You'd think one life was enough for most people. Going to work, making dinner, washing, ironing and so on takes up enough time as it is without having to run someone else's life. Well, judging by their latest release Maxis would probably argue that point. Following the phenomenally successful Sim City series (and less successful Sim titles such as Sim Tower and Sim Ant) they've released The Sims, a game where your main task is to run the lives of people called Sims, each with their own personality, interests and job. It may not sound very entertaining at first, but then who'd have thought forming lines from different shaped blocks falling from the top of the screen would be any fun either.
Your main task in The Sims is to keep the little people happy. Once you pick a family and a house for them, you need to make sure they eat, sleep, have fun and so on and their mood indicator will stay healthy along with the more specific indicators for energy, hunger, fun et cetera. Simple icons will flash above their heads to let you know their thoughts and moods, and thankfully they are at least semi-autonomous meaning you don't have to tell them to do absolutely everything. Once you've found your Sims a job you can even start buying them things like paintings, additional rooms, computers, sofas and even a pool table as well as hiring a maid to clean up after them or a gardener to water the plants. To round things out, make sure they have enough friends to feel socially adequate and advance in their jobs and your Sims will be doing well.
All of this might sound overwhelming and complex but thanks to an incredibly well designed interface it is far from it. Once you've selected a Sim you can easily get them doing most things within two clicks. Click a fridge then "Serve Dinner" to get a Sim making dinner for everyone, click a computer then tell the Sim to "Play" or "Find a Job," or you can click another person and select talk, entertain, tickle or even kiss (you want to make sure you're on pretty good terms with them before doing this though). Anything that isn't immediately obvious or covered in the brief starting tutorial can be found out through the concise help system. There is also no need to sit and wait for Sims to finish eating or sleeping either thanks to two fast forward buttons.
