It has been almost ten years since The Sims has become an icon for building virtual homes and controlling virtual lives.
I can say that this game created a whole new hobby, building houses. Now, unlike in real life (which takes quite a while to build a home), you build from a computer game. Not just any computer game, now. The Sims, of course. Master the art of building with neat tools and wonderful (somewhat) furnishings. Now I am not going to say that the game is all that perfect (Indeed, what game is?) but what it gave us in the 4 years of the Sims and its expansions was quite a feat. There was a lot to do at the time. You could build clean and decent homes, two story or high ceiling homes, or go overboard with impossible looking homes where you could build four walls then building a second floor with four walls, get rid of the walls below, add a swimming pool, get rid of some of the pool to accommodate a smaller room below, turn it into a bathroom with circular stairs inside leading to the top floor and look at that! You have a house where a large top floor is being supported by a measly bathroom sitting in the middle of a swimming pool and the only entrance is you swim across to get to it. Basically, there was a lot you could. (Did I repeat that?)
Buy mode was good too, apart from the fact you didn't have recoloring tools at the time. You could organize furniture and match it up to create that homey feel or place random objects everywhere to make it look like a mess. A TV in the bathroom, a toilet in the bedroom, a bathtub sitting in the front yard! You name it! Varieties of things to do.
Making Sims was fun too. I could make a nice and outgoing Sim who gets along with everyone or I could make a snobbish Sim who snaps at people for no reason. The best part is, you control their lives. Controlling like when one Sim is watching TV then you tell the other Sim to turn it off while that other Sim was watching it. It is so manipulative, even though the Sim's intention for doing so was because of popping up their head up in a dark bubble in front of the TV and telling them to: TURN IT OFF!
At first, you could only build five homes but when Livin' Large (or Livin' It Up) came out you had four new neighborhoods. But when Unleashed came out then you have eight neighborhoods (although I think before unleashed and after Livin' Large there were eight) where each one had a town implemented in the neighborhood with a little more lots to use. The funny thing is when Unleashed expanded the neighborhood all eight neighborhoods' extra land had the same exact houses. So you wouldn't have to worry about destroying other Sims lives. You could just start over in another neighborhood or just delete them. But, hey, ain't that a little harsh? A little icon with a family of Sims standing next to a trash can with an arrow pointing at the trash can telling you where the Sims you want deleted go. Throwing Sims in the trash can should be illegal, haha!
Overall, this game set up what we have today. The Sims 3, baby!
But even though The Sims 3 overshadows this game by a million miles, never forget that without this game there wouldn't be a Sims 3. This game is a legend and no matter how good the 'sequels' can get, this one will always be remembered. To you Sims enthusiasts. keep on building, buying and playing those Sims to death (literally!). The Sims is the best simulation game I've ever played. Any other simulation game not related to this (except Simcity games and the Age of Empires games, although the term 'any other simulation' probably has no meaning now) is a dud. The Sims4Life!