Is The Sims A Virtual Dollhouse?

That's pretty much what it is. We can bounce away from calling it a "Virtual Dollhouse" to make it sound less emasculating for male players, but the fact that people (like the author of the article) feel a need to do that in the first place points to a bigger societal issue in my opinion.

On a side note the grammar in this article is horrendous. Journalism seems to be a dying art :D