The nine hells of Bator have nothing to do with it, the sims has a few things going for it, more than a few really. I hate to obey rule 25, it's rude as hell, but I'll do it for just this post.
1. The sims is easy to pick up and play, it's not like DoW or Gears, the learning curve is shallow with just enough complexity to keep you involved and somewhat challenged.
2. The setting is understandable, you don't have to wrap your mind around the Emperor, the Horus Heresy, and Chaos. There's no fluff, no backstory, and nothing to keep you from enjoying and understanding the game. The story is what you make up and nothing more, most people like that.
3. Maxis has made sure that they game is for everyone: shallow learning curve, simple controls (although again, with deceptive depth), and nothing hardcore. I could let me 10 year old niece play it and probably wouldn't get bitched at by her parents. It's not that it's child friendly, it's that it's just plain friendly. Sure there's sex but it's low key.
3. The concept is appealing, it doesn't matter if you like it or not, a lot of people find the concept VERY appealing. Who wouldn't? Running the lives of some little folks you made up, making the story of their family, and watching them become successful. (Or watching them suffer if that's your boat. Burning houses, drownings, all of that happens) Everyone understands the sims, I don't need to take 20 minutes to explain why the Space Marines hate the Tau when someone looks over my shoulder.
4. Maxis found something that worked and stopped screwing with it. The only difference between The Sims and The Sims 2: Character Depth and Creation Detail. Now my character has fears, asperations, and looks a lot more like a human rather than a doll. That's it. Gameplay has barely changed, you still have sims, they still have houses, they still interact, and you still run their lives. With limited exceptions the expansion packs just added gameplay and didn't screw with it too much, and they added basic things that you would think should have been there from the start, like a family dog or going on vacation.
5. Name recognition and Positioning. Expert marketing at its best. Maxis made it so that they are the original, if I were to tell someone about say, Second Life, I'd say "It's kinda like The Sims." There is no other game that can challenge the sims for the market because they were there first and have made sure that when you think Little humans living out their lives just like me you're thinking of "The Sims" and you know it. You've never played the sims Campaigner but you know all about the game, that's GOOD marketing at work. Until maxis really drops the ball no game will replace the Sims, no game that's similar will have any success, and they will make a tonne of money. It's like Coke... when you say "Gimme a coke" you don't necessarily mean a Coca Cola, you mean a cola beverage (probably). They actual brand has become the name of the general product. Simple positioning means it's the same with them.
6. User created items and input. Want your sims to wear Godsmack teeshirts or have a Hellsing poster on thier bedroom wall, odds are someone has made that and you can put it in your game, and if they haven't it's not hard to do. The community for the sims is god damn incredible, the mods they've made are simply amazing. The customization you have means that creating a virtual you or maybe a virtual ideal you, is only easier in Second Life (Not really, it's actually fairly hard to do there.) Maxis also releases free content to the community, christmas stuff around christmas, a goddamn turkey around thanks giving. The last time I remember a company making new units for me to kommand was in Total Annihilation.
7. That support extends to bugs and because you're not competeing directly there are no balance issues. As I'm sure you're aware Dark Crusade fucked up DOW by making the Necrons too powerful, unbalancing multiplayer... I loved seeing nothing by necron vs necron matches when DC first came out. I still played CSM and SM then and I still do despite the bullshit. The only game I can think of that is as good for support is Guild Wars.
There's more but I really can't be arsed. As to your gaming forums...
Yeah, a lot of hardcore gamers don't play or like it... they're still pissed that you can't treat the virtual world like Vice City and send your neighbors to hell with extreme Prejudice. But hardcore gamers are probably 5 per cent of the market and if they are very vocal on the forums, it just doesn't make up for the 80-95 per cent of casual gamers.
Becuase I don't want this to end up like any of the arguements in /B/ I'm going to ignore the "girly" thing. Seriously, if that's the best you can do then you need to shut up and get out. If you haven't and refuse to play it then I'm sorry to say but you really can't say anything about the game because I'm wasting my effort even talking to you right now. You are convinced, you take it was FACT that the game isn't for "real men" (who are you kidding anyway?). NOTHING I say will change that. The sum of your arguement is that "real men" don't play games like the sims and it's reserved solely for chicks... The sum of your arguement makes you look like some dumb punk teenager.
Now, let's stop hijacking what is an otherwise decent thread. If you want to keep talking about the sims, start a thread about it. It's rude to the OP and to everyone else that said something on topic.
- Malus
If anything I said offended you or you think I crossed the line, I'm sorry. I'm not out to offend anyone.
