If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out my latest documentaries on the history of Chris Sawyer (creator of Transport Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon and Locomotion): th-cam.com/video/Q15Py17tiEA/w-d-xo.html as well as the history of Oddworld Inhabitants: th-cam.com/video/04Mqgm7w_80/w-d-xo.html Let me know which other game franchises you'd like to see documentaries on in the future!
That's because, at the time, games had some sort of goal or quest system. Nowadays, it's not rare for a game to be open ended. The reason why The Sims is now failing is simply because of corporate greed (endless $50 DLCs that barely add anything to the game), as well as a lack of modernity. The Sims 4 is simply outdated. Now that life simulation competitors have stepped onto the stage (such as InZOI and a few others, can't remember the names haha), EA is panicking. For the first time in years, EA has been releasing subtle rumors about The Sims 5 (aka Project Renee). Thing is, most people have lost interest because TS4 is 10 years old now. For 10 years, we've gone without news of a sequel to The Sims 4, and now they're expecting us to wait for another few years to see what mediocre slop they've cooked up this time? Hell no. I miss what The Sims 4 used to be in 2014 and the few years that followed its release. But gosh, 10 years worth of DLCs and content packs racking to be upwards of $1,000 for a basic life simulator is what made the franchise stale. People are excited for the new life sim competitors because somebody needs to hold EA accountable for releasing half-baked products time and time again. I mean really, 10 years later and most of the stairs still don't match any flooring! We've been over it for too long now...
@@nomoretwitterhandles chile inzoi just came out as a playtest to limited people LOL it still has a lot of work to do before it is nearly as relevant as sims 4.
The stats about how the game exploded hit even harder when knowing how many players were never counted in... in many non-West countries at least, lots of us would not have a computer or no money to buy games, so we would have that one burned CD with a key code jotted down on it that went around and we'd install The Sims on our house computer (with no or very slow internet access) or played our saves at our friends' house 😅 So many early secret Simmers 😏💖
The Sims were never actually officially distributed in Russia, which I learned only a couple of years ago, and yet, me and all my friends played it in the early 2000s a lot! Thanks to piracy, we had a great unofficial translation of the game, that even captured that subtle ironic humor.
Yes, the burned CDs lol Me and all my friends in CUBA! I played up to Sims 3 there before moving to the USA and buying Sims 4 right when it came out. It felt so good using my own hard earned money to buy the game that's made me so happy since I was 16yo :)
As a programmer the thought process behind the making of the sims that this documentary successfully explains, is not only fun to learn about but it is also inspirational. I thought it was funny that initially the sims were too good at satisfying their own needs so they had to make them more irrational. Also, the fact that the user/player creates the landscape in which the sims live in and that there are multiple conditions that the developers had to cater for is so fascinating! I knew that this game was complex but this documentary really dives into the development process and the humble beginnings. I say all that to say THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS DOCUMENTARY!
Amazing video. Also still astounded by the sims 1 A.I. design in 2023. Like people complain about the stupidity of Sims but they aren't real people they are just pixels driven by objects. The fact that they can feel so alive to even be called "stupid" is an accomplishment. 😂😂
Even the undead are alive enough to be called stupid. Instead of going through the house and into the garage to drive to work, my vampire went out the front door, smoke billowing from her, then entered the garage to get in her car. Yes, let's go to work with your needs critically low. That's the ticket! ...To death. 🙄😒 Other examples of idiocy is the time I made a bunch of sims and let them largely run on free will. There was one guy who, for some reason, would not go to bed. He would nap on the sofa (often being interrupted by inconsiderate roommates turning on the TV or stereo), or he'd just pass out. He also seemed to use the bar more than anyone else, making quick drinks on a regular basis. I called him an idiot with a drinking problem. It was a few days before he finally went to bed. The bed that was specifically assigned to him, that was easily accessible to him...
I was obsessed with the sims and played it constantly for months... Until my stepfather heard that it was "a girls game" and "a dollshouse on the computer" and he broke my CD, and the CDs for the three expansion packs I owned. I was absolutely heartbroken, but he had decided it was "girly" and thus as a boy, I couldn't be allowed to play it as I might catch the gay.
God damn dude, that sounds horrible. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I hope you're in a better place now so that you can play all the "girly" games you want.
@@ReliableRhubarb yup, I got out of that house as soon as I could and have a much better life these days. I have the classic Sims 2 on my laptop and a save file I've had going for about a decade now. And I never see him, thank God. But yeah, my memories of the sims are bittersweet because of that. I have so many fond memories of playing it, spending way too long designing the family and writing bios for each family member, building up my house by earning money through jobs, moving into better houses, telling stories of my family in the photo album - and then coming home from school one day and him bursting into my room and snapping the cds into pieces in front of me. I'm pretty sure he made me uninstall it in front of him too, to make sure I couldn't ever play it again in case I worked out how to do so without the CD. Then he bought me one of the command and conquer games for my birthday, and said it was the kind of game I "should" be playing, rather than "the dollshouse" as he called it from then on. Thank God those days are over. Fantastic video by the way, definitely reminded me of the better times I had with the game even if it had a terrible ending and really reminded me of what I loved (and still love) so much about it, the open ended creativity of it all, making your own stories in what seemed like an infinite sandbox you were given, and just losing hours building my own little world in the computer. You definitely earned my sub.
thats the dumbest shit ever lmao sorry your dads a moron. i played the sims growing up with my dad and we always just did goofy stuff in the game like set off fireworks and burn the entire house down and watch all the sims die then the grim reaper comes, i miss my pops he was so cool. ur step dad sounds like a dumbass in comparson lmao
@@failedstateupdateAs someone that enjoys Command & Conquer and TheSims, I'd hate C&C if it was introduced to me in such a manner. Sorry you went through that.
Would love to see even more on the Sims. Maybe one per each game? Yours is the first I've watched that talks about the technical process and I really enjoyed it :)
I may be in the minority, but I really enjoy the Sims Medieval variant. I know it tried to mix two different styles of gameplay, and was not well received, but I find it very enjoyable to play. I guess I love the gentle roleplaying aspect. The quests are fun, but not too rushed or ruthlessly combatitive.
I was born one day after the sims first series came out. Gosh, that’s why I am so invested in this game throughout the years. I started playing the sims 2 when I was a kid and now I play the sims 3. I completely ignore the sims 4 existence
Oh this took me down a great nostalgic journey. I remember playing the Sims with my sister a lot. I loved the Makin' Magic expansion, I always wanted to unlock all the spells and potions, but don't think I ever managed it. I tried installing the old game disks a few years ago but unfortunately it didn't work. I wish they had the original games available on EA origin.
As someone interested in video game development (having participated in video game projects) AND as someone who still enjoys the first Sims game, this video is so good and informative. Very educational for me too, I *adore* the explanations of the technical side! Thanks for all the research, I really wanted to know all these details. Will check out your other videos too. 😊
18:11 Right when it dropped, I remember reading in a gaming magazine that developers had many round table discussions about relationship possibilities. How pedophilia was an absolute no and the homosexuality option was shuffled back and forth on whether it should get the green light. I hadn’t played the game yet, so was pretty infuriated to see same sex relationships being compared to outright sexual abuse. So upon picking up a copy, I was relieved same sex couples made the cut, and even more so now to learn that there was total fanfare at the unexpected kiss on the demo for E3!
How does this have only 1k views? Really well done. We can see you put a lot of work into it. From this video it's really clear why the sims ended up being such a huge success and why sims 4 isnt as strong as the others. Being the first of its genre surely presented it with a lot of challenges(and only now its getting some competition). 7 years in development wow. Also how cute the two female sims fell in love during the simulation.. my sims in sims 4 rarely do anything on their own can't imagine them falling in love without me initiating it somehow. I miss that. Thank you for the video keep it up. I would love to see one documentary like this for tropico. It kind of reminds me of the sims for its dark humour.
Thank you! Tropico is definitely a series I want to cover at some point. Not sure when I'll get around to it, as there's a lot on my list already and these documentaries take months to produce. My next documentary has already taken three months, as it's significantly larger than anything I've worked on to date, so I likely won't get around to covering Tropico until sometime next year at the earliest.
The fact that they decided to program behavior into the objects rather than people is incredibly profound, insightful, and revolutionary. Beyond just developer skill this deserves so much praise. Also that they kind of inadvertently allowed for queer relationships was incredibly progressive and impactful at the time.
Wow! I've learned so much because of your video and your great work and explaination! I had no idea how much complicated and a head scratcher for years this game being a whole new genre and created in 90's. All the people that worked on it, giving tools for custom contents, even "streaming" it on their website, when streaming wasn't even a thing at all, no TH-cam, no Twitch, no Social Networks. Kudos for sticking and beliving hard to their project and development. I don't know why, even though Sims 1's path finding/reaction is quite limited, can't place diagonal, moods/friendship are so hard to maintain in Sims 1... but I can't get the same pleasure and fun with Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims 4... though the Sims 1's the last 3-4 expansion packs left me meh... All those racoons, skunks, animals leaving piss on my plot, making my sims's overall mood drop big before leaving for work always annoyed me. Cleaning that everyday was annoying, time is already so limited, you fulfill a need and another needs is now low... and these weird magic objects or superstar... I never bothered with that. But something made me stick to Sims 1, maybe nostalgia, the simplicity ? I would love to see a remastered version of it, rebalance with alot of QoL added, maybe the ability to change the colors of your furnitures, floors, etc.
Yeah, I'm aware. I learned that too late, but at least I know now so future videos won't have that problem. Nowadays I try looking up pronunciations of names/places I'm unsure of, so I don't end up making an ass of myself.
I love when I get recommendations for documentaries of games that I love❣I love it even more when said recommendations are so well done and interesting, that am eager to absorb additional content from the creator/s❣ You have achieved just that❣ Thank you for all the time and research you put into this video, I look forward to watching your other content, as well as subscribing to see more released❣
This was so awesome to watch esp as someone who started with TS2. Please please do one for TS2! Would love to see how it was made and all the behind the scenes work that was done while Will was still there.
Que video tan conmovedor veo a mis amigas de arquitectura que se entuciasmaron por la carrera gracias a los Sims, es tan lindo ver que todo en el juego fue estudiado para ser lo que es hoy.
I never thought I’d have any interest in this game, but back in 2006 I was away with the girlfriend at the time at her Aunt’s and had nothing else to do… and wow did I get into it? Hehe loved a lot
Watching some of the build mode stuff makes me remember Im mad at EA for getting rid of curved stairs. lol And as we've seen with Inzoi demos, they were ahead of the curve with color wheels and uploading your own textures in Sims 3. No idea why they ever got rid of that. I may be buying it instead of Sims 5.
@ReliableRhubarb would you perhaps have the websites or documents in which you grabbed the information for this video? I have The Sims GDD, and found previous design models of the toolbar, but I wanted to find out more about other previous designs in The Sims in order to understand better the game design process
It's quite mind-boggling what went into this game. The ant hive mechanics that control the sims, the multiple layers of the sim and clothing, and other things. The thing that bothers me about the Sims 4? It's the pinnacle of the technology, and it's broken, costs a lot, and the lucrative nature has become the only thing that matters to the creators. They just recently started to address the broken aspects of the game and its DLCs. Did they take half of their crew to fix everything? Nope. Just a handful of the staff. The rest are working on new money making DLCs that are equally broken. If you keep building on a broken foundation? When you finish, the building will fall and/or fail. When it does? It will cost billions to remove the rubble and rebuild, and you will lose the trust of your loyal supporters. This game started with people who wanted to give the public greatness but ended up being a grab for money. Sad really because it's quite an enjoyable game. Personally, after the run around that EA Games has given me and watching how they are throwing resources towards new DLCs and doing very little to fix everything? I'm not purchasing any more overpriced and broken DLCs. I've purchased a few things during sales, but I'm not paying full price for this.
The video games industry has always been largely dominated by men, even more so back then, so it was fairly uncommon to have women making up 40% of your team, but it's not as if Maxis was the only developer back then hiring women.
What I find so fascinating is how they were able to take something as complex as life itself (relationships, wants vs needs, life goals, form vs function, etc) and boil it down into a game that's so accessible and simple to understand that anyone can play it. And on top of that it has limitless possibilities to the point where you are always discovering something new even years after playing. It's no wonder it became a phenomenon.
It's one of the first games I played as a kid. I got every expansion pack until makin magic. I was mostly fascinated with building stuff, which in part led me to become an architect later. Turns out I hate it, but not the point. I recently picked it up again after I got into Sims 4 during the pandemic, and it is so much more enjoyable and balanced perfectly. The basic needs actually made sense, skills make sense and it being harder to maintain relationships makes so much more sense. In Sims 4, it is almost trivial befriending someone, the long term relationship bar in Sims 1 is actually a challenge. Plus, trying to climb the career ladder almost requires you to stay up nights on end, dropping every need in the red and then it's 4am, you have to get up at 6 to cook breakfast and take a shower and you think "there's no way I'm able to get to work in an acceptable state" so you pump in the espresso, catch an hour of sleep to raise the comfort level, eat breakfast, pump another espresso, take a quick piss, skip the shower and get to work with a half bar of energy, slightly dirty and feeling lonely and think it's a wonder you even got to a light green plumbob from deep red in a couple of hours, think "today I'll go straight to bed when I get home" but then realize your social life is going down the drain and you lost two friends while at work, so you pump two more espressos, soil yourself in the kitchen, take a shower, call up some friends and the entire thing repeats - 4 am, no sleep, barely get ready for work, get home and do it all over again. Just like real life.
The music in the Sims 1 is still my favourite computer game music (closely followed by Shenmue)! Nothing peaks my nostalgia quite like the building mode music!
Oh man I am an OG sims stan, I can't even describe the awesomeness I felt finally getting my nana to buy it for me for my birthday! I got a bundle which included livin large and house party because I was a year late to the party lol but yes I am one of those female players crazy for the sims, and my next expansion pack I got was unleashed and I was stupidly excited about it for some reason... a funny memory i have was the guinea pig (that came with livin large for me) which I hardly bought for my sims but one time i did. It bit my sims and then they promptly start coughing everywhere which I though was strange but i wasn't bothered... until it started spreading around my whole family, and then a favourite sim of mine (the blonde roomie lol) just up and DIED and i was so traumatised. In the photo album it says "died of mystery illness". I was so shocked I told my mum in a panic haha I couldn't figure it out, this seemed like the game was cursed lol. I had NO idea it was the guinea pig! I isolated the Melissa Roomie and she survived and I was so relieved, which I also told my mum about but she didn't care lol. So crazy that this game still gives me mad nostagia 20 years later, and i will always be an og simmer lol (sims 1 and 2 only). This video was amazing thank you.
This is so familiar to me. I was an absolute sims fanatic, but I quickly discovered I was outnumbered by female simmers but I didn't care, I loved it more than I'd ever loved a game before. I remember the Guinea Pig illness! I was so freaked out, I thought all my sims were going to die. And oh god, when I got the house party expansion, and I had a party that was so good Drew Carey came. I didn't even know he was someone famous, I thought he was just like a guy who only went to good parties, and I ran into my mum to tell her Drew Carey had come to my sims party. She wasn't interested 😂 I think she kind of just smiled. But I was so happy.
@@failedstateupdate haha awesome yo have someone who can relate! Unfortunately my parties and my siblings ALWAYS had “zee mime” come haha I don’t think I ever had a drew Carey success party. Didn’t even know that was a thing until years later when I saw it on TH-cam ;D
I don't even think it "might've" saved the game; it DID save the game. The concept of a life simulator is one thing--sure, you can make goofy stories on your own, but that would get stale after a while, and it doesn't really give many people a reason to play. But you toss in the option to be gay, which was still very taboo in Western cultures at the time, and suddenly you're giving an entire population of people to explore the game. "What would my life be like if I got to live the way I'm meant to live?" Gay people aren't some rare occurrence (and I know you didn't mean it that way). The Sims was an outlet for marginalized people to really explore who they wanted to be. Not just for gay people, but for women as well. It also let children explore who they wanted to be. TLDR; The kiss absolutely saved the game, no doubt about it. Without it, the game would've been perceived as some boring life sim. And who wanted that?
And now homosexuals are oversaturated in media, especially in video games. To the point where they kill any interest in new games. Concord and Dustborn are the latest examples. Eventually, homosexuals will have to realize they are no longer the minority they used to be decades ago.
As a gay teen I always wanted to have a gay sim couple but I was in the closet and with a family that wasn't too gay friendly back then.. Then when I was 14, I got my dad's old laptop on the first day of the summer holidays and the Sims 1 complete collection! I was in heaven, I finally had my own computer and I spent all of June, July and August playing Sims 1 and all those expansions I didn't know, all of that with a gay sim couple. I can still remember their faces and the clothes they were wearing... 🥲 That game was like therapy for me...
Funny how nobody wanted The Sims but they wanted Will to continue working on Sim City and 20+ years later The Sims is still alive while Sim City has been a dead franchise for years lol
@@vickyloach1931 the "mistakes" must not that dire since yourself and many other people are here, being nosy about how it all started. The Sims will be just fine. It has stood the test of time like Harry Potter, Star Wars etc...
@@extrashotofespresso_ I have loved the franchise since The Sims 1. I don’t think the current sims team are that good or understand the franchise very well. They are not good at balancing lots of different play styles, definitely not ones that ruin their stories. I see them try multiplayer over and over again. It failed them many times before. Old sims used to improve features that worked whereas modern sims is all about features that don’t work. As well as ignoring a solid foundation in favour of said feature. Multiplayer is Will Wright’s second hand idea. The Sims doesn’t need renewal it just needs the old sims team back.
The Sims was so important to my life (And not just the Sims Franchise, SimPark was a great game too and got me interested in learning about animals), and I still love The Sims. It's a good game to play when I'm stressed out and lets me express myself.
Yeah not including children probably would have been a huge turn down for me. Since I was a child back then I was always more interested in creating kids sim and I'm sure a lot of people felt the same way.
I never realized until i watched this but the Sims is probably peak UI. They never dumbed something down so much that you're lacking ability and forced to choose between choices you don't exactly want, yet at the same time it's intuitive enough that pretty much anyone can pick it up within a few minutes of playing it. I wish this got more attention. Most UIs are absolute garbage these days that treats you as a total idiot who only exists to do what the developers want you to do.
You've done a marvelous job with this production. You also cared enough to provide exquisite captioning. I'm borderline hard of hearing plus I love to have the full context of what I'm watching so to say that this was appreciated is a huge understatement. I won't hesitate to say that you've inspired me. Thank you.
not too interesting music? oh dear, they shouldn't hear about me and the fam jamming to those musics so much we always kept a music player around in the sims' house just to play the music nonstop :D
Amazing background on this game. I just hate how the later console adaptions became less thrilling and less fun to play. Nothing beats the original PC version of "The Sims."
A lot of what's being said here also gives an example of why the Sims 4 is so stale. There's less passion and more of a scramble for more money. It's a symptom of the game industry cannibalizing itself in my opinion. Everyone is so concerned about money, thinking that's the measure of their success...Yet when games are being made with passion, and the player in mind, regardless of projected levels of success, they perform better than anything that was ruthlessly workshopped by executives. I hope someday they can get back to this, but I think it will take a lot more games directly competing with them in their own arena to force them to change. That is if the competition doesn't cause the whole game team to crumble, and execs to disinvest.
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out my latest documentaries on the history of Chris Sawyer (creator of Transport Tycoon, RollerCoaster Tycoon and Locomotion): th-cam.com/video/Q15Py17tiEA/w-d-xo.html as well as the history of Oddworld Inhabitants: th-cam.com/video/04Mqgm7w_80/w-d-xo.html
Let me know which other game franchises you'd like to see documentaries on in the future!
it's ironic how one of the most avant garde and groundbreaking series in pc history has become so safe and stale over the years
you have to try really really hard to fail in Sims 4. Sims 1 and 2 it was so easy to just fuck your sims up totally, and the humour was a lot darker.
Same with once independent and wild Lara Croft:/
That's because, at the time, games had some sort of goal or quest system. Nowadays, it's not rare for a game to be open ended. The reason why The Sims is now failing is simply because of corporate greed (endless $50 DLCs that barely add anything to the game), as well as a lack of modernity. The Sims 4 is simply outdated. Now that life simulation competitors have stepped onto the stage (such as InZOI and a few others, can't remember the names haha), EA is panicking. For the first time in years, EA has been releasing subtle rumors about The Sims 5 (aka Project Renee). Thing is, most people have lost interest because TS4 is 10 years old now. For 10 years, we've gone without news of a sequel to The Sims 4, and now they're expecting us to wait for another few years to see what mediocre slop they've cooked up this time? Hell no.
I miss what The Sims 4 used to be in 2014 and the few years that followed its release. But gosh, 10 years worth of DLCs and content packs racking to be upwards of $1,000 for a basic life simulator is what made the franchise stale. People are excited for the new life sim competitors because somebody needs to hold EA accountable for releasing half-baked products time and time again. I mean really, 10 years later and most of the stairs still don't match any flooring! We've been over it for too long now...
you better mod it up. I just got into mods after being a sims 4 player on and off for about 9 years and it is game changing.
@@nomoretwitterhandles chile inzoi just came out as a playtest to limited people LOL it still has a lot of work to do before it is nearly as relevant as sims 4.
The stats about how the game exploded hit even harder when knowing how many players were never counted in... in many non-West countries at least, lots of us would not have a computer or no money to buy games, so we would have that one burned CD with a key code jotted down on it that went around and we'd install The Sims on our house computer (with no or very slow internet access) or played our saves at our friends' house 😅
So many early secret Simmers 😏💖
I'm from Argentina, buying it was nearly impossible so many burned CDs 😅
@@eclipsedbadger with the lil code written on them 🤣🤣🤣 fr
Shhhh. Don’t tell EA.
The Sims were never actually officially distributed in Russia, which I learned only a couple of years ago, and yet, me and all my friends played it in the early 2000s a lot! Thanks to piracy, we had a great unofficial translation of the game, that even captured that subtle ironic humor.
Yes, the burned CDs lol Me and all my friends in CUBA! I played up to Sims 3 there before moving to the USA and buying Sims 4 right when it came out. It felt so good using my own hard earned money to buy the game that's made me so happy since I was 16yo :)
"...so, they made the Sims more irrational..." and thus a million legendary memes and iconic game lore began LOL
25:12 Wright is so funny, suggesting bossa-nova music as fire theme lol. No wonder the game turned out to be so fun.
Rusty trombones and assorted hornblowers announcing bad news :D
i audibly laughed at that. the dark humour makes the sims franchise imo
the girl from ipanapalm
I remember the first time I played sims at 10. Mom said “You’re not supposed to kill them!”. 😂👍
This is a criminally underrated channel, it’s clear how much effort and care you put into these documentaries! Keep up the excellent work!
As a programmer the thought process behind the making of the sims that this documentary successfully explains, is not only fun to learn about but it is also inspirational. I thought it was funny that initially the sims were too good at satisfying their own needs so they had to make them more irrational. Also, the fact that the user/player creates the landscape in which the sims live in and that there are multiple conditions that the developers had to cater for is so fascinating! I knew that this game was complex but this documentary really dives into the development process and the humble beginnings. I say all that to say THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS DOCUMENTARY!
Amazing video. Also still astounded by the sims 1 A.I. design in 2023. Like people complain about the stupidity of Sims but they aren't real people they are just pixels driven by objects. The fact that they can feel so alive to even be called "stupid" is an accomplishment. 😂😂
Even the undead are alive enough to be called stupid. Instead of going through the house and into the garage to drive to work, my vampire went out the front door, smoke billowing from her, then entered the garage to get in her car. Yes, let's go to work with your needs critically low. That's the ticket!
...To death. 🙄😒
Other examples of idiocy is the time I made a bunch of sims and let them largely run on free will. There was one guy who, for some reason, would not go to bed. He would nap on the sofa (often being interrupted by inconsiderate roommates turning on the TV or stereo), or he'd just pass out. He also seemed to use the bar more than anyone else, making quick drinks on a regular basis. I called him an idiot with a drinking problem. It was a few days before he finally went to bed. The bed that was specifically assigned to him, that was easily accessible to him...
I was obsessed with the sims and played it constantly for months... Until my stepfather heard that it was "a girls game" and "a dollshouse on the computer" and he broke my CD, and the CDs for the three expansion packs I owned. I was absolutely heartbroken, but he had decided it was "girly" and thus as a boy, I couldn't be allowed to play it as I might catch the gay.
God damn dude, that sounds horrible. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I hope you're in a better place now so that you can play all the "girly" games you want.
@@ReliableRhubarb yup, I got out of that house as soon as I could and have a much better life these days.
I have the classic Sims 2 on my laptop and a save file I've had going for about a decade now. And I never see him, thank God.
But yeah, my memories of the sims are bittersweet because of that. I have so many fond memories of playing it, spending way too long designing the family and writing bios for each family member, building up my house by earning money through jobs, moving into better houses, telling stories of my family in the photo album - and then coming home from school one day and him bursting into my room and snapping the cds into pieces in front of me. I'm pretty sure he made me uninstall it in front of him too, to make sure I couldn't ever play it again in case I worked out how to do so without the CD.
Then he bought me one of the command and conquer games for my birthday, and said it was the kind of game I "should" be playing, rather than "the dollshouse" as he called it from then on.
Thank God those days are over. Fantastic video by the way, definitely reminded me of the better times I had with the game even if it had a terrible ending and really reminded me of what I loved (and still love) so much about it, the open ended creativity of it all, making your own stories in what seemed like an infinite sandbox you were given, and just losing hours building my own little world in the computer. You definitely earned my sub.
Seriously. Frick that guy.
thats the dumbest shit ever lmao sorry your dads a moron.
i played the sims growing up with my dad and we always just did goofy stuff in the game like set off fireworks and burn the entire house down and watch all the sims die then the grim reaper comes, i miss my pops he was so cool.
ur step dad sounds like a dumbass in comparson lmao
@@failedstateupdateAs someone that enjoys Command & Conquer and TheSims, I'd hate C&C if it was introduced to me in such a manner.
Sorry you went through that.
Would love to see even more on the Sims. Maybe one per each game? Yours is the first I've watched that talks about the technical process and I really enjoyed it :)
Skip 4 pls
I may be in the minority, but I really enjoy the Sims Medieval variant. I know it tried to mix two different styles of gameplay, and was not well received, but I find it very enjoyable to play. I guess I love the gentle roleplaying aspect. The quests are fun, but not too rushed or ruthlessly combatitive.
i didn't think anyone else remembered the sims medieval 😅 i enjoyed it at the time
Patrick Barrett III, the man, the myth, the legend.
how the hell this video only has 2k views? It was super informative and to the point. Kudos man
12k now
126k now!
That build and buy music 🎶 such a nostalgia hole... The build music especially still makes me feel all relaxed and calm
Great video. Would love to see a video like this on the sims 2 and 3 as well.
But not 4 (b/c it sucks)
this video is a must see for any sims fan
I was born one day after the sims first series came out. Gosh, that’s why I am so invested in this game throughout the years. I started playing the sims 2 when I was a kid and now I play the sims 3. I completely ignore the sims 4 existence
Oh this took me down a great nostalgic journey. I remember playing the Sims with my sister a lot. I loved the Makin' Magic expansion, I always wanted to unlock all the spells and potions, but don't think I ever managed it. I tried installing the old game disks a few years ago but unfortunately it didn't work. I wish they had the original games available on EA origin.
As someone interested in video game development (having participated in video game projects) AND as someone who still enjoys the first Sims game, this video is so good and informative. Very educational for me too, I *adore* the explanations of the technical side! Thanks for all the research, I really wanted to know all these details. Will check out your other videos too. 😊
the early years of The Sims is driven by passion and love, nowadays its driven by pure corporate greed and agenda
18:11 Right when it dropped, I remember reading in a gaming magazine that developers had many round table discussions about relationship possibilities. How pedophilia was an absolute no and the homosexuality option was shuffled back and forth on whether it should get the green light. I hadn’t played the game yet, so was pretty infuriated to see same sex relationships being compared to outright sexual abuse. So upon picking up a copy, I was relieved same sex couples made the cut, and even more so now to learn that there was total fanfare at the unexpected kiss on the demo for E3!
How does this have only 1k views?
Really well done. We can see you put a lot of work into it.
From this video it's really clear why the sims ended up being such a huge success and why sims 4 isnt as strong as the others.
Being the first of its genre surely presented it with a lot of challenges(and only now its getting some competition). 7 years in development wow.
Also how cute the two female sims fell in love during the simulation.. my sims in sims 4 rarely do anything on their own can't imagine them falling in love without me initiating it somehow. I miss that.
Thank you for the video keep it up.
I would love to see one documentary like this for tropico. It kind of reminds me of the sims for its dark humour.
Thank you! Tropico is definitely a series I want to cover at some point. Not sure when I'll get around to it, as there's a lot on my list already and these documentaries take months to produce. My next documentary has already taken three months, as it's significantly larger than anything I've worked on to date, so I likely won't get around to covering Tropico until sometime next year at the earliest.
@@ReliableRhubarb oh wow 3 months . I will be waiting for it
It's up to 12k now
What a beautiful documentary. Thank you for making it. It was very interesting to see the rise of one of my favourite gaming franchises.
The fact that they decided to program behavior into the objects rather than people is incredibly profound, insightful, and revolutionary. Beyond just developer skill this deserves so much praise.
Also that they kind of inadvertently allowed for queer relationships was incredibly progressive and impactful at the time.
Wow! I've learned so much because of your video and your great work and explaination! I had no idea how much complicated and a head scratcher for years this game being a whole new genre and created in 90's.
All the people that worked on it, giving tools for custom contents, even "streaming" it on their website, when streaming wasn't even a thing at all, no TH-cam, no Twitch, no Social Networks.
Kudos for sticking and beliving hard to their project and development.
I don't know why, even though Sims 1's path finding/reaction is quite limited, can't place diagonal, moods/friendship are so hard to maintain in Sims 1... but I can't get the same pleasure and fun with Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims 4... though the Sims 1's the last 3-4 expansion packs left me meh...
All those racoons, skunks, animals leaving piss on my plot, making my sims's overall mood drop big before leaving for work always annoyed me. Cleaning that everyday was annoying, time is already so limited, you fulfill a need and another needs is now low... and these weird magic objects or superstar... I never bothered with that.
But something made me stick to Sims 1, maybe nostalgia, the simplicity ?
I would love to see a remastered version of it, rebalance with alot of QoL added, maybe the ability to change the colors of your furnitures, floors, etc.
Off to never never land
Just as an FYI: Mateo has emphasis on the second syllable. =) And this is VERY cool. I'm glad I found this.
Yeah, I'm aware. I learned that too late, but at least I know now so future videos won't have that problem. Nowadays I try looking up pronunciations of names/places I'm unsure of, so I don't end up making an ass of myself.
This channel is so fuckin underrated. Thank you for all your effort!
This channel deserves at least a million subs
sapphic love literally makes the world go round.
This is fascinating, I didn't know any of this! Thank you for making and sharing. I'd love a continuation of this for the other Sims games :)
I want the quirkiness and the OST of Sims 1, the object interactions of Sims 2, the open-world of Sims 3, and idk what I actually want from Sims 4 tbh
I love when I get recommendations for documentaries of games that I love❣I love it even more when said recommendations are so well done and interesting, that am eager to absorb additional content from the creator/s❣ You have achieved just that❣ Thank you for all the time and research you put into this video, I look forward to watching your other content, as well as subscribing to see more released❣
This is when the sims used to love making this game. Sims 4 is just one money grab scheme after the other and the game lacks major personality
This was so awesome to watch esp as someone who started with TS2. Please please do one for TS2! Would love to see how it was made and all the behind the scenes work that was done while Will was still there.
Such a nostalgic game.
Strangeville is one of the best packs ever
Well put together documentary, I learned alot thankyou
Que video tan conmovedor veo a mis amigas de arquitectura que se entuciasmaron por la carrera gracias a los Sims, es tan lindo ver que todo en el juego fue estudiado para ser lo que es hoy.
Very interesting history. Thanks for this work.
I never thought I’d have any interest in this game, but back in 2006 I was away with the girlfriend at the time at her Aunt’s and had nothing else to do… and wow did I get into it? Hehe loved a lot
I am enjoying this video so much. Thank you for making it
I was obsessed with this game in 2001! It wouldnt run smoothly on my pentium 233 so it ran on the family celeron 533 compaq pavilion for many years
I miss playing my Sims Deluxe Edition. Sims 4 is not the same.
Excellent informative video!
Watching some of the build mode stuff makes me remember Im mad at EA for getting rid of curved stairs. lol And as we've seen with Inzoi demos, they were ahead of the curve with color wheels and uploading your own textures in Sims 3. No idea why they ever got rid of that. I may be buying it instead of Sims 5.
Honestly, if makin' magic had released a few years later, to ride the nascent harry potter craze, we would have seen sims S T O N K S
Omg I finally found what those sim crafters were in the original game. It was before the game even came out??
I wish I could have played Tactical Domestic Simulator.
no doors bear rug. fire place :) haha the menace in me coming out when i was a kid!!!!!!
Sid Meier's: Tactical Domestic Simulator when?
Thanks for your Research and nice vid.
A beautiful piece of software. ❤
They really deserve all the success.
Almost every girl i have dated has been a huge fan of the sims and sat there making us and our 'future family' 😂
@ReliableRhubarb would you perhaps have the websites or documents in which you grabbed the information for this video? I have The Sims GDD, and found previous design models of the toolbar, but I wanted to find out more about other previous designs in The Sims in order to understand better the game design process
All of my sources are listed in a public Patreon post (a link to which can be found in the video description).
I love this game so much 🤍
It's quite mind-boggling what went into this game. The ant hive mechanics that control the sims, the multiple layers of the sim and clothing, and other things. The thing that bothers me about the Sims 4? It's the pinnacle of the technology, and it's broken, costs a lot, and the lucrative nature has become the only thing that matters to the creators. They just recently started to address the broken aspects of the game and its DLCs. Did they take half of their crew to fix everything? Nope. Just a handful of the staff. The rest are working on new money making DLCs that are equally broken. If you keep building on a broken foundation? When you finish, the building will fall and/or fail. When it does? It will cost billions to remove the rubble and rebuild, and you will lose the trust of your loyal supporters. This game started with people who wanted to give the public greatness but ended up being a grab for money. Sad really because it's quite an enjoyable game. Personally, after the run around that EA Games has given me and watching how they are throwing resources towards new DLCs and doing very little to fix everything? I'm not purchasing any more overpriced and broken DLCs. I've purchased a few things during sales, but I'm not paying full price for this.
I love this omg
Like if you still have your fat PS2 from back in the day
16:27 🔖
Do the sims 2 next
12:18 can anybody link me the source/ original images of the real model?
The Sims + Sim city= Sims 3
this was a way more interesting video than i expected. was it common to have female developers at the time?
The video games industry has always been largely dominated by men, even more so back then, so it was fairly uncommon to have women making up 40% of your team, but it's not as if Maxis was the only developer back then hiring women.
great video
Nice name 🤔
Woohoo
I love the game but I don't like EA and what they've become.
everyone say thank you to lesbians
I’m so in love with the fact that they named their programming language Simantics.
Truly underrated
I can't believe I have been playing The Sims for 22 years.
You and me both, but I love the game. I hate how money grubby they've become.
Haha yep me same
Shut upppp! 😭 I am not old, you are old!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭
@@jonzalezartthat’s bc EA got full control. EA always has been money grab
Sometimes, I really miss playing the original. My little sister and I had hours of fun playing this game.
that accidental kiss at e3 demo literally bringing a tear to my eye
They broke confinement 😃😂
disgusting, show me more
What I find so fascinating is how they were able to take something as complex as life itself (relationships, wants vs needs, life goals, form vs function, etc) and boil it down into a game that's so accessible and simple to understand that anyone can play it. And on top of that it has limitless possibilities to the point where you are always discovering something new even years after playing. It's no wonder it became a phenomenon.
It's one of the first games I played as a kid. I got every expansion pack until makin magic. I was mostly fascinated with building stuff, which in part led me to become an architect later. Turns out I hate it, but not the point. I recently picked it up again after I got into Sims 4 during the pandemic, and it is so much more enjoyable and balanced perfectly.
The basic needs actually made sense, skills make sense and it being harder to maintain relationships makes so much more sense. In Sims 4, it is almost trivial befriending someone, the long term relationship bar in Sims 1 is actually a challenge. Plus, trying to climb the career ladder almost requires you to stay up nights on end, dropping every need in the red and then it's 4am, you have to get up at 6 to cook breakfast and take a shower and you think "there's no way I'm able to get to work in an acceptable state" so you pump in the espresso, catch an hour of sleep to raise the comfort level, eat breakfast, pump another espresso, take a quick piss, skip the shower and get to work with a half bar of energy, slightly dirty and feeling lonely and think it's a wonder you even got to a light green plumbob from deep red in a couple of hours, think "today I'll go straight to bed when I get home" but then realize your social life is going down the drain and you lost two friends while at work, so you pump two more espressos, soil yourself in the kitchen, take a shower, call up some friends and the entire thing repeats - 4 am, no sleep, barely get ready for work, get home and do it all over again. Just like real life.
I can tell you really get in to this game haha
The music in the Sims 1 is still my favourite computer game music (closely followed by Shenmue)! Nothing peaks my nostalgia quite like the building mode music!
This is such an excellent and in depth look, the best technical exploration of the Sims I've ever seen. Please continue this throughout the series!
Oh man I am an OG sims stan, I can't even describe the awesomeness I felt finally getting my nana to buy it for me for my birthday! I got a bundle which included livin large and house party because I was a year late to the party lol but yes I am one of those female players crazy for the sims, and my next expansion pack I got was unleashed and I was stupidly excited about it for some reason... a funny memory i have was the guinea pig (that came with livin large for me) which I hardly bought for my sims but one time i did. It bit my sims and then they promptly start coughing everywhere which I though was strange but i wasn't bothered... until it started spreading around my whole family, and then a favourite sim of mine (the blonde roomie lol) just up and DIED and i was so traumatised. In the photo album it says "died of mystery illness". I was so shocked I told my mum in a panic haha I couldn't figure it out, this seemed like the game was cursed lol. I had NO idea it was the guinea pig! I isolated the Melissa Roomie and she survived and I was so relieved, which I also told my mum about but she didn't care lol. So crazy that this game still gives me mad nostagia 20 years later, and i will always be an og simmer lol (sims 1 and 2 only). This video was amazing thank you.
This is so familiar to me. I was an absolute sims fanatic, but I quickly discovered I was outnumbered by female simmers but I didn't care, I loved it more than I'd ever loved a game before. I remember the Guinea Pig illness! I was so freaked out, I thought all my sims were going to die. And oh god, when I got the house party expansion, and I had a party that was so good Drew Carey came. I didn't even know he was someone famous, I thought he was just like a guy who only went to good parties, and I ran into my mum to tell her Drew Carey had come to my sims party. She wasn't interested 😂 I think she kind of just smiled. But I was so happy.
@@failedstateupdate haha awesome yo have someone who can relate! Unfortunately my parties and my siblings ALWAYS had “zee mime” come haha I don’t think I ever had a drew Carey success party. Didn’t even know that was a thing until years later when I saw it on TH-cam ;D
I’m an og simmer too ! Played since I was 3 😮❤❤❤
The music from the original Sims is amazing. Like all of it.
Incredible that a gay kiss at E3 might've saved the game. The gay aspect blew my mind as a kid and gave me a way to explore myself in safety
I don't even think it "might've" saved the game; it DID save the game. The concept of a life simulator is one thing--sure, you can make goofy stories on your own, but that would get stale after a while, and it doesn't really give many people a reason to play. But you toss in the option to be gay, which was still very taboo in Western cultures at the time, and suddenly you're giving an entire population of people to explore the game. "What would my life be like if I got to live the way I'm meant to live?"
Gay people aren't some rare occurrence (and I know you didn't mean it that way). The Sims was an outlet for marginalized people to really explore who they wanted to be. Not just for gay people, but for women as well. It also let children explore who they wanted to be.
TLDR; The kiss absolutely saved the game, no doubt about it. Without it, the game would've been perceived as some boring life sim. And who wanted that?
I didn't even *know* about that.
And now homosexuals are oversaturated in media, especially in video games. To the point where they kill any interest in new games. Concord and Dustborn are the latest examples. Eventually, homosexuals will have to realize they are no longer the minority they used to be decades ago.
As a gay teen I always wanted to have a gay sim couple but I was in the closet and with a family that wasn't too gay friendly back then..
Then when I was 14, I got my dad's old laptop on the first day of the summer holidays and the Sims 1 complete collection!
I was in heaven, I finally had my own computer and I spent all of June, July and August playing Sims 1 and all those expansions I didn't know, all of that with a gay sim couple.
I can still remember their faces and the clothes they were wearing... 🥲
That game was like therapy for me...
And today they help all queer people with their options on body types and gender
Funny how nobody wanted The Sims but they wanted Will to continue working on Sim City and 20+ years later The Sims is still alive while Sim City has been a dead franchise for years lol
The Sims could be joining Simcity as they are repeating the same mistakes.
city building genre didnt die tho, we all just play Cities Skylines now instead.
@@vickyloach1931 the "mistakes" must not that dire since yourself and many other people are here, being nosy about how it all started. The Sims will be just fine. It has stood the test of time like Harry Potter, Star Wars etc...
@@extrashotofespresso_ I have loved the franchise since The Sims 1. I don’t think the current sims team are that good or understand the franchise very well. They are not good at balancing lots of different play styles, definitely not ones that ruin their stories. I see them try multiplayer over and over again. It failed them many times before. Old sims used to improve features that worked whereas modern sims is all about features that don’t work. As well as ignoring a solid foundation in favour of said feature. Multiplayer is Will Wright’s second hand idea. The Sims doesn’t need renewal it just needs the old sims team back.
City builder fans aren't as easily manipulated a customer base as... life simulator fans.
The Sims was so important to my life (And not just the Sims Franchise, SimPark was a great game too and got me interested in learning about animals), and I still love The Sims. It's a good game to play when I'm stressed out and lets me express myself.
Yeah not including children probably would have been a huge turn down for me. Since I was a child back then I was always more interested in creating kids sim and I'm sure a lot of people felt the same way.
I never realized until i watched this but the Sims is probably peak UI. They never dumbed something down so much that you're lacking ability and forced to choose between choices you don't exactly want, yet at the same time it's intuitive enough that pretty much anyone can pick it up within a few minutes of playing it. I wish this got more attention. Most UIs are absolute garbage these days that treats you as a total idiot who only exists to do what the developers want you to do.
I wish they would do a sims nostalgia and repackage the old version for 2024 with the way it was played originally ... Id buy it
God I love this game ... miss the time, where I could play this game countless hours a day.
Great video, thanks for sharing it. I have always considered myself a sims 1 trivia buff but there were even some things in here I didn’t know yet!
24:09 LOL did Cassandra just get so offended by Bella’s piano playing that she stopped being friends with her
You've done a marvelous job with this production. You also cared enough to provide exquisite captioning. I'm borderline hard of hearing plus I love to have the full context of what I'm watching so to say that this was appreciated is a huge understatement. I won't hesitate to say that you've inspired me. Thank you.
loved this video! it would be cool to see future coverage about the sims 1 for the ps2, which was the first sims game that i ever had.
not too interesting music? oh dear, they shouldn't hear about me and the fam jamming to those musics so much we always kept a music player around in the sims' house just to play the music nonstop :D
awesome work!
This is awesome! Appreciate the time & effort!
this video is so underrated
Super well done video! I could imagine it took forever between research and editing. The game devs were way ahead of their time for sure!
It's so sad what happened to the Sims franchise! EA is truly greedy and evil! Sims could be so much more today!
Amazing background on this game. I just hate how the later console adaptions became less thrilling and less fun to play. Nothing beats the original PC version of "The Sims."
I'm so glad they didn't give up on the Sims 😅😅
That soundtrack is the BOMB; Remember we were still burning CDs and I had the Sims playing everywhere
A lot of what's being said here also gives an example of why the Sims 4 is so stale. There's less passion and more of a scramble for more money. It's a symptom of the game industry cannibalizing itself in my opinion. Everyone is so concerned about money, thinking that's the measure of their success...Yet when games are being made with passion, and the player in mind, regardless of projected levels of success, they perform better than anything that was ruthlessly workshopped by executives. I hope someday they can get back to this, but I think it will take a lot more games directly competing with them in their own arena to force them to change. That is if the competition doesn't cause the whole game team to crumble, and execs to disinvest.
This 30min-long documentary taught me a lot of things I didn't know, and I play The Sims since the 1 was released! Thank you for that
Great video bro. Very well produced and edited. Much respect! :)