What is The Sims?

Now, in The Sims, you have the opportunity of bringing the citizens to life and participate in their daily 
comings and goings.   I remember seeing the adds in a PC gaming magazine prior to the release of the 
game in February 2000.  The adds had very intriguing captions like "Play with the twins, (with an image 
of a couple each holding a baby)  or play with the twins (under the image of a man with beautiful
twin women in a hot tub!)"    

The idea that The Sims could be who you want and how you want was a very interesting concept to me.  
Obviously, I'm not the only one who feels this because the game has become one of the world's most 
successful video games, spawning seven expansion packs, an on-line version as well as versions for other 
game platforms, plus the creation of  thousands of fan sites and theme forums!  Yet, now, I can't believe I 
had actually hesitated to buy the game when it had been released. To say the least, I have been a 
"SIMactic" ever since!  And I'm proud to be a part of it's web community.

Playing The Sims

For those of you who do not play The Sims, let me explain:  This is a simulation/strategy 
game where YOU create one or more Sim.  Yes, really.  You are the one who actually  
decides what he or she looks like, what clothes  they wear, and their individual  
personalities (well, using the perimeters within the game, that is). You then "move" your 
Sim  into a home that you have built and decorated--or a "ready made" model home that 
you have downloaded  from the official site, a Sim realtor's fan site or The Sims Exchange.   
There after, the Sim lives his or her life including going to work (it's not so essential any 
longer for the Sim to have a job, what with money cheats, but it gives them something to 
do),  entertaining themselves, making friends, and taking care of other bodily needs such 
as bathing,  eating, and relieving themselves. Oh, and you can create a maximum of  ten 
families per neighborhood with up to eight family members per household (novice players, 
start with one to four Sims per family---just trust me on this one). 

No big deal you say?  Well, Sims can be dumb and very self-serving 
when left completely alone. He or she needs your gentle guidance in 
order to survive and get along with other Sims.   Otherwise, they won't 
clean up behind themselves, allowing  flies and roaches to enter the 
house. They'll make enemies instead of friends, which means they will 
not get that needed promotion at work, which mean no pay raise, which 
means no remodeling of the house, buying clothes or pets or taking 
vacations. 

They'll stay up too late and a grumpy Sim is NOT a very happy Sim, so 
they'll lose their job. Then you can say good-bye to all the luxuries 
because the repo-man will come and take them away since you can't 
pay the bills.  They won't take care of a new born baby.  You think
that social services will  stand for that! And they can set the house (and 
maybe themselves) on fire.   

It was my son that turned me on to  Will Wright's game, The Sims.  The Sims themselves were 
originally  advertised as the citizens who lived and worked in another very popular Maxis game, 
Sim City.  You never actually  see these citizens in the city, but you see their cars moving about 
the streets, and their homes and places of businesses will changed, and, as the mayor of this fine 
city that you created, you definitely knew  how poorly you were running the city as these citizens 
complaints show up  in the newspaper's headlines.  

I once lost a Sim from another household during a party at the house of the Sim I was playing.  He and another guest Sim 
decided to go swimming late at night. I was busy with the house Sims somewhere else, and was not paying any attention to 
these two.  When they finally became tired enough to go home on their own, the first Sim  climbed out of the pool, then fell 
asleep immediately,  dropping directly in front of the pool ladder. The second Sim couldn't get out of the pool since the path  
in front of the pool ladder was blocked.  And the next thing I knew, he had drowned because he FELL ASLEEP IN THE POOL!

What did I learn from this horrible experience? Place TWO or more ladders  on EVERY swimming pool!!  

Unfortunately, you don't have complete control over "guest" Sims who come to 
 visit a Sim that you are playing at a particular moment, which makes the game 
interesting when things just "happen" that you didn't expect. Your "host" Sim 
may have invited the guest,  or several annoying Sims may just decide to "drop" 
in. However, an uninvited guest should never be ignored (sometimes they crash 
your party and you have no say so in the matter anyway!). Instead, the Sim 
becomes the perfect host by cooking food, turning on the stereo so that the guest 
can dance, and mingling to make sure everyone is having a good time.  A 
planned or impromptu party can be a great way to meet new friends and to keep 
old ones happy. But, Sims that you can not control can also mean disaster! 

Sistergirl and The Sims

Okay, playing The Sims is one thing, I mean, it's a popular game, no doubt about it.  But, what got me on the web with my own 
Sim fan site may just be the burning question on all of your minds.  Well, since you're being nosey, I'll tell you.

Another appeal to The Sims for many of us game players is the "family photo album" that allows you to capture screen shots 
from the game with the use of an internal camera.  If you have no imagination, this photo album can simply be a recording of  
the special events that happens during the course of playing--and if you  don't turn off the

And when a Sim dies, he/she is REALLY DEAD!  You're left with a nice head stone or urn  for the other Sims to mourn.  These 
simple monuments can also become a nice reminder of that Sim's or someone else'  stupid act that lead to their untimely 
demise. 

How else can a Sim die, you ask? Well, I'm not giving away ALL the little surprises, just let me say this, be sure a Sim knows 
how to cook and has some mechanical skill before allowing them to handle anything concerning fire or electricity, and have 
them wash their hands after playing with that disease infected hamster! 

When Livin' Large, the first expansion pack for The Sims,  was released in 
the fall of 2000,  and an additional four neighborhoods became available  
(actually, I had found out how to duplicate neighborhoods earlier, so I  
already had more than one neighborhood), the possibilities for so many 
different  stories became overwhelming. I needed a way to share my Sim 
tales other than the official The Sims Exchange because I feel restricted by 
the Exchange's  limitations--come on, I have more than three tales in my 
head at one time  and, I'm sorry, sometimes it takes awhile to tell that story! 

In addition, there has always been fan sites on the Internet: Sites by fans of the game where a player can download even more objects, and additional "skins" of Sims, that were created by these very same fans of the Sims.

One day while  surfing fan sites, I found, and immediately fell in 
love with the creations of a few crafters who wanted to bring the 
dimension of fantasy to the game.  I especially loved the skins and 
other downloads by Jan of JM's Simply Elegant, and from her site I 
discovered one of the pioneers in Sim skin creations, Aladrin 
Kelahn. 

Well, I simply had to have an entire neighborhood of her  elves, 
fairies and Victorian  Sims.  And once I started the families,  
including a few other nontraditional Sims that I found at the official 
site, I started forming the stories for each family in my mind.  I 
began to envision a complete history for each group of my special 
Sims and how each interact with one another, and I knew I didn't 
want to tell these stories in the traditional format of a Sim family 
album on The Sims Exchange where they can easily be lost.

"Auto snap", you'll have a nice collection of shots of the  burglar entering the house 
and being captured by the police. Or not if you  didn't buy a burglar alarm, then you 
have a nice set of photos of him stealing  your poor Sim blind (the burglar actually 
once stole the stove; yes, THE STOVE!).

For those of us WITH an imagination, the photo album  allows the inner child to come 
out and master mind the photos and create captions that tell a story (one that 
ACTUALLY has an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and ending!).  

You can link to some of my stories, and stories by other talented Sim writers, by 
linking to the Sim Stories page above.

Visit my Sim Fan sites by clicking below.