Victoria’s View

The Sims is a beloved franchise of life-simulation games that has been on the market since the year 2000. With four iterations, the Sims, the Sims 2, the Sims 3, and the Sims 4, many people, including myself, have grown up with and continue to play these games. Being that the Sims games are almost entirely open-ended and up to the player, it can be difficult to imagine that they make any argument at all. However, like any implicit argument, the argument is subtle yet consistent, one that can be seen, with slight variations, throughout the entire series. Essentially, the Sims franchise makes an implicit argument for what the ideal lifestyle is, through the way Sims look, dress, act, and live. That lifestyle is mainly traditional, white American, suburbian, and money-driven, and largely perpetuates the ideal of the nuclear family.

The Sims making an argument for what is the ideal lifestyle or family is most strongly seen with the earliest games, such as the Sims and the Sims 2. Diversity in particular has been a point of contention in the early games, with only Sims with certain appearances and identities being able to be created, largely white. This can be clearly seen with the Sims 2, with only four skin tones total and the darkest skin tone being only medium brown in-game.

Additionally, plus-sized Sims were completely absent until the Sims 3. Technically, the Sims 2 had a setting for “fat” sims, however, the Sims 2 idea of “fat” is not what most would agree with.

Skin tones and body diversity were improved in later games like Sims 3 and the Sims 4, however, considering that the Sims 3 was created nine years after the original Sims game, adding diversity was more like an afterthought. Through the Sims character creators a perhaps unintentional but still impactful argument is that in creating your perfect idea of a simulated family you can only create a family within certain racial and bodily guidelines.

The perpetuation of suburbia as the ideal living conditions is perhaps the most apparent theme in the Sims franchise. Essentially all of the worlds in the Sims games have only suburban neighborhoods, meaning that other ways of life are not shown at all. The majority of premade families (up until the Sims 4) are stereotypical nuclear families, with a wife, a husband, and some amount of children representing the majority of households. This ideal is also encouraged throughout the game, during which Sims will often “wish” (the exact term varies by game) to propose, get married, and have a child, in that order. In the Sims 3, Sims who have a child out of “wedlock” get negative moods and are publicly shamed by other Sims. Through game mechanics such as this one, a certain “path” in life is heavily encouraged, which is one that of course mirrors the traditional American suburban lifestyle. Other ways of life can often be met with negative game outcomes, steering most players away from them entirely.

In the Sims, money truly does buy happiness. Using cheaper appliances is met with consequences, such as negative moods and sometimes in reduced quality of the items produced by said appliance, such as food. Buying more expensive furniture, appliances, cars, and decorations leads to positive moods and an overall easier life. Essentially, this drives the player to attempt to make their Sim family as rich as possible, with remaining stagnant at a certain financial status resulting in stressed Sims. Moving up the career ladder is more of a necessity and not a choice, and not doing so takes active effort and bad performance from the Sim the player is controlling. Some of the most iconic premade families in the Sims franchise are also the richest families, in part because becoming a rich, well-to-do family in the Sims game is the goal of the game, most evident by noticeably more cheerful Sims when wealth is increased.

The Sims, through character customization, game mechanics, Sim wishes/aspirations, and premade families, perpetuates the stereotype that the ideal household is more often than not of a certain appearance, holds traditional American values, and is affluent. Although the Sims franchise is my all-time favorite game series, recognizing the subtle arguments that the games make is very important to understanding its impact on its millions of players, including myself.