Will Wright wrote the first version of SimCity for the Commodore64 in 1985. Jump ahead to 1989 and a chance meeting between Jeff Braun and Will at a pizza party. Working out of Jeff's apartment Jeff, Will, a few programmers and a writer launch SimCity into the market. The company MAXIS is formed.

Ten years and 5 million registered SimCity users later we find ourselves on the eve of the year 2000. We are also about to meet Will Wright's newest brain child "The Sims".

SimCity is considered to be nothing less than one of the 'Top Ten' games of all time (c/net) to the most successful software toy ever written (Computer Gaming Worlds). In some circles the debate rages on to this day as to whether or not Sim City is actually a game or an educational tool masquerading as a game. Look for example at this excerpt from the official Maxis SimCity3000 homepage:
"SimCity 3000 can be used in the classroom to enhance just about any instructional unit. It can stand alone as an enrichment computer activity, or it can be used as a pivotal activity connected to other activities and projects done before, during, or after using the computer program. Use the lessons in this guide to integrate SimCity 3000 into your curriculum, with minimal preparation, or to create custom lessons to suit your needs."

For those who have no idea what SimCity is (hard to imagine, I know) perhaps the easiest way to explain it would be to quote the SimCity program box: "You're in charge of creating an entire city from the ground up-and the sky is the limit....but your power doesn't stop at construction. You'll manage everything from budgets to bulldozers, taxes to tornadoes."
The one thing this description fails to mention is that the program is 99.9% graphics. And the graphics are great! Through the progressive releases of SimCity they have done nothing but improved. In SimCity3000 there are animated cars, trains, people, weather events and disasters, natural and otherwise.

Now we come to "The Sims"...

From the looks of things, if the yet to be released "The Sims" even approaches it's potential it may very well dwarf the success of SimCity.
In SimCity you are in charge of building cites and governing them wisely. With "The Sims" you create and control people!

Maxis tells us that with "The Sims" we will have the ability to create an endless variety of characters and families. These Sims will have the ability to follow a wide range of career paths, make friends, have conversations, fall in love and have children.

...and who will do the dishes in the Sim Society?

SimCity's ability to enthral the user is amazing. Imagine what it would be like to truly interact with the residents of your SimCity to the degree promised with "The Sims". Take it a step further and imagine what it would be like to interact with others who are controlling their own Sim citizens.

A pipe dream? Maybe not. From a recent interview with "simcity3k.com":

"As for Internet support, Wright imagines that future versions of The Sims will have some form of multiplayer capability. In addition, he forecasts that they might even make it so that players could upload their neighborhoods into an online virtual city, in which the inhabitants would interact with inhabitants of other player-created neighborhoods."

Ted Friedman, a graduate student at Duke University asks in his recent essay "Semiotics of SimCity":
"When does a game cease to be a game? Is it when the computer feels like an organic extension of your consciousness or when you may feel like an extension of the computer itself?"

www.simcity.com/home.shtml	SimCity official page
http://www.thesims.com/us/index.html	TheSims official page
www.webring.org....	SimCity WebRing