First of all, I love this type of discussion. OP: thank you for a thoughtful post.
I always feel that the Sims franchise is not only a game changer, but an industry game changer. Starting with SimCity (Sims Ant?) in 1989 and the Sims in 2000, the game industry (well, some companies anyway) realized a potential for combat-free/minimal combat type of game. Alternatively in Japan, the first Harvest Moon was released in 1996 which I like to think is the genesis of combat-free farming sims of today.
When I was a kid, "video games" in our house meant Zelda or Street Fighter or Mortal Combat. To be honest, they bore me. I played enough of them as a kid with my siblings to know that I was not (still am not) into them. I even ignored mmorpg during their heyday. Although most in my social circle played some sort of mmorpg one time or another, I had zero interest in playing them. Thankfully I discovered Sims and later, point-and-click puzzle-based adventure games. Without them I would not have gamed at all. And I would have grown up into a very weird nerd. I mean have you ever heard of a nerd who loves math and science and work as an engineer but don't game at all? Egad! :D
