Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Greatest Games - The Sims

Posted by Zonk on from the pull-the-strings dept.

Gamespot has another article in its continuing series on 'The Greatest Games of All Time'. This time they profile The Sims, the Will Wright PC classic. From the article: "While The Sims was certainly revolutionary, it wasn't simply the revolution that makes it one of the greatest games of all time. Like all truly great games, it is the timeless and continually entertaining gameplay that makes The Sims so worthwhile. And while in the years since its release there have been many more versions to choose from, there's something quite heartwarming and familiar about the original game and its very specific choices, the sublime stainless steel refrigerator, the Henry Moore-esque statue, and that handy dandy little burglar alarm."

4 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Am I the only one... by SoCalChris · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That found the Sims to be totally boring? After about 10 minutes of playing it, I realized that you could build walls around the people, and kill them. That was the highlight of the game. If I want to worry about being late for work, making dinner, cleaning up, excercising, etc..., I'll just quit playing and go on with my life. Isn't the point of playing a game like that to get away from worrying about things like that?

    1. Re:Am I the only one... by Seumas · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Worrying about meals and diapers and house cleaning and employment are something we all do on a daily basis. Most people can't jump into an Apache and go blow the fuck out of dozens of other people in a war ala Battlefield2.

  2. Re:Maxis Quality Control by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Has anyone else noticed the decline in quality merchandise from Maxis as EA's interventions have increased...

    Prime Example... Sim City. Great Game.
    Sim City 2000. Wonderful Game.
    Sim City 3000. Somewhat enjoyable Game.
    Sim City 4. A shameless lust for more money.
    Myself, I see them as getting better over time. Better graphics, more options, better simulations, etc... etc...
    The Sims doesn't feel nearly as grand as everyone praises it to be.
    Not everyone does - nor does everyone praise Halo or Halo 2 either. Those who think critically about games do however think hard about The Sims for one simple reason - by counting total boxes sold, it has sold more units over a longer time than any other game in the history of computer games by nearly an order of magnitude. That alone suggest something is there, something big, even if the game does not attract the average Slashdotter. (And Slashdot must really have something against The Sims - as I post this, all four upmodded replies are putdowns of the game.)
    And the Sims 2 seems to have even less appeal.
    With continued steady sales and three expansion packs - every message board, group, etc.. as busy as ever, I don't see how you can say that.
    Does anyone remember the short-lived Sims Online? Was that silently killed by the suck that is EA?
    Short lived? Silently killed? Try 'still active today'.
  3. Re:A Myopic View of Games? by Spiffae · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe I'm totally crazy, but I loved The Sims. To clear up, I am male, 22, (maybe 18, 19 when I played the sims) Hardcore gamer, other favorites at the time were Half-Life, Medal of Honor, Warcraft/Starcraft, Counter Strike, Grim Fandango, Thief, Fallout, et cetera. I got The Sims and fell in love with it. It's a beautiful game, the art direction is fantastic, though the tech they were working with was not so great it didn't matter. The socializing simulation which has been called "stilted" in these comments was nuanced and about as complex as I've ever seen in a game. The gameplay was immediately apparent - build a house, build any house you like. Buy things for that house. Live in that house. Who doesn't like making something? Who doesn't like shopping (don't answer that, I love shopping), and then who doesn't enjoy escapist fantasies. I mean for christ's sake, Second Life is thriving, and that's exactly what it is, an alternate life. The Sims is the same.

    I've got the strat guide somewhere, and there's a long chapter about how the simulation runs, and I have to say it's amazing. It's simple and elegant, it's functional, and it only makes me appreciate how the game worked more. I was hooked on The Sims for a while, you start to see everything in your life in terms of how it would fit in the Sims world, and watching someone having a conversation out a window, you realize that we really do look just like the sims when we gesticulate and talk. It's a completely unique game experience, because it's so close to home. I don't know about you, but I don't invade underground science labs on a daily basis, but I do wake up and have breakfast.

    The real thing that amazed me about the Sims didn't come until after I had stopped playing it. I read an interview with Will Wright, and he said something along these lines "People playing The Sims, they think the goal of the game is to have the big house, to have all the fanciest stuff, to be rich and have everything. Thing is, when they get all that stuff, and they have the huge house, things always need fixing, people need attention, and you everything is so much more complicated than it was before. The real point of The Sims is that you can buy anything, but time is the only unrenewable resource."

    The Sims has a thesis. How many games can you think of that can match that?

    If you didn't enjoy The Sims, that's just how it is. I'm just saying that it's an amazing piece of gaming, way ahead of its contemporaries, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.