Grandma Plays The Sims

Remember Sim City? It was an amazing success. Who would have thought so many age groups would enjoy creating their own landscape, and doing so together. I can remember well the fun my (then) pre-teen grandsons and their Mom had with that series. Hours of fun.

And, it was intriguing to follow the differences in their creativity; and how different their Sim City realities were from one another. The software was a definite success but few expected Maxis, its developer, would follow it with the most popular PC franchise of all time. But, they did; and The Sims has grown into a full blown cultural phenomenon, the world over.

What the development team was after was just to create a fun way for folks to create virtual lives as they had virtual landscapes.

The smart thinking of the development team tries to ensure that new iterations build on the core idea. It has worked well. Each core game in the series moves the simulation forward in new ways. The Sims 2 added aging and brought in 3D. In The Sims 3 everyone came out of the house and into the neighborhood; and they gained character traits, personalities, life goal and wishes.

In the world of gaming The Sims has reached a rare milestone: 10 years and over 100 million copies. Will it continue? Can it continue?

If the team has the ability to keep creating enticing ways for players to interact with their simulated universe, there is reason to believe it can and will. The game is a creative experience.

Certainly there are plenty of possible expansions to social situations. More and more of everyday life and of fantasies can be reflected in the game. After all the most popular pack in the series has been pets. So if the creators stay connected to changing times they will very likely evolve right along with us and real life.

Perhaps the deeper key to The Sims success is the concept. It is one that almost everyone can find relateable. Gamer or not, you can find yourself in this game. It is easy to navigate and to interact with the whole world. You don't need extensive experience to figure it out.

Or, mostly figure it out! I still haven't handled the problem of the door my now adult grandson seems to delight in deleting every time he can get me in the kitchen. Guess this Granny will just have to go out through one of the windows. They're rather small, so I'm working on making me smaller. That should work, most of us shrink with age, don't we?