It's back. Electronic Arts released The Sims 4 in North America on Sept. 2, and the Internet is already abuzz with excitement. Summer may be over, but we can now all spend fall and beyond building a house, climbing the ladder of success in our careers and speaking Simlish, all vicariously through our favorite life simulator, of course.
It's been a while since the last incarnation of The Sims was released. The Sims 3 hit stores in 2009, and a lot has changed in the world since then. Social media has greatly expanded beyond Facebook, "selfies" are now a daily ritual and it's weird not to have a smartphone these days. All of this has impacted society greatly, and one would think The Sims 4, which is supposed to be a version of real life in game form, would reflect these changes.
In fact, much of The Sims 4 is indicative of the way we live today. Here's seven ways The Sims 4 provides a look at our contemporary world, Sim style.
1. All we need to have fun is technology
One more review on #Sims4 TN: no pool, no car, no toddler, no sims & style recreation, hard-to-control camera... Well anything you name it.
— Roland Liu (@StopDropRoland) September 2, 2014
In the latest version of The Sims, beloved leisure items such as the pool and car are not included. The Sims 4 totally gets your desire to just sit at home and binge-watch a new show on Netflix all day.
2. Apple isn't as powerful as it once was
Today is the worst day of my life! Sims 4 is out and not available for Mac! AHHHHHHH! Why would someone do this? #sims4 — aprilnicole➽ (@aprilstacy2012) September 2, 2014
Fans of The Sims were excited to get their hands on The Sims 4 on Sept. 2 if they were a PC user, that is. The Mac version of the game has yet to be released, and there's no details yet if or when it will be released. There's no telling why The Sims 4 developers decided to focus only on a PC version of the game so far, but it does kind of reflect Apple losing the stronghold it once had in the tech world.
3. Better customization
We live in a world where people want what they want when they want it, and The Sims 4 has responded to that by offering way better customization capabilities in creating Sims and building houses. If only you could get everything you wanted in life this easily.
4. Everything is social
Remember when The Sims had that ill-fated Facebook game? Admit it, you sent a million requests to your friends to join you in playing it. Well, that social experiment didn't work out too well, but The Sims 4's new Gallery, where users can easily share and download new content for the game actually looks pretty cool.
5. Space travel will be common
One of the new items in The Sims 4 is a rocket ship that your Sim can actually own and lift off in. Space tourism is reportedly not too far off in reality, so The Sims 4 is giving us a sneak peek of what life will be like in the future.
6. The majority of players are female
The girlfriend now has her hands on The Sims 4. I guess I'm effectively single again.
— Miguel Piña (@Maxmaps) September 2, 2014
The Sims franchise is said to have an audience that is 65 percent female. The Entertainment Software Association recently reported that women aged 18 or older make up a greater proportion of the gaming population (36 percent) than boys aged 18 or younger (17 percent). Women also make up 48 percent of the total gaming population. Many credit The Sims with helping to increase the number of women participating in gaming, and if Electronic Arts keeps churning out more games in The Sims franchise, it could definitely help increase the representation of women in the gaming world even more.
7. Newspapers are no more
The #Sims4 was released today and it apparently doesn’t have newspapers anymore. Not cool. — Nichole Seguin (@naseguin) September 2, 2014
Just as newspaper readership is in decline and newspapers fold all the time in the real world, your Sims no longer read the classifieds in the newspaper to find a job. Even The Sims 4 is not immune to changing times.
