The Sims is a life simulation game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. First released in 2000 under the title The Sims, the series has expanded to multiple iterations over the decades, including mobile games, an MMO, Facebook game, and even Nintendo DS games. I first started playing The Sims during the release of The Sims 3. I loved being able to create my own characters and live through their lives, no matter the chaos they went through. It was a way for me to escape from what was going on around me, and I have a fondness for and special interest in the series. I currently play The Sims 4, but I am considering picking up The Sims 2 due to differences in gameplay features. Speaking of which...

Why Play The Sims?

The Sims is one of those household titles, I would argue. It's been with me for two decades now, and I love having creative freedom over my sims. It gives me something to look forward to, and allows me to have a little escape from reality when I need it. I can always come back to it months after my last play session, and everything will be just as I left it.

Generational Differences

With each iteration of the main franchise, there has been a boost in physical appearance of the sims as well as major differences in core gameplay.

_{Image Description: A comparison of a popular character (Bella Goth) through the different iterations. From left to right: The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, The Sims 4. Bella is a female sim with tan skin, black hair, and brown eyes. She wears a red strapless dress with a necklace. She has nude, almost smokey eyeshadow and red lipstick.}

Sims in The Sims were not that customizable. Sims could either be an adult or a child, there were only three different skintone options, clothes came from pre-set outfits, and there were only the binary male/female gender options. One thing The Sims does introduce is the aspect of western Zodiac signs and personality traits. Your sim has a set number of points you can attribute to each personality category (neat, outgoing, active, playful, and nice). You can also enter a biography for your sim, if you desire.

In The Sims 2, there is still only the binary male/female gender option, and there are only four skintones to choose from. The "chubby" option for sims is just that -- it mainly adds just a bit of fat to their stomach, thighs, buttocks, and face. Despite this, The Sims 2 introduces much more customization options for your sim.

• Ability to change facial structure with presets and sliders
• Ability to change eye and hair color, as well as hairstyle and eyebrow style
• Ability to create infants, children, teenagers, adults, and elders
• Ability to make sims chubby or skinny
• Ability to add makeup and individual clothing to your sims, as well as seperate outfits depending on occasion.

This iteration expands on the personality traits and allows the user to select a different Zodiac sign for their sim if the assigned one doesn't feel "right". Like The Sims, you get a limited amount of points to attribute personality traits to. The Sims 2 introduces a gameplay mechanic referred to as Aspirations. These are lifetime goals that influence the choices a sim will make during their life. In this iteration, there are six aspirations to choose from: pleasure, family, romance, knowledge, fortune, and popularity. This also introduces the mechanic of Aspiration Failure. If a sim enters aspiration failure (achieved by not completing a sim's wants or a sim experiencing too many fears), the sim will become unstable and uncontrollable. They require a visit from an NPC known as The Therapist in order to get out of aspiration failure. Another feature The Sims 2 adds is Turn Ons & Turn Offs. Just like with anyone else, a sim is able to have two things that they look for in a romantic partner (such as hair color or personality), and oen thing they would prefer a partner not have.

_{Video Description: A video showcasing a person creating a sim in The Sims 2.}

The Sims 3 took a massive leap with how sims are made. With this generation, you are able to change the sim's body with presets and sliders, change individual sections of hair color (ex, the roots or tips), change muscle mass and tone, give sims tattoos, change your sim's voice as well as the pitch, change eyelash length, and change breast size. There is a slider for skintone, allowing more diversity among sims. Along with swatches, you are able to select hair color from a color wheel. This color wheel is a prominent feature of The Sims 3, as most customization options in the game allow the use of the color wheel. This allows the player more freedom with decorating the sim's environment. Personality points are removed and replaced with Traits. Adult sims have five traits that influence how they interact with others and the world around them, and this generation had 99 traits to choose from. Aspirations are renamed to Lifetime Wishes, but most players still refer to them as Aspirations. This is the last generation to include Zodiac signs for sims.

With changes in society, The Sims 4 changed the way sims were thought of and created. Sims are no longer bound by the gender binary -- you are able to choose pronouns or create custom ones, set how your sim uses the bathroom, if they breastfeed, if they can get pregnant or impregnate others, their physical frame, and their clothing preference. You are able to change their romantic and sexual orientation. There is now gender neutral language -- instead of "boyfriend" or "girlfriend", there is "partner" or "spouse". Skintones got a major upgrade with dozens of swatches and undertones, allowing much more diversity than in past titles. There are also more options for afrocentric hairstyles. Apart from diversity, sims are no longer bound by sliders. You grab portions of your sim and pull to the desired shape (within confines), like modeling clay. Yes, you can make their butt big if you want. Sims in this iteration are allowed three traits as adults, but they can discover more traits as they progress through life for a total of six.