Chapter 20 Game Analysis:The Sims................

Chapter 20 Game Analysis:The Sims..................

Designed by Will Wright

Released in 2000

B

ased on its concept alone,The Simsis not a game that many people would iden-
tify as one they would want to play. Indeed, a focus group conducted early in the
project’s development was so unfavorable that the game’s designer, Will
Wright, had trouble getting any staff on the project. And why would it be fun? “Control a
collection of characters at home in a simulated suburbia.” To hear that description of the
game, it seems disturbingly too much like real, mundane, suburban life to possibly be
entertaining. Indeed, all that is simulated in the game is home life — no going “out” to

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