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“The Sims” is the gold standard whenever you talk about Sims games. Released in North American in February 2000, it has become the best-selling PC game in history. Unlike other Sims games such as “age of Empires”, “The Sims” focuses on the mundane, day-to-day activities of the inhabitants of the suburbs outside of “SimCity”.

Players are put in control of the virtual daily activities of their characters and control their sleeping, eating, bathing, and entertainment activities. Perhaps, it’s this very ordinary aspect to the game that accounts for it’s huge popularity.

“The Sims” is the creation of legendary game designer Will Wright. Wright claims the inspiration for “The Sims” came from his own real life experience when his home was destroyed in the Oakland, CA firestorm of 1991. He was forced to move his family and essentially rebuild everything from nothing.

Wright based “The Sims” on another sim game he wrote called “SimCity” of just “Sims” for short. Wright came up with the idea of a “virtual dollhouse”, which he pitched to Maxis. However, Maxis balked at the initial idea claiming that the computer hardware available at the time was inadequate to support such a simulation.

In 1995 Wright was given the opportunity to develop his game concept by Electronic Arts. Initially dubbed “Project X”, the name was changed to “The Sims” in 1997 two years after its release.

In terms of competition, “The Sims” is about as low key as a computer game can get. The main objective is for the player to help his virtual characters (Sims) achieve their own personal objectives whatever they may turn out to be.

The Sims live in and interact with a virtual environment. There is a set hierarchy in their world consisting of “families”, which are assigned to a “lot” where they live and go about life in their virtual world. Life isn’t easy in this virtual world, at least from the concept of weekends, which doesn’t exist. Adult Sims work 7 days a week and the children must keep up with their studies. The consequences for not doing so is rather severe.

Though adult Sims can’t die from old age, there are several nasty ways that can result in death for a Sim. These range from drowning in a swimming pool after the steps have been deleted or perishing inside a house after all the doors have been deleted. A Sim can even die from contracting a virus from a pet guinea pig whose cage was left uncleaned for too long.

Domestic discord is also a part of life in the word of “The Sims”. Sims can leave their family, never to return and couples can brawl and eventually split up. Not too unlike life outside of the virtual world.

The popularity of “The Sims” is undisputed and has gone down as the most popular PC game of all time. There have been several sequels, expansion packs, spin offs, as well as ports to all the major operating systems and consoles. There is even plans for a film based on “The Sims” to be released sometime in 2009.

Could the wild popularity of “The Sims” have more than a little to do with how the mundane trials and tribulations of the characters are so similar to that of our own lives?

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Free Sims games are a good way to pass the time online. “Sim” Is actually short for “Simulation”. Basically, you will be simulating something that occurs in real life. There are an incredible number of different versions and styles of Sims games that you can play.

You can play Sims games online using Flash or JavaScript. Alternatively, you can sometimes download full versions right to your computer, however, this will depend on the complexity of the game and where you find it.

Independent game developers create many of these simulation games. There are a lot of people out there who have a passion for creating game code and providing their creations absolutely free for the rest of us to play and enjoy.

These games require a few different resources in order to play. You’ll need a dose of skill and a healthy dose of good luck in many cases. Of course, the amount of each varies according to the game you are playing.

One of the earliest Sims games that gained instant popularity was “Sim City.”

You can actually find the classic version of this game for free online. This is a great way to get introduced to the genre of Sims games.

Other popular kinds of Sims games involve doing well in some kind of business or making money through some activity.

There is a real estate version, banking version, and even a version where you have a store to buy and sell goods. The end goal is to avoid real-life disasters in order to come out ahead in profit.

There is a movie star version that is also a lot of fun.

You try and make your way through the obstacles of Hollywood In order to get to the top of the movie-making world and become a movie mogul.

Finding these free online Sims games is easy as there are so many popular sites that offer them. A simple Google search for the kind of game you want to play should turn up several different options.

Compsimgames.about.com has several options that are worth looking into and Download-Free-Games.com also has a wide variety of great Sims games. Wherever you find them, you’ll want to develop a strategy for winning! This strategy will vary depending on the kind of simulation game you find. Usually, you’ll need to learn how the real life activity works.

Does it rely more heavily on luck or do you need skill to get ahead?

The more often you play a particular Sims game, the better your chances of winning. Since these games tend to simulate real life, you’ll find that practice really does make perfect. You will also discover the nuances of the game and hopefully really get interested in getting the best score possible.

As you might imagine, free Sims games can be quite addicting.

So it’s a lucky thing that they are freely and readily available online. All you need is an Internet connection and you’re ready to start playing full simulation games whenever and wherever you like.

Weed through them to find the versions you like the most, and then develop your skills to get the top score in your chosen “profession”!

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Neopets games are simulation game based around pets. What started out as a small time operation in the late 90’s has now turned into a worldwide phenomenon. In fact, the brand was bought by Viacom and is going to be made into a movie soon.

When you play Neopets, you’re called a “Neopian”. You have little Neopets that you groom, play with, and take care of. There is also a monetary component to the game as you can buy and trade stock to get “Neopoints”. These Neopoints are used to buy items for your Neopets much as you would your own real life pets!

It’s amazing how the Neopets site has caught on!

Its founders were just college students, and now the Neopets website has upwards of 100 million different users. Surprisingly, many of the people who play are adults. Actually, the game is loads of fun and quite addictive, so perhaps that isn’t so surprising after all!

When you create your account, you’ll be able to choose your pet. You can have up to four pets at any one time. If you decide that you’d like to have more, then you’ll need to create a new user account.

Choosing your pets is one of the hardest parts.

That’s because there are so many different ones to choose from. They all have their own special name and unique design, and you’ll get a kick out of looking at all of the different options.

Bear in mind. that you don’t want to take on so many pets that you can’t handle taking care of them! You’ll need to feed your pet and keep them entertained and don’t forget that you’ll need to earn Neopoints so that you can get the accessories that your Neopet craves!

Getting started with Neopets is really easy, but be warned that this is one addicting game!

You’ll find yourself wanting to keep up with all the new accessories and features that the developers are constantly coming out with, but of course, you’ll have a great time doing it.

Ah, the things we’ll do for those we love!

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