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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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It is with good reason that the game of chess has continued in popularity despite the advent of video and computer games. There is something special about sitting across from your opponent with just a chess board between you, that brings out the competitive spirit and draws on every aspect of your thought processes.

You simply cannot fake your way through a game of chess. Simply knowing the possible moves of each chess piece is only the beginning. Some pieces will quickly become your favorites when you take up the game: the rook, or castle, who sticks to his straight and headlong path; the errant knight, the most devious piece, whose moves are surreptitiously made; the bishop, isolated on a single color square, he nonetheless can cover a lot of space in a short period of time.

It’s always seemed curious to me that, in a chess set, the queen has all the power, and the king is just a weak and ineffective figurehead. Nonetheless, he must be protected, and, as in life, that is the function of the pawns and the rest of his minions.

There are a lot of life lessons imparted by the game of chess.

You can manage to just stay alive in the game by taking a defensive tack, but ultimately, in order to win will require you to make at least a few bold moves. You must take risks, and you will experience losses, but the victor is the one who has the bigger picture in mind, and invests his pieces wisely.

I think it’s that ability to keep the bigger picture in mind that sets apart the mediocre player from the savant.

The athletic contest that I think most resembles a chess game is a tennis match, either singles or doubles. When you watch a great player you see that it’s not simply by overpowering his opponent that he achieves victory, but by strategically placing himself and the ball so that he gives his opponent a next to impossible shot.

Just as in chess, the player who learns to box in his opponent, while keeping his own play fluid, will likely come out on top.

Every school child and every household should own at least one chess set. The game is enjoyable even when players of uneven talents are matched up. In these situations it should be the goal of the novice to make a good showing, even if his odds of winning are slim.

A good player will always want to look for worthy opponents to sharpen his own skills. The real glory comes in besting the most skilled player.

Hopefully your chess sets are not just gathering dust, and if they are, get them out soon! You can even visit many of the online games sites and play free chess online.

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Text Twist is one of those Internet games that is both addictive and fun. Best of all, this one can actually strengthen your brainpower! If you like to solve word games, this is the online game for you.

You can load up Text Twist in your Web browser. That means you can play it anywhere you have an Internet connection. There is no need to download it, though that is an option. You can even find a more fully featured advanced version online.

First things first, you need to know the concept of the game.

When you load up Text Twist, you’ll be given a series of letters. It’s your job to think up as many different words as possible with these letters that match the pre-designed spaces.

That might sound easy, but it’s a lot harder than you think!

There will be a clock running, which can really put the pressure on you to think of as many words as possible, as quickly as possible.

After you’ve used all the letters to make a word, you’ll be able to move on to the next round. This can be a huge relief, but just remember, you’ll be faced with yet another set of letters to make even more words!

The good news is that there is a help feature.

If you’re totally stuck on a word, all you need to do is hit the “Twist” button. That will reset the order of the jumbled letters, which can give your mind a fresh perspective to figure out the words you’re missing.

You can find Text Twist on several different websites. “Yahoo! Games” is one popular destination as it’s a trusted source for online games. If you really get into it, you can download the “Super Text Twist” version for even more fun.

Text Twist is definitely a game for you to include in your online gaming arsenal. You’ll be surprised at how fast you will get at unscrambling letters with just a little bit of practice!

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