«Это почти навлекает на меня слезы». 20 лет спустя фанаты The Sims никогда не отпускали

Translating…

For two decades this year, followers ofThe Simshave been designing homes, raising families, and living whole lives throughout the confines of the irresistibly charming digital world. Over the direction of those 20 years, four mainline video games, and dozens of spinoffs,The Simshas charmed thousands and thousands of followers, made extra than $5 billion, and even changed lives. That form of staying energy is uncommon in an commerce that prizes novelty over steadiness, consistently chasing the most modern style.

Key toThe Sims’success, narrate the creative minds on the aid of the series, are the thousands and thousands of gamers who cherish the video games, and their connection to the video games’ creators. “The most realistic share of our legacy is our gamers,” says Mike Duke, Senior Producer ofThe Sims 4,the most modern incarnation. “They are what makesThe Simsthis magical bother. They are the storytellers there.” Grant Rodeik, affiliate producer ofThe Simsseries, provides thatThe Simsaffords a invent of relaxing escapism that makes it inspiring even to folks that wouldn’t necessarily steal into story themselves gamers. “For a range of folks, it is a ways a game they quietly play by themselves and pour themselves into on a weekend to destress and have a small bit of fun on their phrases,” he says.

The Simsbecame once conceived of by game vogue designer Will Wright, whose studio, Maxis, became once a pioneer of simulators admireSimCity. Wright wished a invent ofSimCitybut zoomed in on the extent of home life, in make a choice on toSimCity’stop-down uncover of urban life. Gamers control the lives of small folks known as, as it ought to be enough, Sims. Sims are upright admire us: they’ve hopes, needs, jobs, and quirks. They make a choice on to employ, they make a choice on to make use of the bathroom, they age and die. They fall interior and out of cherish, they steal their home on fire when they’re cooking, and they use too distinguished time watching TV.The Simsis an interactive dollhouse the put the player has control over the atmosphere, but the dolls have simplest enough autonomy to surprise gamers.

That charming premise has prolonged drawn in superfans admire Kayla Sims, a 21-year-damaged-down who makes a livingstreaming her gameplay on Twitchandproducing YouTube videosunder the form out “lilsimsie.”The Sims,she says, “is intention extra than upright a game to me.” (And sure, that’s her given title.)

In her most widespread video, with extra than 1.2 million views,Sims let a household of digital folks walk their have lives overnight. With out a player guiding the characters thru their day, issues went comically immoral. Relatives didn’t bathe. They forgot to pay their payments. They lounged round and made snowmen in the area across the home Sims designed. “No one is slow,” she says in the video after letting the game walk on autopilot for 13 hours. “Nonetheless some infamous issues have occurred, including the entirety in my home having damaged.”

Sims’ videos are on the total gentle-hearted, despite the indisputable fact that with a hint of darkness — after her experiment, she’s upset none of her Sims died and that the home didn’t steal fire. That blend of gleaming yet morbid is a defining goal ofThe Sims.It’s a world the put failures happen, but the player veritably has control over those calamities. And it’s that feeling of control that can assembleThe Simsso inspiring.

The Simshas gotten me thru just some of the worst times of my life,” says Sims, who started playing when she became once 12. “I frail the game as an escape when I became once a freshman in high college and my father became once first diagnosed with cancer. It felt admire the entirety in my accurate life became once imploding, andThe Simsbecame once the suitable bother to walk away to.”

Each and each Rodiek and Duke narrate that The Sims’ in-game range has helped the series dwell widespread, too. When developer Maxis premiered the game at E3 in 1999,two female characters kissed at some level of a stay demo. This became once effectively prior to identical-intercourse relationships had been broadly portrayed, to no longer narrate authorized, in video video games. “We strive to enact greater at representing diverse aspects of the area in diverse cultures,” Rodiek says.

Sims saysThe Sims’in-game range interprets accurate into a extra diverse player neighborhood, contrasting with diverse gaming subcultures, just a few of that will most likely be downright toxic. “Some communities surrounding video games accept infamous reputations for being overly detrimental or toxic, but I mediate the nature ofThe Simshas fostered a friendly, loving, and accepting neighborhood,” she says. “It’s uncommon to safe gaming communities which would perhaps well be dominated by women, but a plentiful share of the gamers ofThe Simsare women.”

Duke furthermore shared a story a couple of co-worker on the game who frail it to safe the courage to arrive out to his chums and household. “We hear stories admire that every body the time,” he says. He furthermore says a neighborhood ofSimsgamers reached out to thank the team for making interior assemble a career direction in the game. “Taking half in that’s what convinced them to trot to architecture college in the first bother,” he says.

“I mediate that the attain our gamers add to the game lets in a single and all to safe their have passion,” Duke says. “And ought to you accept that bother the put you’re desirous about what you’ve created, you share it. So the nature of that storytelling and the means to share with others, I mediate, is what madeThe Simscaptivate folks for see you later.”

For Sims’ share, she says the game has radically changed her life for the greater. “It nearly brings me to tears pondering how distinguished this game formulation to me and has performed for me over time,” she says. “I enact no longer know the put I would perhaps well be with out this game and this neighborhood to flip to, and I’m so lucky to have it.”

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