Build. Buy. Live.
February 5, 2025 10:44 AM Subscribe
When game designer Will Wright lost his house in the devastating 1991 Oakland firestorm, the long process of reconstruction made him wonder: what if a game could capture the experience of building a home, filling it with possessions, and watching life unfold within its walls?
His small team spent most of the next decade quietly innovating, crafting
a Maslow-esque "pheromonal" needs system,
a satirical product catalog full of whimsical item descriptions,
a playfully improvised gibberish language,
and an unforgettable instrumental score that blended chipper midcentury shopping reveries with wistful, impressionistic, deeply evocative piano interludes.
Initially panned by focus groups and deemed too weird and passive by Maxis -- who jokingly called it 'the Toilet Game' for its mundane chores -- the project would finally launch as The Sims, twenty-five years ago today.
After building buzz with a fateful kiss [previ-ously],
it proved to be a smash hit, topping Myst as the best-selling PC game of all time and breaking ground with a broad spectrum of so-called "non-traditional" gamers, who embraced the title as a platform for sharing custom content, wacky mods, and heartfelt storytelling. A parade of expansions and sequels later, The Sims stands as one of the most important titles in the history of gaming -- look inside for a collection of behind-the-scenes design docs, music, rare videos, personal essays, and other fun stuff.
🖥️ The Game
Play it again! The Sims official re-release on Steam - Review from LGR
RockPaperShotgun: Making Of: The Sims - Previously: The History of The Sims
A treasure trove of original design documents
Unearthed The Sims design docs show the internal debate over same-sex relationships
Video: A demo of an early pre-release version of The Sims (June, 1998)
The permanent exhibit at MoMA
An exhaustive collection of clips comparing how various activities are portrayed throughout the series (spoiler: The Sims 2 is pretty much the GOAT)
🎹 The Music
The Untold Story of ‘The Sims,’ Your First Favorite Jazz Record
🗣️Simlish
A history of Simlish, the language that defined The Sims
Twenty Thousand Hertz: "Sul Sul"
An extensive playlist of artists recording their own songs in Simlish plus The Sims games' voice actors
Rare footage of a Sims 1 recording session (RIP Gerri Lawlor)
Linguistics nerdery: The language of the Sims (by a linguist) and A Phonology of Simlish
Dropout.TV: The Simlish Pledge of Allegiance
✍️Essays:
What The Sims Teaches Us about Avatars and Identity
We’re All Depressed. Let’s Play The Sims
🖥️ The Game
Play it again! The Sims official re-release on Steam - Review from LGR
RockPaperShotgun: Making Of: The Sims - Previously: The History of The Sims
A treasure trove of original design documents
Unearthed The Sims design docs show the internal debate over same-sex relationships
Video: A demo of an early pre-release version of The Sims (June, 1998)
The permanent exhibit at MoMA
An exhaustive collection of clips comparing how various activities are portrayed throughout the series (spoiler: The Sims 2 is pretty much the GOAT)
🎹 The Music
The Untold Story of ‘The Sims,’ Your First Favorite Jazz Record
For a time in the early-2000s, millions of kids were listening to impressionistic, semi-improvised mood jazz without even knowing it. It’s likely one of the most widely heard album-length collections of music to be released so far this century. [...] If you were still so young that you didn’t know about cynicism, it allowed you a glimpse into a future that wasn’t necessarily impossible. Maybe you could become a firefighter or a rockstar or a supermodel; maybe you could type in a cheat code and make a million dollars; maybe building a three-story mansion with an indoor swimming pool and a bunch of hot tubs and three wall-sized TVs isn’t all that hard; maybe sadness is caused by hunger and hunger is cured by eating cereal and cereal is always in the kitchen and that’s all there is to it.The complete Build mode suite:
Even though they hadn’t played the game, the musicians who soundtracked its world were trying to capture some of that blissful naivety. [...] “We’d throw around some catchphrases: hope, dream, with a hint of sadness because you’re growing up, and you’re leaving behind something that you really enjoy, and you’re also looking ahead to a place where you hopefully will be filled with joy and wonder.”
Under ConstructionAll pieces are available for download in high quality from composer Jerry Martin's official site, where you can also sign up for an occasional newsletter of found material
Buying Lumber
Since We Met
If You Really See Eurydice
Now What?
The Simple Life
🗣️Simlish
A history of Simlish, the language that defined The Sims
Twenty Thousand Hertz: "Sul Sul"
When The Sims was first being developed, the creators faced a problem. They knew they wanted these characters to talk and interact, but they were worried that using a real language would quickly get repetitive and annoying. So, they decided to make one up. This is the story of Simlish: How it was created, why it works so well, and why artists ranging from The Black Eyed Peas to The Flaming Lips have re-recorded their songs in this gibberish language. Featuring Sims Designer & Voiceover Director Claire Curtin, Composer & Audio Director Jerry Martin, voice actress Krizia Bajos, and Youtuber Rachybop.A complete playlist of Simlish covers of real songs recorded for various games - Plus a highlights compilation
An extensive playlist of artists recording their own songs in Simlish plus The Sims games' voice actors
Rare footage of a Sims 1 recording session (RIP Gerri Lawlor)
Linguistics nerdery: The language of the Sims (by a linguist) and A Phonology of Simlish
Dropout.TV: The Simlish Pledge of Allegiance
✍️Essays:
What The Sims Teaches Us about Avatars and Identity
How we manifest new behavior through these virtual representations of self speaks to how deep our psychological bond can be with even an abstract, incorporeal form of who we know ourselves to be. It goes deeper than making a Sim who looks and acts just like you, or making a custom character with the purple hair you always dreamed of. Games become an experimental plane upon which to test out scenarios and interactions that are, for whatever reason (financial, emotional, etc.), otherwise inaccessible to the player. I find it fascinating just how deep this bond can go.What The Sims taught me about relationships
While I played The Sims for entertainment back then, in hindsight and with a clinician’s mind now, I can see that The Sims actually served as a kind of subversive, psychoeducational tool on the very early stages of my healing journey – helping me to rewire and re-form some maladaptive beliefs I had about relationships as a result of my very dysfunctional upbringing.Does playing The Sims affect our mental health?
We’re All Depressed. Let’s Play The Sims
I first started playing Sim Ella’s life in the fall of 2014. Now in 2020, Sim Ella’s granddaughter Eloise has just moved in with her girlfriend, an artist named Payton. They live in a beach shack on the shore of Sulani, with rainbow pride flags on the front porch and a large art wall where Payton can sell her paintings. Eloise is a lifeguard, which gives her plenty of time off to work on her tan and fish in a nearby cove. They’re enjoying young adulthood free from responsibility, beyond paying their electric bill.The Sims Made Me Realize I'm Ready for More In Life
Eloise and Payton are talented and beautiful. They have adoring families and perfect weather (I turned off thunderstorms in the game settings). While they catch the occasional case of Llama Flu, they don’t have to worry about fatal diseases or medical debt. [...]
In real life, I am a self-employed writer. I rarely leave my boyfriend’s studio apartment because taking the elevator puts me in close contact with the doctors who live in his building. Most of my earthly possessions are stuffed into boxes in my dad’s basement and my childhood bedroom at my mom’s house.
I am frequently winded, and my heart races unpredictably due to anxiety. I aspire to be a successful novelist, but mostly I want a dog and a home where I can hang up my posters of smutty pulp novel book covers.
Meanwhile, my Sim self is at the top of her field. She has created several generations of Sim Dawsons to carry out her legacy. Her success is a bittersweet reminder of the dreams I struggle to reach, probably because I spend so much time playing The Sims.
In a bid to feel in control of something in my life during this damn pandemic, I turned to The Sims. What I got instead was unexpected, yet far more important—mindfulness and clarity. It can likely do the same for you.
Amazing post.
posted by joannemerriam at 11:06 AM on February 5
posted by joannemerriam at 11:06 AM on February 5
The original Sims was depressing. There were no weekends and you lost your job if you stayed home more than one day in a row. Most of your free time was spent cooking meals in a toaster oven and washing dishes in the bathroom sink because that's all you could afford. Your only release was being lit on fire by a malfunctioning appliance and perishing.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:24 AM on February 5 [3 favorites]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:24 AM on February 5 [3 favorites]
*DOUBLE-POST PHUNNIEMEE'S TOPIC*
◆
*HIGH FIVE UNTIL SHE FORGIVES YOU*
posted by Rhaomi at 11:31 AM on February 5 [4 favorites]
◆
*HIGH FIVE UNTIL SHE FORGIVES YOU*
posted by Rhaomi at 11:31 AM on February 5 [4 favorites]
Rhaomi - WOW. This is a FANTASTIC post.
That article about the music!
I am really enjoying this anniversary, and the chance to find out so much more about this work of art that invited so many millions of people to do their own little creative thing.
Thank you so much for this wonderful and delightful collection of links, Rhaomi! I feel lucky to have it in my life.
posted by kristi at 11:33 AM on February 5
That article about the music!
The bigger challenge lay in the concept itself. After touring with The Doobie Brothers and playing in the Grammy-winning jazz group The Yellowjackets, Russo found it difficult to make intentionally unobtrusive music at first. “You would try to keep it so that a piece was interesting enough, but not so interesting that it took away from what was going on during a game,” he says. “In my world, being a saxophone player and playing jazz or R&B or whatever it is, I’m there to make an impact, to set it up and make a splash.”I enjoyed SimCity, but barely ever played The Sims, even though I feel like there's a lot about it I would like.
And unlike Martin, who had caught glimpses of the game in development and played around briefly with glitchy early demos, Russo had no feel for what would be happening on screen while his music played.
I am really enjoying this anniversary, and the chance to find out so much more about this work of art that invited so many millions of people to do their own little creative thing.
Thank you so much for this wonderful and delightful collection of links, Rhaomi! I feel lucky to have it in my life.
posted by kristi at 11:33 AM on February 5
I still remember picking up my copy of The Sims and reading the instruction manual in anticipation on the drive home. I was a SimCity fan and this was right up my alley. In the years since I've played each iteration (and largely resisted the DLC bloat). In my opinion, The Sims 3 with it's open world was the best, though Sims 4 has some great improvements too.
But by far the most inspired thing about these games is the invented language, Simlish. Such a simple idea, and yet so effective.
I have a theory that these games in part owe their success to the fact that many millenials never had a hope of owning a house or being able to afford kids. An escapist fantasy of domestic mundanity. These are games that started as a satire of consumerism and yet became one of the most egregious examples of profiteering in the games industry. Nonetheless, I still get a kick out of them from time to time.
It's funny but right now I'm enjoying the latest build of indie game Project Zomboid, a zombie survival game with isometric perspective and Sims 1-era graphics. Most recently they've added farm animals, among other things. A large percentage of the player base spend the apocalypse building self sufficient farms where the only consumerism is in the form of looting. I feel like this is a metaphor for something.
Anyway, great post!
posted by Acey at 11:36 AM on February 5 [2 favorites]
But by far the most inspired thing about these games is the invented language, Simlish. Such a simple idea, and yet so effective.
I have a theory that these games in part owe their success to the fact that many millenials never had a hope of owning a house or being able to afford kids. An escapist fantasy of domestic mundanity. These are games that started as a satire of consumerism and yet became one of the most egregious examples of profiteering in the games industry. Nonetheless, I still get a kick out of them from time to time.
It's funny but right now I'm enjoying the latest build of indie game Project Zomboid, a zombie survival game with isometric perspective and Sims 1-era graphics. Most recently they've added farm animals, among other things. A large percentage of the player base spend the apocalypse building self sufficient farms where the only consumerism is in the form of looting. I feel like this is a metaphor for something.
Anyway, great post!
posted by Acey at 11:36 AM on February 5 [2 favorites]
When I first moved to Edinburgh to do my PhD, I lived with a couple of my oldest friends who were doing a 1 year Masters. It was moderately chaotic - we invented a sort of indoor crazy golf game called Hoop! (the result of which was that we lost our deposit), filled it with furniture we found for free, smoked way too much weed. Good times
Anyway, at one point another school friend found himself homeless so we naturally had him move in. At first, he slept on the couch but (in part because he doesn't smoke weed) he kept very different, almost nocturnal hours. This led to him essentially bed-sharing with the friend with the largest room - one would sleep while the other was awake on a cycle. It worked for them and we were too busy practicing Hoop!, collecting furniture and smoking weed to even really notice how odd it was.
Then the third flatmate bought The Sims. It absolutely cobsumed the bed-sharing pair: they'd do about 8 hours on The Sims, about 8 hours asleep and 8 hours at work/studying.
This went on for a couple of months (!) and, eventually, flatmate 3 and I managed to get a look at their weird, shared The Sims game.
Readers, they had attempted to recreate our flat. 4 avatars, named after and resembling us. An unruly furniture collection. Strange cohabitations.
The friend who owned the game pulled the plug.
posted by deeker at 11:46 AM on February 5 [5 favorites]
Anyway, at one point another school friend found himself homeless so we naturally had him move in. At first, he slept on the couch but (in part because he doesn't smoke weed) he kept very different, almost nocturnal hours. This led to him essentially bed-sharing with the friend with the largest room - one would sleep while the other was awake on a cycle. It worked for them and we were too busy practicing Hoop!, collecting furniture and smoking weed to even really notice how odd it was.
Then the third flatmate bought The Sims. It absolutely cobsumed the bed-sharing pair: they'd do about 8 hours on The Sims, about 8 hours asleep and 8 hours at work/studying.
This went on for a couple of months (!) and, eventually, flatmate 3 and I managed to get a look at their weird, shared The Sims game.
Readers, they had attempted to recreate our flat. 4 avatars, named after and resembling us. An unruly furniture collection. Strange cohabitations.
The friend who owned the game pulled the plug.
posted by deeker at 11:46 AM on February 5 [5 favorites]
The original Sims was depressing.
So I have a neurological condition called a Chiari Malformation which in very succinct terms means I got way too much brain stuff crammed into too small a space. Most people struggle with mysterious symptoms for years before a diagnosis, but my primary symptom is an intense, debilitating headache right at the base of my skull. Very specific. Headache isn't even the right word, it's like my brainstem is being squeezed in a vise grip. You try to describe that to someone and they're like damn that sucks do you want an ibuprofen?
I started being symptomatic a year or two before the Sims came out. And then I got the game, and for the first time, I could finally POINT to something that illustrated EXACTLY how I felt. I can't find an image and I don't have time right now to hunt through a let's play on youtube to find it, but in the original Sims when your sim's comfort need gets critically low, they hold the back of their head and do a little fetal squat thing like they're in terrible pain about to die. (And if you don't let them sit down soon, they do! Neat!) Anyway, I showed my parents the animation and I think that may be when it finally clicked that I really did need to go to a doctor about it.
A few weeks later I was at the neurologist. I took a picture of the computer screen with my comically gigantic/tiny screen digital camera in to show them to illustrate my pain. Specific enough for an immediate suspected diagnosis and referral for MRI. A few more weeks and we were talking a heavy drugs and maybe brain surgery. The Sims being depressing led indirectly to a massive quality of life improvement for me. Haven't thought about that in years.
posted by phunniemee at 11:55 AM on February 5 [25 favorites]
So I have a neurological condition called a Chiari Malformation which in very succinct terms means I got way too much brain stuff crammed into too small a space. Most people struggle with mysterious symptoms for years before a diagnosis, but my primary symptom is an intense, debilitating headache right at the base of my skull. Very specific. Headache isn't even the right word, it's like my brainstem is being squeezed in a vise grip. You try to describe that to someone and they're like damn that sucks do you want an ibuprofen?
I started being symptomatic a year or two before the Sims came out. And then I got the game, and for the first time, I could finally POINT to something that illustrated EXACTLY how I felt. I can't find an image and I don't have time right now to hunt through a let's play on youtube to find it, but in the original Sims when your sim's comfort need gets critically low, they hold the back of their head and do a little fetal squat thing like they're in terrible pain about to die. (And if you don't let them sit down soon, they do! Neat!) Anyway, I showed my parents the animation and I think that may be when it finally clicked that I really did need to go to a doctor about it.
A few weeks later I was at the neurologist. I took a picture of the computer screen with my comically gigantic/tiny screen digital camera in to show them to illustrate my pain. Specific enough for an immediate suspected diagnosis and referral for MRI. A few more weeks and we were talking a heavy drugs and maybe brain surgery. The Sims being depressing led indirectly to a massive quality of life improvement for me. Haven't thought about that in years.
posted by phunniemee at 11:55 AM on February 5 [25 favorites]
I will briefly shout out the devs for their inclusivity - Sims 4 lets specify pronouns, sexual preference, romantic preference, a whole host of things. Really good stuff.
My last game was a lesbian couple who had "science babies" where one became an astronaut and the other a famous comedian. But true to the Sims tradition of emergent gameplay, one of them had the jealous trait, and since the "free will" system is now so complete that you can pretty much just let them act autonomously, I was forced to watch in horror as their relationship turned from idyllic to an absolute nightmare hate spiral, and all in front of the kids too. It took enormous effort on my part to get them to reconcile. So much for escapist fantasy - house fires are nothing compared to that experience.
posted by Acey at 12:01 PM on February 5 [2 favorites]
My last game was a lesbian couple who had "science babies" where one became an astronaut and the other a famous comedian. But true to the Sims tradition of emergent gameplay, one of them had the jealous trait, and since the "free will" system is now so complete that you can pretty much just let them act autonomously, I was forced to watch in horror as their relationship turned from idyllic to an absolute nightmare hate spiral, and all in front of the kids too. It took enormous effort on my part to get them to reconcile. So much for escapist fantasy - house fires are nothing compared to that experience.
posted by Acey at 12:01 PM on February 5 [2 favorites]
I only just recently seem to have forgotten the simlish commercial I used to hum to myself while doing chores around the house.
I think it's been replaced by the Mentos doo doo doo doo, doo doo, doo wah fresh goes better which isn't really an improvement....
posted by Kyol at 12:22 PM on February 5
I think it's been replaced by the Mentos doo doo doo doo, doo doo, doo wah fresh goes better which isn't really an improvement....
posted by Kyol at 12:22 PM on February 5
One more anecdote and then I'm out. I decided to test out the limits of the free will autonomy in the Sims 4 (it's free to play on Steam, by the way) and made a character who was destined to become a great painter. Painting is one of the few things that Sims will do autonomously that you can turn into a stay-at-home job, was my reasoning. The rule was that I'd only intervene to move the paintings on to the walls and sell them, otherwise she was on her own.
Thanks to judicious fast-forwarding (and the joy of watching from the new 1st person perspective) she quickly became a max level painter who would kick out a couple of masterpieces before breakfast. I was delighted - after 25 years, finally I could just let my Sim do their own thing and see what happened.
There was a problem, however. In the Sims 4, your tax bill is a function of your net worth, so every masterwork painting she made would result in absolutely enormous tax hikes. And since all I wanted to do was cover the walls in all these various works of art, her little trailer home quickly became absurdly valuable. Luckily there were enough duplicate paintings to sell and pay the bills. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the economics of that.
posted by Acey at 12:39 PM on February 5 [2 favorites]
Thanks to judicious fast-forwarding (and the joy of watching from the new 1st person perspective) she quickly became a max level painter who would kick out a couple of masterpieces before breakfast. I was delighted - after 25 years, finally I could just let my Sim do their own thing and see what happened.
There was a problem, however. In the Sims 4, your tax bill is a function of your net worth, so every masterwork painting she made would result in absolutely enormous tax hikes. And since all I wanted to do was cover the walls in all these various works of art, her little trailer home quickly became absurdly valuable. Luckily there were enough duplicate paintings to sell and pay the bills. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the economics of that.
posted by Acey at 12:39 PM on February 5 [2 favorites]
Fantastic post. In particular I want to highlight the link to Jerry Martin's website. It's a throwback treasure. I've really enjoyed getting the occasional email with free tracks.
posted by Wretch729 at 1:33 PM on February 5
posted by Wretch729 at 1:33 PM on February 5
I recommend following "If You Really See Eurydice" with "Orfeo Looks Back" to really build out the narrative arc.
posted by kaibutsu at 1:56 PM on February 5
posted by kaibutsu at 1:56 PM on February 5
The original Sims was depressing.
It mostly bummed me out that usually after three in-game days my Sims would be enjoying a much higher quality of life than I did.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 2:12 PM on February 5 [3 favorites]
It mostly bummed me out that usually after three in-game days my Sims would be enjoying a much higher quality of life than I did.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 2:12 PM on February 5 [3 favorites]
Back in 2003 the game company won the contract to make a Sims/Tycoon-hybrid game based on a major publishing franchise (which would be a total derail if I mentioned it here).
Our budget was $3.2M to create the game on PC, Xbox and PS2 in approximately 18 months. All things considered, we made a pretty cool game with an interesting game loop involving improving your house and then hosting parties, which resulted in more cash to further upgrade your house.
Sadly, about a month after we started development, EA announced that Maxis had been hard at work on the Sims 2, with a $25M budget (just for PC) and they were going to launch the same month as us.
That was one of the most disheartening periods of my life, going into work every day, knowing someone was working on a very similar game, with nearly 10X our budget, and there was no escape route. We had to keep building our game to receive the milestone payments that kept our team employed, knowing we were going to be crushed upon release.
We were absolutely crushed on release, though we did well enough in France to get the contract for an expansion pack ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by ifatfirstyoudontsucceed at 3:15 PM on February 5 [2 favorites]
Our budget was $3.2M to create the game on PC, Xbox and PS2 in approximately 18 months. All things considered, we made a pretty cool game with an interesting game loop involving improving your house and then hosting parties, which resulted in more cash to further upgrade your house.
Sadly, about a month after we started development, EA announced that Maxis had been hard at work on the Sims 2, with a $25M budget (just for PC) and they were going to launch the same month as us.
That was one of the most disheartening periods of my life, going into work every day, knowing someone was working on a very similar game, with nearly 10X our budget, and there was no escape route. We had to keep building our game to receive the milestone payments that kept our team employed, knowing we were going to be crushed upon release.
We were absolutely crushed on release, though we did well enough in France to get the contract for an expansion pack ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by ifatfirstyoudontsucceed at 3:15 PM on February 5 [2 favorites]
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This is a great roundup! The original Sims and Rollercoaster Tycoon are my favorite games, most played games by time commitment, and most consistently played games throughout my life. I keep coming back. I'm going to be 90 years old celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Sims and still playing this damn game. It got me at a formative time in my life.
posted by phunniemee at 10:57 AM on February 5 [4 favorites]