Why is The Sims so fascinating?

This is a question I've been asking myself a lot lately, and I'm looking forward to an interesting discussion.

I grew up playing games like Super Mario, Tomb Raider, and Resident Evil - games that require you to fight enemies, solve puzzles (well, less so in Super Mario) and uncover the story behind it all (again, Super Mario not so much, but saving the princess for the umpteenth time was enough motivation for me when I was little). Apart from a short period of playing The Settlers and Dungeon Keeper, I was never into strategy games, RPGs, or games in general that weren't like the ones I knew, yet for some reason I've been oddly fascinated with The Sims ever since I watched a friend play the first one years ago.

Now why is that? Objectively speaking, this game is and has always been extremely boring. You're basically playing in a virtual doll house, modelling, dressing and naming virtual people and then watching them complete mundane tasks like going to the toilet and communicating in a language you can't even understand. No shooting bad guys, no story except for the one in your head, no puzzles (unless figuring out how to bend the rules of build mode to get the house of your dreams counts as a puzzle). I really don't know why I like this game so much, but I do - so much that if you took The Sims out of my life, I wouldn't know what to do with half of my free time.

I guess part of the reason is that I'm a writer. Telling stories has been in my blood from day one, and I like seeing those stories and the characters I've created come to live on my computer screen, even though most of it is playing pretend. But I'm not the only one playing this game, in fact everyone here does, and not all of you are writers. So what is the thing that fascinates you about The Sims? What makes you come back to it again and again even though there are so many more useful things you could do with your life than watching pixel people eat and sleep? Why do you think it's so successful?

stories

25 Replies

TheCookieHour
6 years ago
I think it's so successful for exactly why you said for a lot of people!

The story-telling aspect, mixed with the bumps and surprises the game brings along the way and the stupid events you didn't expect to happen is really addictive, probably even to people who aren't into writing stories. This game really brings to life your wildest fantasies, and the fact that literally anything can happen and the game is endless and forever evolving is maybe why so many people still play it nearly 20 years on.

I've never enjoyed games where there's a very obvious story-line you must follow, where you can't explore at least a little. This is why I love Sims, because it is the absolute opposite - the lack of story-line is so intriguing because it gives the player all the power! The lack of rules lets people make it into their own game; like how some people solely play vampires and magical stories whereas others love to create a happy, average family. EA literally made a game where they say 'here's a fantasy world of tiny humans... go and be God' and something about the infinite number of ways you can play is really addicting.

I find the Sims franchise hilarious though, because I think to people who love the game it seems so obvious why it's so fun, but to people who haven't played it or aren't super into it, it seems like the dumbest game on earth :smiley:
Wintermist
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
I love the idea of the game, but think they could go way deeper with the aspect around the Sims themselves. Have them always have personality traits and such things, to give each Sim a... life, so to speak. I'd love to see them behave more natural too. But overall it's a very nice game, so far the best one for what I'm after, but still not the ultimate one :)
sobenewbie
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
I like that I don't have to shoot or kill anything. I just don't enjoy that, never have. When I was a child, we didn't have video type games, just board games and cards. I think I like Sims because it's like how I used to play, acting out tv shows and comic books with my cousin.
FlyingPotato659
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
Life simulation has always been my style - love gameplays where you can be born, control whatever happens in that life until death.
invisiblgirl
6 years ago
I never liked a lot of the Atari games because I have no hand-eye coordination. The first game I loved was Creatures II, in which you raised your Norns from babies, taught them to speak and not eat garbage, bonk into walls or try to swim (they couldn't, but Llama, they loved the ocean). They had families and generations and progressed from babyhood to old age and death (unless they tried to swim, see above).

Creatures III came out not long before The Sims, and it was a disaster, so quite a lot of people in the Creatures forums were jumping to The Sims. And nineteen years later, I'm still addicted to the game. I love the storytelling aspect and the notion of taking care of my Sims' needs. Maybe it's a bit of an arms-length mothering instinct - I never had kids and never wanted them. (I think dogs are too needy. Cats are more introverted - they need cuddling, but not if it interferes with their napping schedule.) I get to take care of my Sims and quit the game when I get tired of it (or, at least they age up, and I can send them into rabbit holes for a bit).
Nielsern75
6 years ago
It's a good question, ever since I got a Commodore 64 in 1984 it's been all about games where you solve problems with violence, and some times it feels good to drive like a maniac and cause trouble in GTA or slay cave monsters in Skyrim, but, and I just speak for myself now, I think it's because the sims is nothing like that, somehow they managed to made controlling people and get them through their everyday mundane tasks feel interesting. After a good "massacre" it's nice to kick back, grow some vegetables and write a children's book. xD
GlacierSnowGhost
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
For me it's pretty much just exactly right up my alley.

These things are simply not fun for me:
-Being forced to play by an arbitrary set of rules that someone else decided
-Having to achieve an arbitrary goal that someone else set
-Killing anything, ever, for any reason
-Needing to respond quickly or pay attention to everything all the time in order to survive
-Solving puzzles that take me more than about ten seconds to figure out

Needless to say, most computer games don't appeal to me at all.

What is fun for me, is all creativity based activities:
-Writing stories
-Making things
-Exploring
-Playing with characters and relationships
-Taking pictures and doing image editing

These are all things I am able to do with the sims. Although, I actually had to use a few mods and cheats to get rid of the time management part of the game before I started liking it and realized its potential. But after that I've been totally hooked for several years. I still don't play any other computer games.
Simmerville
Legend
6 years ago
I find it both unwinding and inspiring. The story telling aspect is fine, but I also like how challenges might arise from nowhere based on my own game play and imagination, rather than what's programmed.
Hermitgirl
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
I always come back to the Sims or it's running neck and neck with some other game.. the other game usually falls by the wayside more often and eventually gets replaced while the Sims keeps chugging along... keeping my interest. The other game needs months or years of shelf time to make it playable again while the Sims don't... my desire to play them is only limited by myself and my imagination. I can tell when I'm not in a creative space of some sort because I don't really play as much then.. I depend on other games that have a more ridged or structured story set up to be more passively entertained.

It's because of stories I can tell and want to tell. I can set them up, have the sim look how I want, have the characteristics I want within the limits of the game, job (or no job).. ect. They have relationships and all of those sims also have those things and can be what I want as the story reaches outword. Then I can hop on another sim and see it all from a different perspective if I want. Each story can be different. There are no other games like this.. This is for me why I always want more content. I want more ways to tell stories and see my sims.

I use it for entertainment and even catharsis, sometimes I live vicariously through my sims much like writing a story in my head instead of on paper. Now and then I even enjoy being passively entertained by them also... it's a nice change of pace to sit back god like and just watch with no direction except a little set up or push now and then.

Also sharing the stories .. while never a big thing with me in the past, it's become a part of the enjoyment also. With our forum or other outlets we can share what we made.. or talk about it. Taking pictures can take over and sometimes I have to share my enjoyment. It extends the entertainment.
GalacticGal
Legend
6 years ago
I'm a writer, too, and I get what you're saying. For me, the fascination, besides allowing me to see my characters 'come to life' on the screen, is also feeding into the whole fantasy of watching and assisting my Sim become the Rock Star, he was born to be. I played him in Sims2, but there was no singer career of any sort to even fake it. So, once ST came out in Sims3, I was very excited. He had a difficult love life, however. I decided to bring him forward into Sims4. He became my Founder when I played Pinstar's Legacy Challenge. That game is played on Normal length, which is far too short for me. Since I completed that Challenge, I wanted to play him out on LONG.

Sadly, my singer Sim's love life hasn't really improved, like I hoped. Oh, well. That's what rewrites are for, no?

Playing the game for me is also a way for me to block out the stress of everyday life. When you lose 16 people from your life to death in a short 2 1/2 year period, sometimes you need to 'get away from it all'. In this game, to a large extent, we can control what's going on. Whereas in RL, not so much. You learn to 'roll with the punches'. If I don't like my singer dying from being Hysterical, I can exit without saving and/or roll back a save to help prevent the awful moment. It's revision in real time, if you will.