I often see the Sims cited as an example of success or good design or a number of other things. Well... I tried it and found it extremely dull. Who knows, maybe I didn't give it enough of a go, or I'm just not the target audience, but I always sort of felt that the Sims was more of a marketing success and less of a gaming success. That is, that the game itself is not really good, but that the concept and the way it was marketed are what led to the huge sales. I could be way off base and certainly the numerous expansion packs seem to indicate that people do like it and are hampering for more, but I thought I'd see what everyone else thinks. Great game? or Great Marketing?

I didn't like the game either, but I think it did both well - game play and marketing.

I liked it for the toy that it is. I know quite a few women who were absolutely addicted to it for a long time.

I mostly run into references to The Sims as being "something different" and "something unexpected." Kind of like Deer Hunter was years ago. It came unexpectedly out of left field, comletely different from any other game that was popular at the time, and made a huge dent in the market.

I've never played The Sims. Probably never will...but mostly because I don't just buy games to try them. I have to want them enough to justify not only the $50 (or whatever) outlay, but the amount of time that will be lost to playing. Or, my son has to want it. He's never mentioned The Sims, though,...no guns or tanks or mechs...

-David

I think The Sims was so successful with women because it was essentially a "doll house for adults".

My 13 year old daughter played the game "normally" for about 2 days, then she went out and found the money cheat. Her enjoyment went up a LOT after that. She loved to design and decorate houses, download new furnishings, and download characters from her favorite TV shows. She didn't 'play' the game... she played 'with' the game. (Like a toy.)

Yeah, I think you should have added a third critical option to the poll:

Great Premise

That's really what the Sims is about more than either marketing or game quality. Certainly the quality is there, in the sense that they did a great job of focusing on the aspects of the game that play into its strengths-- although judged solely on the technical prowess and actual depth of gameplay, I think it ranks pretty low overall. I really think that its success, at least initially, hinged mostly on the premise behind the game more than anything else.

The recent and long-standing success is mostly thanks to the ability of the premise to be so well adapted to the concept of mini-addons and expansion packs, and secondly marketing. Actually, it pretty much reaps all the benefits of almost every popular genre ever. It's fundamentally a strategy game, and so it appeals to casual gamers across the boards. Then there's the expansion packs, which are remenicient of C&C expansion packs with new maps and units-- low effort, high profit, and more easily stocked on shelves than FPS expansion packs. Yet it's still pretty highly customizable by the players, giving it a similar draw as some of the more popular FPS games (and it's 3D). And now you have the online play draw similar to games like EQ and UO.

I mean, there's really no way to beat that for a money machine. I happen to find the game rather dull and uninspiring personally, so of course, I have no interest in trying to emulate it or cut in on some of the market it carved. They're welcome to it and I'll go about shooting for more my style of inspired fun... ;)

- Air

I actually enjoyed the origional sims.. had a sweet house and a successful carieer. You could do some crazy stuff in that game if you messed around enough. My wife obsessed over it for a long perioud of time. Ironically the sims online isn't nearly as fun as the offline version

I guess another way to ask this question is... If the Sims had been released (the exact same game graphics etc...) as an indie title without any marketing clout behind it would it have caught on and become a huge success on the strength of it's gameplay and concept or would it have remained relatively unknown?

I think if the sims was released as shareware it would have enjoyed at least as much success as rollercoaster tycoon.

The Sims as it is now was built up and reported on for months if not years ahead of its release. Pretty much every computer magazine (and often lifestyle magazines) did at least one pre-release feature. Therefore when the game was released it was already in the minds of hundreds of thousands of people.

This is something that it would have missed out on if it had started life as shareware, essentially losing out on the initial burst of excitement/hype/sales that the retail game enjoyed.

However, due to the unique nature of the sims, and apparently that the AI is pretty special, I have no doubt it would have been noticed by the regular retail channels eventually and would then have become a boxed retail game, albeit with a more subdued release.

Well if I recall rollercoaster tycoon was one of the number one selling retail games in the states for many months. Was it released independantly before becoming a retail title?

Maybe we can entice Paul (also a former Maxoid) to comment on this. :)

IMO, the success of The Sims comes from two main factors.

First, the design. It was fresh, accessible, and most of all meaningful to many, many people. It's not my favorite game, but I get why others enjoy it so much. That few people in the gaming industry get this -- and I've heard it dismissed as a fluke by those whose games haven't sold 1% as many copies -- says more about us and our relationship to our potential audience than it does about the game itself. In other words, if you're aiming at the mass market and you don't understand why The Sims has sold so well, you might want to take a look at what you assume the mass market to be.

Second, the cooperative, sharing aspect. The website and the ability to easily upload your own houses, families, and most of all stories had a huge catalytic effect.

While Maxis/EA did a bang-up job on the marketing for The Sims, I don't think that initially that was a huge contributor to its success. Contrary to what someone up above said, I don't believe The Sims had a huge amount of press prior to its release -- certainly nothing on the scale of UO, EQ, Unreal, Quake, or say, Duke Nukem Forever. ;) In fact, internally EA management wasn't all that hot on The Sims (remember, they tried to kill this project multiple times). It seemed like a game that would do okay, but not spectacularly. That view changed shortly after the game came out.

I think the fact that both Rollercoaster Tycoon and the Sims are massive, massive sellers is pretty interesting.

They're both construction-set games. They both are sims. Neither of them are difficult. They both tackle real-life scenerios that we're all familiar with (rather than, say, a space-station under attack by aliens). Perhaps it's that aspect that makes the possible --universal, realistic, escapsim -- everyone has an idea for a dreamhouse, ... and probably everyone has had a fun day at a themepark.

I think contruction set games are big because you can play them like a game, or you can play with them like a toy. And both the sims and RCT have a healthy dose of both in their objectives. I think it's also why their expansion packs do well -- it gives you more things to play with. Kind of like getting a new set of Legos. :D

~Hanford

I think the Sims had both great marketing and gameplay for their target demographic. This past Christmas I saw all three of my sisters, (who are completely different form one another and are not into video games) get totally addicted to The Sims. It was quite fascinating to see this although it wasn't a surprise. (I had already planned to buy the game for one of my non-gaming sisters.) The reason The Sims works so well is because it includes elements that women enjoy in real life. It allows home decorating, shopping, nurturing, and a perceived notion of social interaction. This is a killer combination to get women interested.

How many households do you know of where the women do not take charge of home decorating? They love to see the Sims interact and develop relationsips. It bothers them if it doesn't work and the result is that they keep trying. I think the social aspect was one of the most important parts because women are very social beings in general. My oldest sister made a character that was extroverted to the max. She now plays the game at home and likes to talk about the game to my other sister, so the social benefits could be carried offline. This is quite amazing because she never even bothered to play solitaire before.

It made me wonder how successful the online version would be. Apparently it didn't do as well as EA projected. At the time they expected to reach the goal of 200,000 users, they had only 87,000. If the game had no marketing or advertising clout like an amateur indie game, I think it may not have done well. In the general public, women are 54% of the buying power for game software, but I believe that many of those women are buying them as gifts. I think women still do not really see video games as a potential source of entertainment. Therefore, marketing and advertising video games to women is much farther behind than it is for men. In the case of my sisters, it was my nephew who asked for the game for Christmas and I'd bet any money that his mom, (my oldest sister) bought the game. When my sisters were spending time with him during the holidays, it was only then that they were exposed to the game... and how long has The Sims been around?

Well the game does have a great premise and I can certainly see the dollhouse aspect of it. That is.. I understand why the sims might do well on a store shelf. It was intreauging and different, and had appeal to the average person. I had always assumed though that many many people bought the game, but that far fewer actually spent any time playing it. From what I read above though, there are several people who were addicted to the game. Does anyone know if any men were addicted to it? All the stories above seem to be about my sister or my girlfriend. Does the sims succeed mostly with a female audience?

I know a couple guys addicted to it, myself...
I've never played it, but I can see the whole god aspect. It also seems to have a good bit of customization like the other sim games, a quality I personally rather like.

Originally posted by alchemist
Maybe we can entice Paul (also a former Maxoid) to comment on this. :)

Ha ha! If I knew the secret to what made The Sims such a financial/pop culture/casual gaming success, I'd be doing...exactly what I'm doing (except my bank account might be a little fatter). :D

I've got enough unknowable things to ponder.

I got it for free with a gateway computer and got somewhat addicted to it. I would make a four person family which was hard to start out with but you would make more money in the end. It was hard to get them up for work because at first I only had one bathroom but as i got more money i got 3 bathrooms. So for me it was making an effecient house and getting money and buying stuff. Eventually i got all 3 of my working sims to the top of the career ladder and got all the cool stuff and built a mansion and then lost interest. I didnt think the social part of it was any fun so that meant i wasnt gonna buy house party or hot date. So for me the whole fun of the sims was getting to where i got and now that i have all the money and crap its no fun anymore

Originally posted by kerchen
Ha ha! If I knew the secret to what made The Sims such a financial/pop culture/casual gaming success, I'd be doing...exactly what I'm doing (except my bank account might be a little fatter). :D

Gee Paul, I know exactly how you feel... :D