TITLE
A history of Simlish, the language that defined The Sims
AUTHOR
Brennan Kilbane
PUBLICATION
The Verge
YEAR
2020
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
In 2000, a man named Will Wright built a small, flat garden, and he built houses of all shapes to decorate it and large swaths of land begging to be filled, and he made it green and wonderful, and he gave it music and language. He was its Creator, but he made me its God. He said, “Go play in my garden.” And, using His divine tools, I sculpted two Sims out of pixels so I could later watch them do WooHoo.The world of the first Sims game, which debuted on February 4th, 2000, centered on a cul-de-sac, and so did its gameplay. Players were given a fantastical, customizable suburban world upon which they could graft their own stories of love, family and mischief. It was extraordinary and we loved it. We loved hiring the maid only to romance her, and we did not love when we were burgled in the night, but we loved summoning more money (rosebud, motherlode, ;!;!;!;!;!;!) and installing a heart-shaped hot tub in the sun room off the kitchen. We loved trapping our Sims in doorless sheds, and granting them the pool of their dreams only to remove the ladder while they were swimming.
And as they exhausted themselves to death — treading water hopelessly over the course of days — we listened to the dulcet melody of their full-throated pleas in the garbled, nonsense language of Simlish.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Maxis
GAMES MENTIONED
The Sims
The Sims 4
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Angela Carpenter
Robi Kauker
Stephen Kearin
Mitu Khandaker
Gerri Lawlor
Lyndsay Pearson
Will Wright