Paris (AFP)
Endless possibilities behind the appearance of everyday life: 20 years after the release of the first game, The Sims continue to inspire millions of players, who build stories and buildings as much as they build themselves.
"The Sims are always part of my daily life, I've known them for longer than my husband": at 36 years old and behind his nickname, "GGO" is from all the adventures of the Sims. "It was my uncle who told me about it, a few months after the release. At first I recreated stories that I had invented but when the game grew, I continued by creating stories with the Sims ".
It is one of the 20 million players identified during the last quarter of 2019 by Electronic Arts, which publishes the game created by Will Wright, the same on the initiative of SimCity, a simulation placing the player in command of a city. In the Sims, the player creates a virtual alter ego and can create a city and characters, start a family, find a job ...
"At first, everyone said that this game was silly, especially on its principle: recreating the problems of everyday life," recalls sociologist Pascaline Lorentz, author of the book "Growing up having fun with the video game The Sims ".
The Sims have become one of the flagship franchises of Electronic Arts, with revenues exceeding $ 5 billion (4.6 billion euros) between its creation and November 2019, and more than 200 million copies sold, according to latest figures from 2016.
In the life simulation category, it largely dominates the other titles, despite the success of some like Nintendo's Animal Crossing, a new episode of which comes out in March 2020 on the Nintendo Switch, or other management games, like Zoo Tycoon from Microsoft.
- Area of freedom -
The player is not guided by a narrative or missions to accomplish, just by monitoring the eight gauges of basic needs - hunger, energy, comfort, entertainment or even the bladder. Several generations of players have seized this space of freedom, without prohibitions or standards: the first game already allowed homosexual relationships and since the Sims 2, a human body can give birth.
The game is "projective" for young people, explains psychologist Michael Stora, who used it in a therapeutic use, in particular by the extremely advanced personalization of avatars.
Some players "mirror themselves in the game but adopt behaviors that they would never dare in life". Others "idealize, but ultimately keep the same type of relationship," he analyzes.
But as each action has consequences in the interactions with other Sims, controlled by artificial intelligence, the game also serves as a test: "adolescents, for example, experience flirting through their Sims. If the Sims immediately tries to kiss a person, he will be rejected ", continues Pascaline Lorentz.
- Community participation -
The Sims universe is limitless and constantly enriched. If only four games were released, in 2000, 2004, 2009 and 2014, they are enhanced with multiple extensions. The latest, "The Sims in college", was released in November 2019.
The players themselves participate in the enrichment with "modding", by adding objects to the game that they have designed themselves. "The designers are attentive to the community. Recently there was a meeting where the moderators listened to our feedback to make improvements," said Benjamin, 22, including 11 years exploring the Sims under the pseudonym Fezet.
He is one of the players called "builders" and can spend "several hours" inventing or reproducing buildings. "Compared to other similar games like Minecraft, you don't have to worry about surviving or defending yourself," said the student in architecture school.
The Sims are not about to stop playing: Andrew Wilson, the CEO of Electronic Arts, confirmed in late January that a fifth installment was being prepared in an interview for the American channel CNN. No release date has been brought forward.
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