The Sims

Maxis's life-simulation series where you control digital people through daily routines, careers, and relationships — a dollhouse for adults that became one of the best-selling franchises in PC history.

Origin

Designed by Will Wright (also responsible for SimCity) and released in 2000. The Sims followed a small household of customizable people ('Sims') who lived in customizable houses, had needs (hunger, social, hygiene, bladder), and could form relationships, careers, and crises. The Sims 2 (2004) added genetics and life stages; The Sims 4 (2014) is still receiving expansion packs. The franchise has sold over 200 million copies, and an enormous slice of those buyers — disproportionately female — used the game less to play and more to design houses, families, and dramatic narratives. The infamous 'remove the pool ladder so your sim drowns' move is the most-cited Sims meme.

Modern usage

The simlish gibberish language (the Sims speak nonsense vocals while gesturing) is recognizable to anyone who played. 'Living in a Sims house' is a standard reference for unrealistically beautiful housing. The game is often the textbook example of women being a hidden majority of gamers, undercounted because the marketing didn't target them.

Minecraft

The voxel-based open-world game where everything is made of one-meter cubes — the best-selling video game of all time and the dominant childhood game of the last decade.

concept

Video Games

Grand Theft Auto

Rockstar's open-world crime franchise — the games that invented the modern 'do whatever you want in a satirical American city' template and were the canonical moral-panic target of the 2000s.

character

Video Games

Mario

Nintendo's mustached Italian plumber — the mascot of video games as a medium and probably the most recognized fictional character of the last fifty years.

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