According to EA and the official release date, it’s been ten years since The Sims first graced PCs. I don’t want to believe it, because ten years ago I was a sophomore in college and had just bought my first computer. (Shhh. I was slow to the digital age, but I’ve done a lot of catching up since then.) But if it’s really been ten years, that means that I was introduced to Bob and Betty Newbie a decade ago, and that’s a lot of time to have spent with one game franchise. Not to mention money. When I look down at my PC game collection and realize I’ve got every expansion for The Sims, all but one expansion for The Sims 2, and The Sims 3 with the two current expansions. A lot of time…and a lot of money. But it’s not all bad.

Do you remember Bob and Betty Newbie? How funny it was to watch poor little Bob Newbie with his dirty clothes and his cheap torn-up furniture meet the girl of his dreams, and then live on indefinitely? If you’re like me, you laughed every time you realized a new way you could kill your Sims off – remember learning they’d drown without a ladder in the pool? Or that you could wall them off in a room of their own, and let them live out a short life of misery? If you were trying to play some semblance of a story with your Sims – as I sometimes did – you mostly killed off other Sims for their money. Hey, don’t look at me like that – everyone was doing it! I needed that money for home improvements, so poor Bob and Betty Newbie could have a television, or a couch without holes in it, or a new addition to the house for all the furniture they never used.

For fun, when I started to write this article, I decided to load up the original game to see what else I’d forgotten about it. For me, it’s hard to think about The Sims having been around for a decade, because even though we’re up to the third edition, that’s only a recent addition to the franchise. Most of us have been stuck squarely with The Sims 2 for years (almost 6, right?) and since a lot of the additions for that came out just prior to The Sims 3 it’s hard to think that it’s really been half a decade since I started playing the second iteration of the game. I mean, Bob and Betty seem old now (boy do they ever, having replayed them for old times’ sake) and they’re missing so many cool things that have since become a regular part of The Sims legacy. Sure, they could get married, but no one got old – they died, but only at their creator’s cruel hands. Something I’d forgotten about the original game was the difference in the music – and how excited I always felt watching the opening video:

Later, with The Sims 2, even better computers made it feel like the loading time took forever, and I learned to skip past the opening video. I’d also forgotten about the fact that the Comic Sans typeface was all over the place, and that the cursor when you hovered over interactive things was a man’s face. But I did remember that there were no weekends, and children never grew to be adults, two of the many things that were later corrected with The Sims 2. The original game had seven expansion packs although the last two (Superstar and Makin’ Magic), though popular with fans, didn’t get as much playtime because The Sims 2 was already on the horizon. The first expansion pack, Livin’ Large, was the one that introduced us to many of the supernatural characters we’ve grown to know and love (and a few that didn’t quite make the cut) like the Grim Reaper, the Genie in the lamp, and the Servo (for those super rich Sims).

In the Sims 2, we got supernatural creatures out of the box with alien abductions resulting in little alien half-breeds. The Sims 2 also introduced us to a wider range of playable characters in three different neighborhoods, although Bob and Betty Newbie were no longer there. The game also gave us a wider range of character customization that we hadn’t had before, and introduced those of us regular players to a new community where we could make and download custom items to our game. The number of active sites still out there for The Sims 2 is a crazy big number, and I’d never find them all. The community at large did experience a large controversy between free content sites and the number of pay sites that sprang up with downloadable content. Even five years later, there is still contention in the community over pay sites which is a breach of EA’s EULA.

Of course one of the biggest updates to the franchise with The Sims 2 was the new life stages – where characters went through seven different stages of life (with the University expansion addition of Young Adult): baby, toddler, child, teenager, young adult, adult, and elder. And it’s hard to talk about The Sims 2 without mentioning the several different types of supernatural creatures that eventually came to the game through expansion packs: vampires, werewolves, Bigfoot, witches/warlocks, plant sims, and zombies (although not necessarily in that order). Even though The Sims 3 is out, and had expansions, it’s hard not to go back to The Sims 2, where it was so easy to build families and stories and watch their digital lives play out.

The second version of the game gave us eight expansions, and 10 ’stuff’ packs. Although each expansion, just like the original game’s, gave us new items, the addition of stuff packs was an interesting step for the game. It gave players a lot of specific content to build up their Sims lives with. Although, many in the community may have turned up their noses originally at the idea of an IKEA stuff pack – it quickly became a popular one, with simple furniture and clothing additions that were neat additions to the game for not a lot of Simoleans.

The Sims 2 also extended its reach to the consoles, further than it’s predecessor had, and it also spawned PC “Life Stories” versions of the game that were more story and goal based with less customization. The only console versions I spent time with was The Sims 2 on the DS (which I loved and took everywhere so I could sneak in playtime) and The Sims 2: Castaway for the Wii, which I also really enjoyed. The play style of the console games and Life Story versions were aimed at a different, and arguably even more casual, gamer than the regular game. These versions of the game gave players goals to reach, while still maintaining a small aspect of the life needs play that The Sims is known for. I think that these versions of the game give a good segue to the most recent edition of the game, where the life needs play a back seat to the rest of your Sims life.

The Sims 3, though relatively new, already has an expansion: World Adventures, and a stuff pack: High Tech Loft. The game was one of my must-plays for 2009, and I know I’m not the only one. I was a pile of squeeing fangirly crazy when I got to sit with a developer on a quick tour of the game last January during CES. It was a definite highlight for me, and I tried to do the game justice when I reviewed it last year, because I think the whole franchise has come a long way in a decade. If you haven’t tried the new game, now is as good a time as any, and EA will be helping me, you, and Sims players new and old celebrate all year long.