonstrate very little AI. You can increase a Sim's "fun" level by having the Sim do the same thing in and out, over and over again; it wasn't long before I realized that my Sims had absolutely no use for a stereo or a TV, since they could get fun playing with the computer. Sims don't react to one another very much, sometimes even bumping into each other helplessly.

In the end, in other words, it's really just a dollhouse.

The Bottom Line
Well, it's original.

The Good
Although I doubt Origin had anything to with it, at least it's good to know that some people are still creating worlds out there...

If there was one game that created an interesting cultural gaming revolution, this was one of those games that will be in the "positive light" of the gaming hall of legends.

The Sims was the next best thing since the Ultima Series at least, again in the concept of creating worlds. The Sims a representation of any kid's dreams when it comes to role-playing. Come to think of it, this game really must be an RPG in every sense of the world: Playing a role, controlling characters, how they think and breath, developing them...an interesting option compared to actually starting a family :)

I won't go into any gameplay elements, since you can read that in other reviews, but I will tell you some interesting thing's I've noticed about the game. It's interesting how the game developers tried to mimic social behaviours of human and their standard way of life. Social needs, emotional needs, hygiene needs, and so on. Spesifically for social needs, it's interesting to see the attempt to mimic the social relations between one person and another: keep conversing with a person and eventually you'll fall in love with them. Although unrealistic, it is true in real life that if you at least try to communicate with people, it will improve relations. You'll see from this game that even a simple compliment or just a gesture will improve your relations with that person...and if you don't continue to establish a steady relationship, the level of friendship will eventually decrease. This magnificant experiment is something I have applied in real-life...at least the knowledge that anything you do actually does impact social relations with other people. The Sims at least in this light has a very good psychological education level.

I've also noticed on an external perspective that Sims created one of the most creative gaming communities out there. There are many websites out there that have custom made skins and objects. One of my personal favorites was Darth Maul and Homer Simpson. But one of my favorite elements in the Sims community was when the fans started creating stories through a string of screenshots complete with a plot and storyline. I've read some really A class storylines out there which are better than a lot of movies in comparison. An A+ for those Sims Fans out there who were blessed with the gift of storytelling!

The Bad
Everyone agrees that the Sims is a little unrealistic...something that really isn't surprising and a good attempt at it too! This "bad section" isn't really condemning the game (which is something I like to do), but I have given the game and the developers the benefit of the doubt, due to the creativity and ambition to which the game attempts to accomplish.

There are many unrealistic elements to the game...probably also to make gameplay more easier and less complicated. The first is about money. Getting money daily would be something really nice in real-life. You eventually turn yourself into a consumer in this game. Always saving to buy better things in life...if I were a left wing extremist, I would probably say this is capitalist propaganda into turning youth into consumers. Hahaha....and it would be a very effective propaganda too...since it's quite logical.

One thing that kinda was a let down is employment challenges. Sooner or later, you'll reach the highest level you can get, and out of boredom you'll change your job and start over. Speaking of boredom, this game eventually does reach that level of "been there, done that". The fact that mostly everything in the game is done manually eliminates a lot of challenges when it comes to external surprises. Even the neighbours are created by you. This game would be better if there were NPC's in the game...even a town...you can then focus on your single family. Don't know about other expansions, but I hope they'll reach a world where there is a whole town of Sims, complete with commerce and stuff. Now that would be really challenging!

The Bottom Line
If you actually have a life to live, it would be better to avoid this game since the "Sims World" is a whole lot better than real life....hahaha.

The Good
First of all, The Sims gives "true control freaks" the opportunity to flex those 'need to dominate' muscles.

Second, The Sims is a universal game that people anywhere can relate to as you are in control of the environment. If you so desire to have a world ruled by delusional children or dysfunctional celebrity impersonators, so you shall. If you so desire to manifest a Utopian kingdom of faeries or an intergalactic space realm, so you shall. If you so desire to create a planet that embraces alternative (i.e., nontraditional) lifestyles or promotes the sloth way of living, so you shall. The Sim world is what you make it.

Third, you can live your life vicariously through your Sims. (Sinister SIMtastic images fill my mind at the thought.) Want to be an international beauty queen or a Doctor-of-Death? Do it. Want to live in a disgustingly purple house surrounded by beautiful alien women or drunk Kirk-like men? Do it. Want to own a limosine? Do that too! Sim users are only limited by the span of the imagination!

Fourth, the game gives the user the ability to be an architect-of-sorts (which is my absolute favorite part). We are talking CREATION and DESIGN from the ground up! Take me for instance...I finally completed my first TRULY original Japanese-styled Simhouse and intend to share it with the Sim World.

Fifth, The Sims is designed in a way that allows the user to manipulate objects in the environment. You can either create new objects to share on-line with others or simply modify old objects. Build houses, design objects, create skins, etc. GET THIS...Tools are actually available on-line FOR FREE, WITH instructions! (Yippee!!) The possibilities are endless.

Sixth, the game has educational value (believe it or not) in that it can teach the young ones (and the rest of us computer heads) a little about responsibility and a few social constructs of how relationships work. For example, Sims must maintain friendships or relationships by constant communication with other Sims. Otherwise complacency can bring a Sim relationship to an abrupt end.

NOTE: Adults should monitor the young playing The Sims for if they have an intrinsically violent nature, this too can be reinforced in the game. Remember, it is indeed what you make it.

Finally, there are literally hundreds of good THE SIMS sites on the web to download houses, skins, objects (including art and decorations), etc.

I could go on about the creative genius behind this seemingly SIMple game, but I want you to experience it for yourself! (...To put a few minds at ease, I do not work for MAXIS or EA.)

The Bad
I guess there must always be a downside to everything...

There are too many people who complain about every little creation or addition to the game without giving much thought to such terminology or phrasings as "upgrades" OR "patches" OR "looking at the positive side of things for a change."

As for the game itself, The Sims can be addictive. Seriously so! You may notice you no longer have friends or that your significant other cannot relate to the Sim sounds you have picked up from the game. You may also find that your boss is not amused to discover you called-in sick because you could not tear yourself away from the computer. Oh yeah...sleep is really a necessity and not just another 5 letter word. BUYER BEWARE! :)

In addition to the addictive aspects of The Sims, one would think with the popularity of the game, it could be a bit cheaper. COME ON MAXIS/EA!

Last (and FINALLY LEAST), there are limits to how realistic certain concepts are in the game. For instance, time is truly an illusion in Simsville; There are not enough objects to support multicultural households (very American oriented); A few of the tools released by Maxis are not completely user friendly for some and it would be nice to have a Sims Tool that allows modification of all file extensions used by the game instead of having a variety of tools for every file type - AAGGHHH!

The Bottom Line
I think the game is worth owning, if only to say I have had THE SIMS experience.