How The Sims grew from a virtual construction game into a cultural phenomenon

As the year 2000 ushered in the new millennium, boy bands and pop stars dominated the music charts, and the International Space Station welcomed its first crew, while back on Earth, reality TV was forever changed by an inaugural group of castaways on the CBS show "Survivor" — all when more than 70% of Americans didn't own a cellphone and only half of U.S.households had a computer.Phil Salvador, library director for the Video Game History Foundation, reflected on this era of rapid technological growth."If you were playing especially computer games back then, you were probably playing on the family computer," Salvador said.It was a time when gaming hardware was evolving, and titles like Halo and first-person shooters were on the rise.

But one game development company, Maxis, was trying something different: simulation games, designed to replicate real-life activities.At the helm was legendary game designer Will Wright, who had a personal reason for exploring the genre."Will Wright actually lost his home in the Oakland Hills Fire in 1991, and he had to start rebuilding his life, and that became the inspiration for his idea of Dollhouse," Salvador said.Initially a virtual construction game, Dollhouse failed to draw much interest.

But when Maxis was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997, EA recognized the quirky potential of the game.Salvador noted that EA realized that people liked telling stories and interacting with the simulated people more than the game's original objective: to construct homes.It was around this time when EA changed the concept from Dollhouse to The Sims.The Sims spent nearly a decade in development, ultimately creating a digital space where players could control virtual beings, environments and life choices.

When the game debuted in February 2000, it was unlike anything seen before."It is a game where you're helping people do chores around the house and use the toilet and things like that, and it's not the most imme...