2025-02-04
17 分钟As the virtual dollhouse turns 25, the game designer Will Wright explains how The Sims was a sandbox for the American dream.
Hi, my name is Zachary Small,
and I write about art and technology and video games for the New York Times.
When we think about the most iconic video games out there,
we often think about something like Super Mario,
where you're platforming and exploring castles to save a princess.
Or we think of something like Grand Theft Auto,
where maybe you're driving a truck and you're packing an Uzi and firing at people.
The Sims, when it released, was something altogether different.
Even if you don't know about the Sims, it's likely you know someone who does.
That's because 500 million people have played the game since the original launched in the 2000s.
It was described to people on the back of the box as a life simulator.
There were no monsters.
There were no quests to speak of.
All you really had to do was build this virtual neighborhood
in a suburb that could be anywhere from California to Connecticut
and populate it with virtual families who pay virtual bills and have virtual babies.
This month, the Sims turns 25.
And I think it was important to go in and remind people, like, what actually led to this.
In reporting this story and talking to dozens of people who.
Who have played the game, who worked on the original development, and, of course, Will Wright,