19 years of The Sims - Happy anniversary!
Today it's 19 years since The Sims was first released. No matter if you have been playing since day 1 or you discovered the game today, let's celebrate the existence of The Sims together!
I would like to invite you all to think of what The Sims means to you, to remember when was the first time you played, the people you have met as part of the community or any of the good memories that thinking of The Sims brings back. As Simmers, let's get together here and share some of those memories!
Four iterations, multiple spin offs and console releases. One of the best selling games of all time and one of the most recognizable games of all time for it's uniqueness and appeal with players of all ages.
It's great to see that this franchise has endured the hard waters of the gaming industry with the years and it's great that the fans will never let this wonderful franchise go, fighting with passion for it to be the best possible version of itself. I'd like to thank the developers, the ones that are gone and the ones that are here for making this franchise possible, fun and enjoyable, and of course, I have to thank the original creator Will Wright for his originality, creativity, innovation and vision in creating the number one Sims™.
The Sims™ has been my favorite game over the years, it's one of the things that entertain me and inspire me the most, it keeps the boredom away and enhances my creativity like no other game, from creating intricate sims to building whatever mansion I can dream of, or just by playing and watching the sim's virtual lives unravel as I manipulate their strings. I have been a player since the start of TS2 and I am happy this franchise is going forward.
Just one of the countless memories!
I discovered the Sims through a friend's teen-age daughter way back in 2000. She was playing it all the time, and I laughed with my friend about it (how silly - controlling people's lives? I already have too much of my own life to control), but then with my husband gone all the time (he was in the military) it struck me that Sims would give me something to do after my own kid was in bed. I played it off and on, until the divorce happened and a move to a new place where I knew only a few people, and then it became my lifeline.
Sims 2 joined my library when it came out (and I can still get the Ultimate Collection to play on my computer) and added so much more fun to my play. When Sims 3 came out I wasn't sure if I wanted to make the jump, so I played 2 for a while longer. When I finally moved to 3, I was pulled in just as deeply and loved every minute of it. Then 4 was announced. That one took longer for me to move over to, and I'm not sure why, because once I started playing it, I realized I love it just as deeply as I've loved the other ones.
Thank you Sims (creators, devs, designers, coders, all of you who have created the game I love) for games that got me through a rough time in my life and then have continued to be so much fun that both my kids play it, too. It's the most played game on my computer!
I'm 19 years in. I started playing my freshman year of college and have never stopped. The game is just that good. Thanks for the memories and fun.
I was already an adult when a A Game called The Sims was first introduced to me by Will Wright. He and his partners at Maxis had included two disks about the game and making the game with his Sim City 3000 game I had just bought - having been a fan of the first Sim City game that happened to come free with my new desktop - I looked forward to this much more advanced version. But as I was going through the discs in the box - saw th two disk about a future game Will and his company was working about some of the people he called Sims who lived and worked in his new Sims City.
I was intrigued as I enjoyed the two videos I saw on the Making of the Sims, to say the least and it really did look like something I would enjoy playing - so at the end of the second video where Will had asked people viewing the video if they would be interested in testing the game when he had it ready for testing - I filled out the little post card with my name and phone number and sent it in. Also that day two of my family members whom I thought would be interested I called them up and told them they had to come see this new game and gave them the disk. They likewise sent out post cards with their name and address to Will Wright showing interest. A few months later (Nov. 1999) - myself and several of my family members and family friends who had signed up - got sent the first Test of the game. It was amazing - and totally blew all of us away.
Proud to say all of us who first signed up and tested the Sims still love and play the Sims to this day - as do all our kids as well.
I discovered the Sims through my grown daughter. She was put onto it by her two sisters-in-law after my daughter and son-in-law (who was in the Army) got stationed in KS. He got deployed to Kuwait, so I was very glad she had The Sims to keep her mind occupied for the duration. We talked frequently over the phone and she would regale me with this game. She wasn't ready to move on to Sims2, wanting very much to get her fill of Makin' Magic, when her newly returned home hubby got her the Sims2 for Christmas. It was such an advancement over the first she was blown away. When they got back to our home state, she couldn't wait to show me the Sims2. I was hooked almost instantly. LOL Nobody, even me, saw that one coming. This was in 2005. I've played ever since.
Thank you for the Creative Outlet and the camaraderie. The love and innovation of the community is a wonderful place for all of us who love to interact, encourage each other’s creativity and support each other’s artistic expression.
@EA_Mai -I used to end up playing sims all night when I only meant to play for an hour back when my games were full screen until I managed to get TS2 into windowed mode and TS2 is played as a window so I dpn't lose track of the time and play for a whole night.
I've been enjoying playing my towns as they grow from new settlements with just one couple to eventually becoming a town with a few or more families.I also want to watch more growth in my towns as the generations pass by with me playing the entire town in a TS2 style of rotational play in my heavily Modded TS3 game.I used to play TS2 without Mods and had to start using them in UC because most of the cheats I used to be able to use quit working.I play TS2 and TS3 though Sims 3 is more like an open world Sims 2 game with my Modded story progression heavily tuned for rotational play.
Here's a picture from my apcocalypse challenge in the middle of the winter of 1525 showing a town in it birth stage.
I was in my 40s and had just gotten my first personal computer -- a clamshell iBook (I had a lot of Mac software from attending numerous MacWorld conventions up at Moscone Center) I bought for programming classes at a local community college, because of this new fangled thing called File Transfer Protocol that allowed me to do most of my homework at home imstead of having to camp out in the campus computer lab. I was cruising the software shelves at the local Apple Store and saw this game called The Sims by Aspyr (they did the Mac ports for the orignial The Sims plus The Sims 2) and thought it looked interesting. 19 years later, I'm still playing though I'm now closer to being an Elder instead of a Young Adult. It's been a way to feel like I have some control in a life that has felt way out of control at times. I'm not a fan of many games in the current day, where it seems like the main goal is to kill as many virtual people/creatures as possible in the shortest amount of time, but The Sims is different.
To Will Wright, wherever he may be -- thank you for leading us on this adventure. The game has changed a lot since those early days, due to graphics and in response to societal developments. Overall I think the changes have been positive, while some of the implementations have had their bumps in the road (don't even get me started on Sims 3 and Macs being forced to play under the Cider emulator!). While I now use a Windows laptop I do appreciate that Sims 4 is natively coded for the Mac in house and Mac players no longer have to wait an extra 6 months for new content (though Aspyr did a great job of squashing many of the PC bugs when they did the recoding!).
I came to sims in my twenty's, in 2000. I was married with two boys and didn't get any play time during the day. I would get my boys to bed and then get on sims. More often than not, it would end up, me playing the game until 4-5am and going to bed and getting an hour or two of sleep before I had to get my boys up and do it all again.
Now I'm early 40's, with 3 kids. My two boys are grown and my daughter is a simmer, too. My husband says he doesn't understand how a game can hold my interest for 19 years, when most other things I grow bored within a couple hours.
I still want an updated version of Makin' Magic -- we've had Vacation, and Unleashed, and now even a form of Superstar, but Makin' Magic remains untouched. While I enjoy witches as a separate lifestate (never got much chance to play with them since Apartment Life was one of the two EPs that EA wouldn't let Aspyr port to the Mac -- something about the contract I never understood), I love the ability for all Sims to learn magic. Maybe they can combine the two -- witches/wizards (please, no "manwitch" stuff -- sounds silly and makes me hungry for Sloppy Joes) could maybe have an easier time develuping magic skill with fewer fails, and maybe there are some abilities that aren't available to the "muggle" Sims. But that's just my §0.02, adjusted for inflation.
The sims is how I would get mini breaks from rl & rl parenting, although I frequently envied my sims ability to hire an affordable maid.
A coworker and I used to talk about sims 1. We primarily discussed the freewill experiments to see how the different zodiac signs would interact when you locked 8 different sims in a house - I always placed a rose vase in the main hall, and found it interesting & loved it when sims would randomly give each other roses. We'd also discuss builds to small degree. I had every Maxis released monthly free item backed up onto a cd. Eventually I got bored of the children never aging up, and the no breaks from work days, and shifted to farming or period sims, who earned income from their home lot. I also had a few fun pieces of cc including chickens that would wander the yard, lay eggs - your sim could collect and cook the eggs or leave them and they hatched baby chicks which grew up.
Sims 2 came along, and I fell in love with legacy play, and the days off that were introduced. Teens were a hoot, and tot's the most adorable things ever - even when they were climbing out of their cribs & splashing in the toilets. My legacy families (most surviving the harsh rules of the apocalypse) thrived and grew gardens in green houses, and enjoyed many a college dorm party. I used the stand alone cas & pattern makers to create some clothes and wall/floor patterns. I also had every Maxis freebie released on the website, those scissors were very handy for thinning out full houses.
I also had sims for ps2 and gameboy, and had fun with those with our kids.
Sims 3 came along and I was in heaven, I missed a few of the ts2 mechanics (such as tot's getting into mischief), but I fell 100% in love with open worlds and casT. Short of a box of lego's + other building supplies and a few dolls s3 for me is as close to open sandbox as a game can get (besides Spore, which in terms of tech needs was ahead of it's time or my budget) while having a set number of scripted routines (work requirement metrics & adventure metrics). For 3 I use a few mods from nraas for stability, and have adopted a few apocalypse appropriate pieces of cc.
Sims 4, still not a fan of the hair or content packaging break down, has grown it's base mechanics a good bit since it's initial release. I play it once in awhile, but it's to heavily story scripted to fully enjoy sandbox styles of play, unless you play with cheats always on to access locked reward items, meh. I do enjoy some of the new building mechanics, even though room metrics can sometimes create new challenges, such as the ability to resize objects to create some unique builds. I also love the new roof flexibility. No cc or mads yet, not until the game is done and it stops getting monthly & more patches.
Our daughters will sometimes play sims, as teens they would play on the ps2 or gameboy and we'd chat about their games. Our youngest has had a few interesting adventures in s3 some of which ended in complete disaster, and left her scared of trying another family scenario in game.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the next iteration of the game grows while hopefully allowing for a bit more of the s3 level of open sandbox and in game custom-ability.
Happy anniversary to The Sims! And thanks for giving us such an amazing game.
This game get each time older than me.
It seems I've written a novella, but this is my Sims timeline of sorts!
My older brother had the game around when it came out (he was already a fan of Sim City) and I would see him playing on our family computer. I think he let me play it once or twice while he was gone but was adamant that I do not mess up any of his households. I played and played and eventually messed up one his households (to my 7 year old mind) by putting down floor tiles outside of the house by accident. I couldn't figure out how to take them away so I found green carpet and "covered" it up to "match" the grass. I don't think he ever noticed, and eventually lost interest in the game entirely. Before this though, he'd gotten our parents to buy him the Livin' Large, House Party, and Hot Date expansion packs. When he stopped playing he told me I could have it so that basically consumed me ever since lol. I got almost every expansion (I missed out on Makin' Magic but did manage to get my hands on a Deluxe Edition disc set). My favorite was Unleashed. I loved the architecture, the new town, the music, and of course... the pets!
When the Sims 2 came out, the computer requirements were too much for our old computer. I got to play at my best friend's house though so I was able to get a small fix sometimes Then my dad, being the amazing and loving father he was, bought a new family computer that had Windows XP (a big deal) on it, and I was able to play TS2 to my heart's content. I was OBSESSED with that game even more than the first series. I had all the EPs and SPs as well.
Essentially the same thing happened when TS3 was released, only this time I had pre-ordered the Collector's Edition (I still have the functioning part of the the plumbob USB). My computer couldn't run it and I. was. devastated. My dad, bless that man, did everything he could to make sure I was happy and able to play that silly game even though it was costing him an arm and a leg each time a new one came out lol. I almost completed that collection but didn't get a few of the Stuff Packs towards the end of it's run.
I also played the Sims Medieval and it's expansion - I really like that game actually! I think it's a lot of fun, just repetitive. I wish it had been a little more fleshed out but overall it was still a really cool game!! Thinking about it makes me want to download it again and play lol.
Finally, the Sims 4 came out. This is my favorite so far. I can play on Ultra settings, I have the entire collection, and I love everything about the game! The art style, the fluid animation, all the packs, all the new game features. With TS2 and TS3 I used a lot of CC and some mods, and I decided with TS4, I wouldn't use any. I don't think the game needs mods and custom content to make it better. I love the content we get from the team.
Having been with this game since near the beginning, for nineteen years, I can honestly say that the game just keeps getting better and better. I LOVE it. The work that goes into it shows, in my opinion at least. I am elated that there is a team of individuals that are as passionate about the Sims franchise as its fan base. Without the wonderful creators love for the game, we'd have no game! Thank you!!!
Was at a friends' house waiting to play table top D&D and they were playing The Sims (original version in 2000). I fell in love had to have it once it was ported to the Mac OS by Aspyr (yay Aspyr!). Have the full run of TS1, but currently can't play it as it cannot install on my newer computer. Won't get rid of the disks though. Then came The Sims 2 which again I saw at another friend's house and they let me play a bit. Bought Sims 2 Base Game with funds from a gift card I got at work and have the full run of the Mac port which is everything up to Bon Voyage, but nothing afterward as Maxis and Aspyr couldn't agree on new terms to renew the agreement at the time. Still play it as Aspyr reworked Sims 2 to run on newer Macs (again Yay Aspyr!). Couldn't play Sims 3 on the computer I had at the time, but then that computer died and got my current computer. Bought Sims Medieval and started playing it and then got hooked and bought Sims 3. Own the full run of Sims 3 (yes, even Katy Perry). Had to wait about 6 months for Sims 4 for the Mac, but hey, we got it.
Thank you Will Wright, Maxis and EA for my favorite game of all time! Loved playing with my Doll House as a little girl and this is my grown up version of my favorite toy.
While we all have differing opinions regarding the current and previous versions, we all can agree on one thing. Our love of this game franchise in all its various forms. We all came to this game though various ways and means, but to "fight" as passionately as we all do shows our love of our little simmies.
I was console player for a very long time and when I've got my first PC The Sims 2 (which was my first Sims game) was among the very first PC games I played. The game was introduced to me by my friend it became my instant favorite, I played it constantly for almost entire year if not even more because I'm pretty sure that I didn't miss even a single expansion pack, mods or CC which my friend also showed me helped to keep my interest high. I was also really surprised to know that not only does the game officially support Japanese language (it didn't happen too often with Western PC releases) they even made a dedicated expansion pack to it (Bon Voyage), not to mention those vanilla CAS outfits. At first I thought they made some kind of Japanese promotion stuff with a game. Speaking of which, would love to see Japan to return as a place for vacation.
Then in several years The Sims 3 came up which I didn't play as actively because for some reason it wasn't as fun as the second game although I liked a lot of things about it compared to The Sims 2. Found out about it in magazine so was excited and wanted to get my hands on it as soon as possible. However, dropped vanilla in a bunch of months then came back after World Adventures and Ambitions release again then dropped the game again and only came into it over again with Paradise Island release and that didn't last long because I couldn't handle the most annoying thing: the game constantly crashed even in CAS because of high RAM usage, I think it was memory leak. Made me uninstall the game completely and made me regret buying new expansions for it, so I decided to play The Sims 2 again for a very good portion of time. Still we spent a lot of good time with friends playing The Sims 3 anyway and I'm definitely enjoying it right now since with getting rid of couple expansions the game becomes quite stable.
Got my hands on the first game closer to The Sims 4 announce and mostly played that game though it did feel quite inferior in some places compared to new games, but it pleasantly surprised me at the same time with a huge C&C reference which is a lot of CAS items and C&C is my most favorite RTS series. It maybe didn't age too well (mostly due to sequels having more features), but I really enjoyed the game and it still is superior to a lot of other strategical games, especially since it's quite complex game, although I hated that there were no weekend days, those creepy calls however, that was fun. The game has great atmosphere and music helps especially.
In the meantime I've got Sims 4 which I dropped because it used to crash too much on release (though I spent a lot of time in CAS) and I think I've got into it in half of a year since then and like old times I was swallowed by the game again, at some point I wished for my vacation to never end just so I could play without being interrupted. I continue to play it to this day since then and I love that developers improved greatly paid content by making it much deeper and complex, especially loved how vampires were handled compared to previous games, definitely my favorite pack for the game, it's even surprising since the game is still published by EA (not to mention that developers avoided a lot of annoying things which EA games tend to have). Anyway, I hope the game will live long enough to become complete before another sequel release, it may has some flaws but not only the game was a PC exclusive for so long which is extremely rare to see from AAA publishers (and thus it was made with PC as platform in mind), it's the best and most worthwhile game EA has at the moment (though with C&C remaster that may change), plus it has a lot of improvements over previous games with, again, vampires being my favorite. Moreover, it's the only high budget game I continue to play and actually love or look forward for additional content release for it.
Sims series is definitely my favorite of all time and I don't think I played anything else for so long, especially in recent years. I hope this won't be the last successful anniversary for the series (who am I kidding, the series will be remembered forever no matter what) and most importantly that developers for the game will always treat it with deepest passion and sincere love because it truly deserves it.
Thank you and please don't ruin it guys. I salute you!
I remember being at Gamestop (around 2000) with my then boyfriend (now Hubby) and taking the game off the shelf. I commented it might be a fun distraction. My son (who is grown now) was little and after I had put him to bed, I loaded up the game. The next thing I knew it was 2 a.m. I couldn't believe I lost track of time. I was hooked. I've been playing most forms of The Sims since then.
My Hubs specifically bought me the laptop I"m typing this post on so that I could do school work and keep up with the SIMS updates. I actually miss Makin' Magic a bit and I do miss TSO a lot. I played that game often. It was during my time on TSO that I found what the game means to me and why I like it so much. I was chatting with a roomie (female) when I pondered why I like the game so much, especially at our ages (we were all in our 30's) and girls. She said, "It's like when we were little and playing with our dollhouses". It made so much sense. It is my virtual dollhouse.
Wow, I've been playing a long time! Was introduced to S1 when I was in the Army in 01/02, then after I got out and had my daughter I was looking for things to occupy my time while my SO was at work doing plum stuff. Remembered about S1 and started playing it in 03. Had all expansion packs, and Makin' Magic is still my favorite EP to this day! Got my SO involved too - we were both hooked. Then S2 came out, and it blew us away - even though we had stayed up on the S2 news. Totally skipped S3, I want to punch those pudding faces, and it just felt like a step back and a huge disappointment to me. Now here I am on S4 and loving it! Got my daughter hooked on S2, she hated S3 (even for the Wii or the mobile) and isn't too sure what to make of S4 yet. Currently, S2 is her favorite...and she's 15! Roughly EA's target market. She hasn't been too fond of any of the Sims games for mobile either.
14 years later...still an addict! Happy anniversary Sims!
Happy Birthday, The Sims! I started off with TS3, but ultimately TS4 is what has my heart. I've been playing on the same save file since TS4's release back in 2014. I'm happy that there's still plenty of content coming to TS4. TS4 alongside Divinity: Original Sin II are my two most favorite games ever. I really love the sims themselves in TS4. They got a lot of personality and sometimes they do things that just make you laugh so hard, lol! I play the game very slowly as I capture everything. I'm finally almost into winter which I've been waiting for since the release of Seasons. Anyways, thank you very much for creating this awesome series!
Forgot to mention the soundtrack to these games, wow, just love them. Remember turning on the retro station in Sims 4 and hearing songs from earlier Sims and was filled with nostalgia(and yes a bit teary-eyed, being I knew each song so well still remembered making lyrics to them as I'd wait for the loading screen, or being in build/buy/cas mode Music the Universal language ) Still don't know what "reticulating splines" means but still remember seeing it in loading screens.
Happy Anniversary from this simmer also!
What does the Sims mean to me? It's been different things over the years. A place to decompress and destress from real life problems or more serious issues. A place to create stories and delve into a fantasy world that is mine alone. Sometimes too, as simple as a place just to relax and enjoy what's in front of me a little more casually.
I get attached to the little people and in turn can be a benevolant or fearful god. It's a safe place to do all this.
I like how many ways there are to play these games and that has only grown over the years for me due to various additions made to the game.
I started with The Sims in 2000. I have so many great memories associated with the game and even with my family enjoying the game and having discussions about it also. I loved Sims 2 just as much if not more than the first one and expanded more on my ways to play it to tell stories... such a great outlet. Fast forward to now and for me it's only gotten better. Many of the things I dreamed would come to the series are in it.. and I mean literally daydreamed about.. usually lying in bed before sleep thinking.... I wish they could do this... or that. I wish we had this..
For me this and that is happening right now.
Can you be in love with a video game?
I'm just a bit older than the sims, so unfortunately I didn't get to play the Sims 1 much as I was too busy going to daycare.
My obsession with this series started when I would go to my mom's then-boyfriend's house and watch his daughter, who was a little older than me, play the game. She had Sims 1 on console and Sims 2 on PC, and I would watch her play for hours, absolutely fascinated.
In Sims 2, all we really did was use money cheats and try to have as many babies as possible, covering up the screen during the woohoo cut scene so her dad didn't see.
The first sims game that I really, really sunk my teeth into was The Sims 3. Although, at this point I was still more into watching it than playing it due to having a very slow computer. I was obsessed with a sims youtuber named TheQuxxn, who inspired me to start my own channel (after begging my mom for equipment) that became mildly successful until I quit after a year. I remember anxiously anticipating the later expansions, and filming let's plays, trying to make the best content that is possible for a young teenager.
The Sims series, in general, has been one of the greatest things that have ever happened to me. It gives me a hobby, a community, and an escape. I want to send so many thanks to the Sim Gurus for giving us 19 years of this amazing series, and to the community for keeping it alive and thriving. I look forward to many, many years of The Sims to come. Thank you!
I don't know when exactly I started playing, except that it was sometime after Sept. 4, 2004 - because my first game was the Sims 2. Apparently it didn't get along with my old PC though, because I had issues with my mouse getting stuck and creating strings of copies of itself. I wasn't online much then so it never occurred to me to try to find out what was going on or if it could be fixed. I went back to playing SimCity 4 (I think, it was either 4 or 3000) for years after that.
I took a break from sims until after 3 came out. I think it was the Pets expansion pack that caught my eye in the store, and I got the game as my birthday present. I've been playing almost nonstop ever since, having a blast seeing what my sims will do I learned early on I liked making families and watching their genetics from one generation to the next. Then there was the challenge of building, without the game telling me what to build -my big peeve with SimCity, though it's the only game that had me staying up all night playing.