OPINION: Happy birthday, Sims

As they say in “The Sims,” “sul sul!” Last week, the beloved life simulation game “The Sims” celebrated its 25th anniversary. That’s right, the original Sims game came out a quarter of a century ago. Since 2000, “The Sims” has gone through four iterations and numerous consoles. “The Sims 4″ has been out since 2014, making it the longest iteration to still be running.

I consume a lot of Sims media, despite not spending too much time actually playing the game. When I do play, I like to complete creator-made challenges rather than be creative with buildings and Sims.

But what’s the big deal with “The Sims?” Why are full-grown adults still playing this game 25 years later, some making their living as professional Sims players? Why is there a completely different language in the game? “The Sims” has a lot of lore and history, so I can only get into some of it today.

Developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts, “The Sims” is a life simulation game generally in “sandbox mode,” basically meaning there’s a lack of defined goals or rules. A player is able to create virtual people, or Sims, place them in either prebuilt or specially designed houses and lead them through everyday life.

Do you want to have an easy playthrough, in which you create a nuclear family, send the parents to work and children to school everyday? Do you want to become an actor and deal with fame in “The Sims” world, running from paparazzi and living in your penthouse apartment? You can even become a grim reaper and harvest the souls of other Sims. Maybe you don’t care about the life simulation at all and just want to spend your whole time in the game building.

Like I said, there are many ways to play “The Sims.” Each iteration has provided more choices and better graphics, for the most part. The original Sims game, released in 2000, was certainly the most simple. Seven expansion packs were released over three years, adding elements of magic, fame and more. Sims have free will, but are not fully autonomous, meaning you have to find a job, pay the bills, etc.

“The Sims 2″ came out in 2004, serving as the first of the Sims games to have 3D graphics. Also new is the aspiration system, giving the Sims wants for the player to choose and achieve. “The Sims 2″ had eight expansion packs and nine stuff packs, aka no extra gameplay, but lots of new items to be used in the game.

Then came “The Sims 3″ in 2009. Many Sims players call “The Sims 3″ the best of all the games, touting the completely open world and a more customizable build and buy mode. “The Sims 3″ received eleven expansion packs in its five years.

“The Sims 4″ came out more than ten years ago now. Rather than making a new Sims game like in previous iterations, the Sims team has just released more expansion packs and other buyable updates. As of today, there are 17 expansion packs, 12 game packs, 20 stuff packs, 38 kits and four creator kits. Yes, it’s confusing and there’s way too much going on. On the plus side, the base game has been free to download and play since 2022.

I am most familiar with “The Sims 4,” though I had friends who played “The Sims 3″ back in the day. While many say “The Sims 4″ is a downgrade, I love it. I grew up jealous of the friends who had “The Sims,” so it was a big deal when I finally bought my own laptop and bought the game.

Like I mentioned earlier, while there are many ways to play “The Sims,” my favorite is using creator-made challenges. Professional Sims players will put together rules for different playthroughs that the rest of us like to try. Some of these include the Black Widow challenge, in which Sim you has to marry and kill off 10 different spouses to get rich, and Rags to Riches, in which you start out with no money and no home and have to slowly make money through various tasks (no job allowed) to eventually build your life.

For players that are interested, the non-player characters also have plenty of crazy storylines that run through the various games, including the mysterious Bella Goth who briefly goes missing for one the games.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of “The Sims,” Electronic Arts re-released “The Sims” and “The Sims 2″, a big deal for Millenial Sims players. Additionally, many of “The Sims 4″ expansion packs are on sale and some retro (era-2000) clothes and items have been added to the game for free.

One of these days, I’m going to get back on the game itself rather than watching other people play. Until then, “Dag Dag!”