My favorite game of all time is The Sims. I started playing The Sim 3 in my childhood, graduated to The Sims 4 when it came out while I was in high school, and to this day watch content creators play The Sims on YouTube. My love for this sandbox game can be traced to the core mechanics and dynamics of its gameplay, and how they come together to give the game high replayability. Some of the core mechanics of The Sims include choosing the specific behaviors of your Sim (virtual character), customizing their appearance, selecting their personality, earning money, and purchasing items (food, houses, furniture). These mechanics enable the creation of multiple dynamics. First, relationships between Sims emerge as a result of the selection of different social behaviors. Second, the psychological state of a Sim is determined by a combination of personality traits, actions, and the environment. Third, a sense of accomplishing goals becomes part of the gameplay. Some of these goals are defined by a game, such as when choosing to play chess allows a Sim to level up in the logic skill. However, users can also have their own pre-defined goals that emerge from the mechanics of the game, such as the various Sims challenges that have emerged in online Sims communities (i.e., Rags to Riches challenge where a Sim starts with no money and has to build their way to wealth). Each of these dynamics are ones that I enjoy, and I switch up my approaches to them which makes it fun to replay.
