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Designer of The Sims Will Wright appeared on Twitch today to talk about his next life sim, Proxi, and share a few memories about The Sims. During the stream on BreakthroughT1D’s channel, Wright explained why he was building his next life sim using the real memories of the people playing it, and shared some of his memories about the iconic simulation games he made at Maxis.
One topic that came up is an element of The Sims that is still a bit perplexing, even for those who have been playing for years: how is it that everyday activities like washing dishes and using the bathroom—typically boring affairs in real life—are somehow fun when you do them inside The Sims?
“I’ve always believed you can take almost anything, I could just take a rock off the ground, and make a game about that rock,” Wright said. “It might be little microbes growing across the surface, going through the seasons, all sorts of things. If you zoom into the right scale of space and time, I’m sure I could make a pretty cool game about a rock.”
That could explain why doing chores like paying bills and mopping floors is enjoyable in The Sims, but Wright pointed out that the unexciting routine of The Sims busywork can also be appealing for people whose lives are genuinely chaotic.
“A very famous pop star in Germany, kinda like Britney Spears-level, we heard she was a big Sims fan,” Wright said. “She was a workaholic, she would go from concert to concert to concert.”
This pop star’s only downtime was while she was being transported between shows, and that was when she’d play The Sims. “I asked her, ‘tell me what your life is like in The Sims’ and she said ‘Oh, it is so boring, it’s wonderful.'” Wright said. “A mundane life, getting up, having a routine, that was her fantasy.”
Unfortunately, Wright didn’t spill the beans on who the actual pop star is, saying “I forget her name.” But we can always speculate, right? I don’t think Nena (99 Luft Balloons) was still a big deal in 2000 when the first Sims game launched—in fact I think the band broke up around 1990. And unfortunately, Nena is about where my knowledge of German pop music begins and ends. If you have any other (better) guesses, I’d love to hear them.
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Kurt Indovina
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