ABSTRACT
Will Wright’s The Sims is one of the best-selling game franchises of all time, with sales in the hundreds of millions. For its more intellectual fans, The Sims was a sort of antigame; a Dadaist work that called into question the supposed distinction between art and life. The Sims were conspicuous consumers, deriving much more satisfaction from high-end products than cheap stuff. The Sims 2 was a rousing success. The Sims 3 followed in 2009, selling more than 10 million copies, and a fourth iteration debuted on September 2, 2014. Second Life’s developers emphasized “user-generated content,” which ranged from custom objects to new gestures and animations for characters. Only the Sims were rendered in 3D; the buildings and objects were rendered in 2D. The Sims didn’t talk to each other using English or any other language, but rather a form of gibberish called “Simlish.”.
