Kotaku: Sims

Is 'Familyville' Zynga's Answer to The Sims on Facebook?

Owen Good — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:00:00 EDT

The Sims on Facebook?" alt="Click here to read Is 'Familyville' Zynga's Answer to The Sims on Facebook?" src="http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/9/2011/06/small_cityville.jpg"/>

Some URL sleuthing by the domain-watching site Fusible revealed that the domain familyville.com has changed hands and hosts in a manner similar to URLs for Zynga properties like Cityville. More »

Maxis Hit With Job Cuts, EA Confirms

Stephen Totilo — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:00:45 EDT

Word from Electronic Arts today is that Maxis, the studio behind The Sims and Spore, suffered layoffs today. No word on how many people were affected. EA described the cuts as an attempt to "focus" the studio. More »

Mommy Dearest: The Best and Worst Mothers in Video Games

AJ Glasser — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:00:00 EDT

Mothers have it tough in video games – they get killed off, turned evil, or their children leave the nest to save the world. And their kids probably don't call home often enough. More »

The Sims 3 Screenshots

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:40:00 EDT

You should be keeping tabs on The Sims 3, if only because it'll be cluttering up the PC sales charts for the next five years once it's released this June. More »

How Fighting Robots Helped Wright Quit EA

Brian Crecente — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:00:00 EDT

Will Wright may be leaving Maxis and Electronic Arts, but that doesn't mean he's leaving gaming. In fact some of his biggest ideas are for future games, he told us today. More »

EA Hit with Two New Anti-DRM Class Action Suits

Owen Good — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST

Two people filed suit in federal court against Electronic Arts back in October, alleging the SecuROM digital rights management installed on their machines by a trial version of Spore Creature Creator, and a full version of the Sims, constitutes unlawful and deceptive business practices. More »

Playing With Ants, the Original God Game

Maggie Greene — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:30:00 EDT

The latest issue of the Escapist deals with god games, most of which are quite grand in scale. John Carr, however, looks at the micro god game — in this case, SimAnt, Will Wright's first foray into games decidedly small in scale — and declares its inspiration (childhood games of playing god with hapless insect) the 'original god game.' SimAnt is certainly one of the weirder little titles in Wright's repertoire, but certainly an important title when looking at later games: More »

Awesome IKEA Gameplay Footage

Owen Good — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:00:00 EDT

This hits close to home, because home is a shithole (that's what $1500 rents you in Silicon Valley) and I'll soon be paying IKEA plenty to make it look less so, because it's right around the corner in the East P.A. and I can't afford Ethan Allen. And if you want to trick out your Sims pad with BJARNUM or HENSVIK or DIKTAD or whatever fake words the Swedes come up with next, that expansion pack has now dropped (as of Thursday). This is the trailer showing all the shit you'll be throwing in your Sim dumpster in three years. More »

SimsCarnival.com Enters Open Beta

Mike Fahey — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:40:00 EDT

EA's web-based game creation destination SimsCarnival.com has officially entered open beta, and not a moment too soon! The website allows players to use existing game templates to create new flash games or upload their own creations, and right now if you go there and click on Up and Coming you'll see a clear indicator of the quality we're dealing with right now with a version of the Kiss The Girl game using poorly upscaled pictures of Kingdom Hearts characters. Clearly we can do better. More »

25 Best Games for the Classroom

Maggie Greene — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:30:00 EDT

One of the benefits of teaching on a collegiate level is that "fun" can frequently go out the window (as one of my professors routinely told a class full of students regarding the silent films the class watched, "I don't care if you like the film, that's not the point."); still, most of us don't want to bore the pants off students and try reasonably hard to make things interesting. It seems "fun" of the educational variety is even more important at the elementary and secondary levels, where I vaguely recall masses of activities designed to get us "engaged" and "interested." More »

Sims Franchise To Explore, uh, Virtual Worlds?

Maggie Greene — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:30:00 EDT

In a somewhat bizarre interview with The Times Online, Nancy Smith (head of the Sims division at EA) said that " in light of the popularity of virtual worlds ... the Sims may soon become a multi-player game." The article fails to mention the failed experiment of The Sims Online, later rebranded to "EA-Land" and scheduled for closure in August. But Smith talks of potential new (and old) modes for online play: More »

20-year-old Memories of a Life Not Lived

Owen Good — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:00:00 EDT

Gamers of my generation may remember Activision's Alter Ego, released in 1986. It was a text-and-graphics, choice-based somewhat-precusor to later games like The Sims or Second Life. The game fascinated me, even as a 13-year-old, with the idea of living another life — and helping to create such a rich narrative — or just living that far forward. I feel like I actually have memories of the virtual lives I led in the game: More »

The Sims & IKEA Are An Exercise In Tasteful Product Placement

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:00:00 EDT

For all their squiddly-squaddly talk and propensity for dying in fires, nobody plays The Sims because of The Sims. They play it to design a house, then fill said house with loads of designer furniture. So this latest Sims expansion - Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff - is a logical step. For both parties! Now, before fans worry over whether the Swedish furniture giant's range will be incorporated tastefully into the game, this bullet-point from the game's EA Store page should answer your question:

Indulge your Sims with an office that is sure to promote order and productivity with its elegant Vika Hyttan desk, inspiring Kila desk lamp, bold Helmer drawer unit, and Lack zigzag wallshelf.

That's a no, then. More »

I just recieved this in my e-mail, seems...

hairballa — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:26:33 EDT

I just recieved this in my e-mail, seems interesting. More »

First Sims 3 Details: No More Pee-Meter

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:20:00 EST

March 19? We don't have to wait until March 19 for Sims 3 details. They're all over the latest issue of Games For Windows, who let us in on some of the bigger, more important changes, like: More »

Will Wright Gets all Brainy on Drunk Audience

Brian Crecente — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:30:12 EST

Last night, Electronic Arts threw a little party for the gathered game developers and various hangers on at the Mezzanine. About an hour into the party, EA's Neil Young took to the stage to introduce Will Wright who wouldn't, he was clear to point out, be talking about anything even remotely Spore related. Instead, Wright took to the stage to deliver a talk in the scatter-topic method that has earned him a small cult following, touching on everything from Godzilla and lunch boxes to James Bond and the abundance of Sims titles to hit the market. More »

Overly Influenced SimCity Socities Screens

Mike Fahey — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 11:20:19 EDT

I am completely with Crecente, who in his impressions of SimyCity Societies at E3 mentioned having grown a bit bored with the SimCity formula over the years. Societal influences that change the way your city develops is just what the franchise doctor called for. Between the intriguing concept and this set of amazingly detailed city scenes highlighting the difference those influences make, I'm excited about a SimCity title for the first time in years. More »

H&M on the Sims

Kim Phu — Tue, 01 May 2007 13:40:00 EDT

A new Sims 2 expansion pack is now available as a pre-order from Amazon with a release date of June 5th. It features clothing inspired by real H&M designs from dresses to casual outfits (even for men) as well as the ability to design your own H&M store. There's a catwalk build too, but if I know H&M, by the time you finish your fashion designs and put them down a runway, it will already be time to buy a whole new season's worth of H&M Sims clothing over again. Unfortunately, there was no mention on whether or not it would include the highly covetted Madonna H&M line in it. Kim Phu More »

Gallery: MySims Devours Your Soul

Mike Fahey — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:20:46 EDT

What better way to brighten your day than browsing through a gallery of over 50 new shots from EA's cutesy Sims makeover for the Wii, MySims? It's all the fun of having a water balloon fight, visiting a trendy sushi restaurant, having a picnic with friends, firing off a rocket, and gardening, all rolled into one big happy place. More »

EA Announces MySims For Wii, DS

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:30:44 EST

We've known about a Sims title for the Nintendo Wii for a few months now, but EA formally announced the title today alongside the Nintendo DS version. Both are scheduled to hit in the fall and will probably sell gazillions. More »

Britney Shaves: Gamers React

Brian Crecente — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:08:04 EST

The only thing sadder than Britney Spears shaving her head in some misguided attempt at regaining, I don't know, something, are the hundreds of Sims created to gimmick the new, balder Britney. More »

Sims For Wii Trailer Rots Teeth

Michael McWhertor — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 00:05:23 EST

All thirty-two of my previously pristine teeth just underwent flash cavitation while watching this sickeningly sweet teaser trailer. Still, this is potentially the first Sims to appeal to me graphically. What can I say, I like that hydrocephalic pastel thing. Michael McWhertor More »

Sims 3, Wii/PS3 Sims and Other EA Titles Confirmed

Brian Crecente — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:03:20 EST

The might Tor, God of Tunder over on GameSpot, points out that Electronic Arts earnings report has some interesting game tidbits buried in it. More »

New York Times Claims Will Wright To Be Our Da Vinci

kotaku.com — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:40:14 EDT

This New York Times piece on Spore starts out well enough: a more fascinating than plausible theory that our generation will be known for the "long zoom" shot: a gradual pull back from micro to macro and back again which, according to writer Steven Johnson, will define us as fixed perspective defined the Renaissance. Fine, fine, whatever. More »

Games as Teaching Tools

egauger — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 21:40:19 EDT

Futurelab, a UK company seemingly devoted to studying the potential usage of video games on education, has recently concluded a study on just this subject, and declares that the future looks bright. More »

Little Girls Playin' Sims All Spooky-Like

egauger — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:40:14 EDT

Attention, people who have not read Lolita: little girls are messed up in the head. Usually they grow out of it, and learn to subvert these manipulative little sadisms into the irritating head games lampooned on endless sitcoms and greeting cards. More »

Zach Braff Loves His Sim

Brian Crecente — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:00:07 EDT

Pudding pop loving Scrubs co-star Zach Braff (that totally has to be a fake name), is a die-hard Sims fan. A co-worker pointed me to his self-named blog. Skimming through posts about Mel Gibson hating jews and Fletch making his nipples hurt I came across a this item about Braff's sim, Arnold. More »

KUDOS: the Poor, Desperate Man's Sims 2

egauger — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:20:45 EDT

We got a tip from some joker calling himself Skylab about this here indie game, KUDOS, which touts itself as a "turn-based life simulator". More »

See Wright Discuss "Playing With Time" Next Week

Brian Crecente — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 19:07:05 EDT

Game designer, sim-creator and deep thinker Will Wright will be sitting down with Brian Eno, the father of ambient music, to talk about "playing with time" in San Francisco on Monday. More »

Be A Hell Tycoon!

brownlee — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 12:40:57 EDT

The official site of a game we'd never heard of, Hell Tycoon, was launched the other day, and all of a sudden, a game in which you maximize agony margins, establish pain paradigms and engineer exciting new initiatives to eternally torture the damned shot right to the top of our list of eagerly anticipated titles. More »

Creepy Crecente Sim

Brian Crecente — Wed, 17 May 2006 08:10:47 EDT

E306: Desperate Housewives

kotaku.com — Thu, 11 May 2006 18:06:00 EDT

Once upon a time, when 3D-rendered graphics in entertainment were limited to about thirty second of Tron footage, the only TV shows to be made into video games were cartoons, kid's shows, and the odd action spectacular. The circle of licensed games has widened considerably since then, and apparently the licensing event horizon just hit Desperate Housewives. More »

New York Times on The Sims

brownlee — Mon, 08 May 2006 13:20:28 EDT

Ever been in one of those conversations where the person you're talking to mentions that they enjoy bicycling? Sensing a connection, you immediately start talking about your ten-speed. But your conversational partner only sneers at you with contempt, then lifts up a calf with a muscular buttock firmly imprinted into the back and confidently announces he or she just won the Tour de France. More »

Will Wright On The Scope Of Imagination In Games

brownlee — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:40:04 EST

Will Wright, creator of The Sims and the upcoming Spore, is guest editing Wired this week. He has written a fairly good article on the strengths of gaming, which you guys should read: he talks about how games, unlike any other form of media, allow full range for the human imagination. More »

Sid Meier's Railroads! Announced!

brownlee — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:40:45 EST

In Alfred Hitchcock's seminal suspense classic North by Northwest, Cary Grant spends the entire film being unable to get Eva Marie Saint in the sack. At the end, he succeeds, but because it was 1959, Hitchcock found himself unable to film the graphically pornographic finale he'd envisioned. His solution? Film a train entering a tunnel. Freudian imagery at it's best! In that single moment, a closeted nation of train enthusiasts was born. More »

Brokeback Sims

Brian Crecente — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:32:54 EST

Someone's created a set of Sims modled after Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar from Brokeback Mountain. According to Towleroad, you can get them to wrestle in the grass, herd sheep and.. other stuff in a pup tent. Frustrated wives, the site points out, are not included. More »

French Video Game Postage Stamps

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 12:22:56 EST

For a mere 2.65 , get yer own "Heros des Jeux Video" stamps. Featured characters include Mario, Donkey Kong, Lara Croft, Pac-Man and Les Sims. Tr s cool. More »