The Sims is officially 18 years old as of the 4th February 2018! Can you believe that it has been that long since the original game released on the US? The Sims was the brainchild of Will Wright and Maxis and went on to become the #1 PC Game and, as of 2018, The Sims still remains as one of the best selling PC franchises of all time.
To celebrate 18 years, here are some interesting facts about The Sims franchise for you. How many of these do you know?
1. It Overachieved, Big Time.
The Sims was the best-selling PC game 2000-2003, until it was dethroned by The Sims 2 in 2004! Before The Sims was released, EA didn’t think it would sell anywhere near as many copies as it did, especially as nothing had ever been made like it before.
2. Talking to the press
The Sims was the first video game franchise to make the cover of Newsweek. This featured the online version of The Sims – The Sims Online/EA-Land.
3. Dag Dag!
While Simlish had somewhat existed before in Maxis games, it truly came to life in The Sims. The development team experimented with Ukrainian and Tagalog to create this language that really isn’t much of a language at all.
4. Sweet Treats?
Celebrities have been involved with The Sims franchise; from Katy Perry, The Black Eyed Peas, the Pussycat Dolls and more.
5. The First Object
…was a toilet. Yep, the first object ever created in the 1993 prototype for The Sims was a toilet. It’s crazy how things have progressed since then! Interestingly enough, Maxis actually rejected the 1993 prototype and Will Wright had to wait until EA acquired the Maxis studio before it was approved.
6. The Sims?
Before it was called The Sims, did you know that game was called Project X and Dollhouse?
7. Rain, Rain, Go away…
The Sims 2 was going to have rain in the base game, although it was removed due to technical reasons (it kept raining indoors). Old E3 videos show Sims being hit by lightning while in a hot tub and more!
Weather later made an appearance in The Sims 2 on consoles and finally in The Sims 2 Seasons.
8. A change of identity
The Sims had started life as an architecture simulator where the player would be able to build houses. The ‘Sims’ inside of the world were added to respond to objects that you placed into the game.
But it soon became clear that these little people were more exciting and interesting, which paved way to development of our little simulated friends.
9. You’ve got mail
In 2005, France released a special collection of stamps. One of these featured two Sims from The Sims 2 alongside a plumbob!
There’s nothing quite like relying on The Sims to get your mail delivered.
10. Hierarchy of Needs
In The Sims, the way that you can satisfy your Sims is through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This is a common theory for motivating humans in the real world but starts from basic needs to everything you need for self actualisation.
We can disregard the fact that this has been challenged by other theories since it’s creation in 1943.
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