The Sims - A Game for Women

....and even a few men!

The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer / playstation game. It was first brought out in 2000 by Maxis, and was developed by the same game designer, Will Wright, who developed the ever popular game - SimCity. The Sims is a simulation game that's based on the lives of Sims and their daily lives.

I can't speak for the entire female population, but I can tell you that this is my go-to game. Every couple of months I get this sudden urge to escape into a little bit of a fantasy - at least for a couple of hours. This is exactly what The Sims allows you to do. Whenever I get asked what type of computer / video games I enjoy playing - and I say The Sims, I'm usually met with a sarcastic remark and a roll of eyes if the question is asked by a guy. Most of my girlfriends enjoy playing The Sims as much as I do for similar reasons. It gives us a chance to live out our dreams, our little fantasies - and pretty much do whatever we feel like within the game.

Where do we differ?

We enjoy dressing up our characters. The guys enjoy blowing things up. We enjoy building and decorating houses. The guys enjoy crashing their cars. We enjoy building up a career or a family online. The guys enjoy fighting monsters and demons.

The guys enjoy their fighting, shooting and racing games and the girls enjoy hidden treasure and simulation games. Of course, I have a few girlfriends who can give the guys a run for their money when they play Gears of War, and I'm sure there are many guys out there who secretly enjoy building a gigantic house kitted out with all the latest technology!

Sims 1

• The Sims: Livin' Large
• The Sims: House Party
• The Sims: Hot Date
• The Sims: Vacation
• The Sims: Unleashed
• The Sims: Superstar
• The Sims: Making Magic

Sims 2

• The Sims 2: University
• The Sims 2: Nightlife
• The Sims 2:Open for Business
• The Sims 2: Pets
• The Sims 2: Bon Voyage

Sims 3

• The Sims 3: World Adventures
• The Sims 3: Ambitions
• The Sims 3: Late Night
• The Sims 3: Generations
• The Sims 3: Pets
• The Sims 3: Showtime

One of my favourite parts of playing The Sims isn't actually playing as such, but more of creating the character.

Age, Race and Body Type

You can choose if you want your character to be male or female. Then you get to choose how old you want your character to be. Your first character needs to be an adult, and if you're confident enough to play more than one character at a time - your second character can be as young as a toddler, or as old as a grandparent! Your character can be any race - black, white, Cuban or Asian. Finally, you get to choose how skinny or large, scrawny or muscular you want your character to be.

Once you've chosen all the physical aspects, it's time for the real fun part - hair, make-up and clothes! This part normally takes me around an hour to do because I keep chopping and changing my mind - there are a lot of choices!

Hair

There are many hairstyles and colours to choose from - long, short, straight, curly, spiky, shaved, afro, Mohawk- the list is huge. You can choose your character to have a beard, moustache, sideburns, a 2 day shadow or clean shaven.

Physical Features

You get to decide on eye colour, how bushy the eyebrows are going to be, how long the nose is, if you want your character to have a mole or freckles over the nose.

Make-Up

Choose barely there make-up - or costume make-up, tattoos on the face - piercings, sunglasses, hats, jewellery or reading glasses to complete the look. Once you've got the make-up done, it's time to choose the clothes.

Clothes

The range of clothes is endless - mainly because you can design any of the clothes in a wide range of colours and fabric designs. Your Sims outfits consist of athletic wear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal wear and everyday wear. The range of clothes and shoes is quite impressive.

Okay, I admit it. I've used the cheat code before just so that I could build a millionaires house. You can decide for yourself if you'd prefer to use cheats or play the game properly, and build your house up once you've earned enough money. Personally, I play the game as a means to live in a fantasy world - it's all good fun, but sometimes I like to play with the amount of money that my character has and make them slave away at their job until I can afford that villa by the sea!

Building the House

What I enjoy about Sims 3 is the amount of storeys you can add to your house. You can have a basement, and more than two storeys. I really go all out sometimes, my house usually includes a cinema room, a large pool with palm trees, a library, chefs kitchen and a ton of marble bathrooms! You can build the house flat on the grass, or build a foundation first. Choose from simple wooden doors and window frames, to enormous double doors and floor to ceiling windows.

You can decide on the type of grass your garden is going to be, maybe you'd prefer to live on some beachy sea sand? Choose a white picket fence around the house, have it open filled with rose bushes and garden lights, or surrounded with large stone walls and trees. Create an oasis of a garden that can include water fountains, rock features, almost every type of flower, tree or shrub.

Decorating Inside

Once you've built your house and divided it into different rooms - it's time for the fun part, decorating! Whether you're décor theme is rustic, eclectic, contemporary, modern, country, classic, chic, casual or a mixture - there are furniture pieces, fabric, accessories and lighting fixtures for every type of theme you can imagine.

One of the best improvements made of The Sims 3 is the large variety of design patterns available. This means that you can choose a plain white sofa and change the colour and fabric to one of a couple of hundred choices. Anything from leather or plain, checked, abstract, geometrical, woven or themed fabric is available to choose from.

There are similar large choices when it comes to decorating the floors and walls. Every type of wooden floor and tiled wall choice is available.

Add candles to the bath, magazines to the coffee table, colourful pots to the kitchen, books to the library and towels to the bathrooms. You can even decorate your house with Egyptian, Chinese or French antiques and treasures.

The list of career choices and job opportunities for your Sim is endless. Your character can work part time as a waitress, a cashier or a Receptionist.

They can climb the career ladder and work their way up from a paper boy to President of the local newspaper, become a Lawyer, Chef or Scientist! With each career choice, there are various scenarios your character will have to go through, and skills they will need to build in order to advance in their career.

Sims can do their grocery shopping in town, go see a movie or baseball game, attend an art class, go fishing at the lake, have a picnic in the park, read a book in the library, eat at a coffee shop, have a facial at the spa or even go to the gym!

You can decide in the options section how long you want your Sim to live. You can choose that they "live forever", but this means that if they have children for example - the baby is never going to grow up. If they have a normal life span, then they age until they become old.

Relationships between Sims are very interesting. Much the same as in real life, there are also aspects and emotions that come into play in The Sims such as love, lust, jealousy, rage, envy and depression. This is when it's important to choose your Sims goals and personality wisely in the beginning of the game when you're building your character.

If your Sim isn't already married or living with another Sim, then they have the option of trying to find a partner - and this can be quite entertaining! Or, they can buy a love potion or speak to a fortune teller who will guide them to another Sim as a possible love match. This can be extremely amusing - there's no telling who will fall in love with your Sim!

If your Sim falls in love with another Sim and they get married, chances are you're going to want to play around and start making a family. Another highly entertaining part of playing The Sims. Your Sim can fall pregnant the old fashioned way, or they can go the adoption route. Be careful here as sometimes you won't know if you're getting a boy or a girl and you need to choose a name for the baby before you find this out!

Babies who cry a lot, eat alot and sleep alot - turn into toddlers. Toddlers demand a lot of attention and need to be kept occupied all the time. Once the toddlers become children they can go to school, and need to make friends and keep up with their school work. When they become teenagers, they're able to get part time work, date and sneak out of the house! Young adults can get jobs or make plans to go to college. Adults can buy a house, work in any type of job and start a family. Once an adult reaches old age, they can retire and live off their retirement fund tending a garden, reading or painting.

Celebrities have been recreated in The Sims as characters, including; Christina Aguilera, Tom Cruise, Paris Hilton, Madonna, Ozzy Osborne, Brad Pitt, Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Britney Spears, Barbara Streisand and Robbie Williams to name just a few!