The popularity of The Sims
With tens of thousands of downloads on Steam, why is The Sims so famous? What makes this life simulator special and so much better than reality itself?
The Sims is renowned for allowing its players to live a simulated life in a world where everything is up to the player’s imagination—from the character designs to the city layout to intergenerational plot lines. Four iterations of the videogame exist: the first version celebrated 25 years on February 4; and the latest version, Sims 4, is available on Steam for free. But what makes The Sims so famous, and how is it different from real life?
The Sims is incredibly popular because it possesses two things that real life does not. 1) Anything is truly possible and 2) There are no consequences.
Sure, everybody from your mother to your kindergarten teacher has told you that anything is possible in life, but they were lying. In The Sims, you can have any job, house, and wardrobe you’d like, regardless of age, wealth, or education. In Canada, a mansion could cost you millions of dollars, not to mention property taxes or the permits you’d need for renovations. In The Sims, obtaining money isn’t an issue, unlike in real life, where capitalism forces us to work 40+ hour work weeks that pay most of us less than we deserve. In The Sims, there are cheat codes for that problem.
Ever get tired of only interacting with boring humans in your regular day-to-day life? Well in Sims, you can interact and play as mermaids, werewolves, aliens, and more. Even Death, a shadow-faced, black cloak-wearing character carrying a scythe, can be interacted with and even mated with. Oddities like these, and the ever-popular cheat codes that many players use, make life in The Sims much more dramatic, interesting, and lavish than real life.
The Sims also brings out a sadistic side in a lot of players, as there are no realistic consequences for anything done in the game. While letting a child drown or stealing from a store could land you in jail in real life, in The Sims, you can do whatever you’d like. I’ve heard stories of players that purposefully kill children they didn’t mean to spawn, lock characters in a basement to work for a sweatshop, or even set houses on fire just to watch the Sims dance around in fear. I once locked a Sim in a room without doors just to watch their confusion, panic, and slow descent into starvation. Are these actions questionable at best? Yes. Am I proud of it? No, though it was a little funny.
All this to say, The Sims is a popular game because it allows players to live out a life, or even multiple lives across generations, that they would not otherwise get to experience. Players can make mistakes, live however they want, be rich, and have fun without any of the struggles or worries that come with real life. Though, in the end, while the game provides a safe space for experimentation, it also reveals how easily we can be drawn towards harmful behaviours when faced with no real-world consequences, blurring the lines between harmless fun and moral responsibility. Regardless, I wish the game a happy birthday.
