Playing god has long been reserved for doctors: Dr. Doom, Dr. Dre,
Dr. Pepper—long have we mortal men been held captive to their
whims. Circa 2000, game developer Will Wright decided to grant the
common man a chance to mold the lives of your average working folk, and
The Sims was born. Fast forward nearly a decade, and the series
has sold millions of copies, spawned numerous spinoffs, and made Wright
and publisher EA enough cash to buy and sell your entire family a dozen
times over.
The latest addition to the franchise, The Sims 3, does little
to shake the series’ longstanding tenets—good news for long-time
devotees, but bad news for those hoping for something more from their
world-building games. The similarities to its predecessors are evident
from the moment you start The Sims 3: Seemingly, little has
changed from The Sims 2. You’re still tasked with running the
life of a virtual person, your home is completely customizable, and
basic human needs—like food, regularly emptying your bowels and
meeting a pretty virtual girl—are still the key goals.
But the big difference between The Sims 3 and previous
incarnations is in the game’s scope. Instead of wandering your home or
a small neighborhood, The Sims 3 lets players interact with an
entire (albeit relatively small) city. Gameplay in the larger setting
remains essentially the same as ever, but giving players new diversions
like fishing, and growing one’s own garden only makes the classic
series more addictive.
I’d like to recommend The Sims 3 to everyone with the proper
computing power, but there are those—like my roommate—whose
id simply can’t reconcile the idea of virtual Barbie dolls. Still, it
says a lot about The Sims 3 that he’s been glued to his laptop
for the last five hours, forgoing practice with his hardcore band in
favor of flirting with fictional ladies and climbing the ranks of the
SimCity government.