To get some insight from a couple Sims experts, we reached out to Dan and Rachael of the Llama Drama Podcast. First, we wanted to know what inspired them to start playing The Sims in the first place and what they love most about it. "I found The Sims 1 in our family computer desk around 2001, and decided to load it up and play - from that moment I have been a fan!" Dan told Bored Panda. "I love the fact that it is an open game where you get to set the rules and decide what you want to do, whether it's building, making people, or causing chaos!"
"A friend gave me The Sims 1," Rachael shared. "They said I would love it, and they were so right! It is a game full of spontaneity and dry humor. Laugh out loud moments as you play, so much fun!"
Next, we asked what inspired them to start this podcast. "We are both active members of the Simming community and used to host an in-person gaming event called the Simmers Meetup to celebrate the franchise," the co-hosts shared. "After we decided to stop hosting the event, we wanted to make sure we both still had the chance to catch up and connect over our love of The Sims! This led to the podcast being born and we've been chatting about The Sims every month since 2018!"
We also wanted to know what they think the funniest aspects of The Sims games are. "The Maxis humor, especially in earlier iterations of the franchise, with all of the random events that can happen," they told Bored Panda. "From a random streaker running across your lot, your Sims' love interest turning out to be a mermaid, or even the tragic clown arriving to cause more chaos for your already miserable Sims."
And when it comes to what kind of Sims memes, Dan and Rachael would create, they told me, "Dan would make memes about the pool ladder randomly being removed and Sims being unable to get out of the pool! Rachael loves it when Bonehilda, the skeleton maid, asks for an autograph from the grim reaper in The Sims 1 which is iconic meme material!"
Finally, we asked if they think The Sims is a game for everyone. "Absolutely!" Dan and Rachael said. "It is such a versatile simulation game with so many ways to play, it appeals to so many different people regardless of their background/walk of life. It's also why people continue to play 20+ years later! The Sims has always led the way with inclusivity and brings together an impressive and diverse community."
If you'd like to hear more from Dan and Rachael about The Sims, you can check out the Llama Drama Podcast right here, Dan's website BeyondSims right here, and Rachael's gaming channel right here!
If you’ve never played The Sims, well, I’m not really sure what you’re doing looking at this list of memes you won’t understand. But the premise of the game is this: players get to simulate real life and control the lives of ordinary people. Players have almost complete control over their “Sims” lives, including how they dress, where they live, what kind of job they work, whether or not they start a family or date, and much more. But you probably already knew all of that, didn’t you?
Anyone reading this article can probably provide a low-down on The Sims much better than I can, but I’ll do my best to give you a little more insight into the background of the game and how it became such a widely embraced cultural phenomenon. The first iteration of The Sims was released on February 4th, 2000, but since then, there have been 4 full versions of The Sims, including 12 expansion packs for The Sims 4. Throughout all of this time, 10 spin-off games have been released as well, including MySims, The Sims Medieval, The Sims DJ, and The Sims Bowling.
One fascinating thing about The Sims is how well the game has been able to navigate maintaining relevance for over two decades. Every single version of the game has been a hit, so to dive deeper into the success of this franchise, Elise Favis wrote a piece for The Washington Post examining how the game managed to do it. She first explained that the inspiration for the game stemmed from creator Will Wright’s fixation with humanity’s obsession with material items and the idea of whether or not money can bring us happiness.
SimCity had been released in 1989 and had done quite well, but by 1997, the studio that had launched SimCity, Maxis, had been acquired by EA. And the team, which was looking to create something new, wondered if it would be better to manage only one neighborhood or building at a time, rather than an entire city. “They certainly had no way to foresee its success,” Lyndsay Pearson, executive producer and general manager of The Sims, told The Washington Post. “And while it was certainly against the grain of games at the time, the credit of overcoming those doubts goes to the early dev team and the support from EA to bring it to life.”
The Sims was then turned into a game focused on domestic life, rather than the architectural simulator of its predecessor. But the game’s creators learned lessons from SimCity that they applied to their new game. “I think one of the things the team realized early on was, you can’t really evaluate how good your space is until you put people in it,” said Mike Duke, a senior producer of The Sims 4 who has worked with the series for over a decade. “They added these Sims just to help validate if you succeeded or failed with this architectural tool. And I think they quickly latched on to the fact that you start to care for those little buddies.”
The Sims was also very different from many of the most popular games of the time, which were mostly action-based like Diablo II and Counter-Strike. But The Sims still managed to secure its place in many gamers’ hearts. “The Sims has always been a game where players can play with life,” Lyndsay Pearson says. “While the settings and themes evolve, at the core this need is still there. The need to explore, experiment, build a life and create — those activities resonate regardless of generation.”
#15 The Sims Memes
If you ask vice president and general manager of Maxis, Joe Nickolls, what it was that allowed The Sims to stand out, he’ll tell you it was the game’s “soul”. “The Sims always had this really kind of hilarious underside of humor, a little bit off and a little bit dark sometimes,” Nickolls told The Washington Post. The goofy gibberish language that the characters speak in combined with the random occurrences the game includes such as alien abductions, supernatural encounters, visits from a social Grim Reaper and more, create the perfect concoction of fun and entertainment. Not to mention how addictive the game can be.
#17 The Sims Memes
The Sims even gives death a comical spin, as characters have to be careful to avoid dying by doing simple things such as cooking a grilled cheese or being eaten by a “cowplant”. But players can rest assured that even if their Sims meet an unfortunate end, they are not in any real-world danger. “In The Sims, you can do all the things that you want to do and not get hurt doing it,” Joe Nickolls says. But over time, as the game has grown immensely in popularity and has become more widespread, fans have become insatiable. “We recently ran a community survey where we asked about future gameplay features, and we let [fans] tell us how much they wanted them,” Mike Duke said. “The reality is, they wanted everything we said.”
