When I first started playing The Sims, which was probably not long after it launched in , I wasn't sure what to make of it. I had played the precursor, SimCity, where you build your own little kingdom, which at the time involved a lot of complicated and tedious placement of pipes and wires.
But The Sims was different. Instead of a city, you were making a person. Back then, at least the way I played it, you sort of plunked your Sim down in a virtual house and things started to happen.
Including the thing that surprised me most: Your Sim had to periodically use the restroom. As you doubtless know, most TV shows and movies completely ignore anyone's need for bathrooms, and here was a game where my little person's graphics would tell me that she was getting desperate.
When this happens to your Sim, both then and now, she goes to the bathroom, she sits, and she is briefly blurred out like a person on COPS , for privacy, even though she is imaginary. Honestly, this is what I remember about my Sim's life back then: she went to the bathroom, she ate, she left her dishes all over which obviously is because I didn't realize I had to do anything with them , and occasionally she played music.
On one memorable occasion, she got robbed, and she then sadly danced to the boombox that was the only thing the robbers didn't take. Poignant, that. It's not as easy for me to explain the charm of The Sims as it is with games where more actually happens. The mechanics of the game have stayed consistent over the years. Your Sim has a little green diamond a plumbob floating over their head. Conversation takes the form of two Sims spiritedly conversing in what sound to me like random syllables, but which are apparently an actual language called If you have the time, read the Wikipedia entry about Simlish.
