The game became so popular it's spanned 4 sequels so far, including The Sims 2 and all of it's expansion packs, The Sims 3 and of course all it's expansion packs, and the last I heard there was a The Sims 4, which I never really played or participated with. It's one of those mainstream games that maintained a huge level of fame for beyond a decade, though today it seems the series has faded in back.

The original "The Sims" was highly limited compared to the later releases. Everything, like Sim City 2000, is in a top-down, isometric, 45 degree angle view. Layers are very static, with up to 2 layers allowed to allow for 2 story houses. You cannot have basements, buildings built into mountains, or the ground. You also cannot drive a car or other transportation, everything is handled a bit like you have an Uber/Lyft service (though decorative cars are availible via the internet). Also, your characters had to be built out using a body and a head. These bodies and heads could be editied/modified skin-wise using either a regular graphics editor, or using the The Sims Tool. There were a lot of other tools you could use - 3rd party - like Sims Explorer or various other little managers and other utilities.

Truth was, I was the first of many upcoming generations who would fill their lives with Student Loan Debt (or parlay our lack of a college degree into relevant experience in our field to avoid said college loan debt), live in apartments in metropolitan areas where jobs were plenty with lousy pay and benefits, be willing to die rather than go to the hospital, but at least we did not have bubbas, hillbillies, and rednecks attacking our "liberal" viewpoints politically without a single clue as to who we were. We were still believing we'd enter our thirties with a house, kids, a yard, 2 cars within 10 years old age in the driveway with under 200K on them, and savings in our bank accounts. Not reaching 40 years old, with nary savings, cars reaching "vintage" age with 400K+ on them, still paying student loan debt, choosing not to have kids because they are expensive and detrimental to our wallets and mental health, and despite being married, still living with room mates. Welcome to Gen Y, and The Sims sold us the "dream" of living the "American Dream", when in reality, they probably created it, because like comedian George Carlin said, it's called a dream, because you can only believe it if you're sleeping!

But through The Sims, we could live out our decadent, immature, and rather ridiculous fantasies. Want a 4 story house with the Back to the Future Deleorean and Jurassic Park Explorer in your driveway, and furry turquoise wallpaper, six cats, an arcade, and 101 guitars in one room? You're just a "rosebud ;!;!;!;!;!;...." away. Want to run your own free video arcade downtown with every arcade machine downloaded off the internet? Awesome! Want a harem of babes in a Love Shack that'd make The B-52's Jealous? Got it. 2 Story Music Store with celebrity instruments and famous people every day? Sure. All you needed was The Sims, an Internet Connection, and a cheat code list off GameFAQs.

Usually I used the tutorial game to torture Bob and his move-in girlfriend. I dunno why, but Bob seemed like countless other dudes I'd known in real life, sort of that sloppy guy who shaved his head because he'd rather save money not getting a haircut (I took the other approach - long rocker hair), cool taste in music, but a bit too "bro-like" for my liking. I always screwed up the tutorial game, if not intentionally, unintentionally. However, playing as myself has been easy as heck.

Most games eventually find me putting myself in a modest-ish house somewhere near the outskirts of town. These days I usually opt to play someone else, someone whose life I can ruin, someone I can tormnet. Sometimes I just install a giant fence around the property, put the family in, and then watch them go full cuckoo!

Of course I've done the LGR thing, a Toilet Store, which really was unoriginal because before I did it, and maybe LGR hismelf, Running With Scissors did in Postal 2.