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Entries Tagged as 'Maxis'

The Sims and Roleplaying

July 20th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Escapist, Maxis, RPGs

You can read my new article on The Sims over at the Escapist – the first thing I have written there in a long time. As always, any comments about the article itself should be posted over there if you have an account. That way people know you are reading it.

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SimMars?

October 13th, 2009 · 4 Comments · Industry, Maxis

I love lost games. I’ve written before about a few of them – Pantheon, Dinosaurs, Zulu Wars… So the recent “discovery” of a SimMars being developed by Maxis around the time that The Sims became job one is very cool. The domination of The Sims as a franchise and cash cow has a real risk […]

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Sims 3 and Religion: The Answer that Isn’t

June 23rd, 2009 · 43 Comments · Electronic Arts, Maxis, Religion

Give Tom Chick credit. He’s not afraid to ask the obvious question that puts people on the spot. Okay, well let me ask you about another tricky issue. Something that I think is conspicuously absent from The Sims is something very important in many people’s day-to-day lives. That’s religion. How come the Sims has never […]

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The Return of SimEarth

June 22nd, 2009 · 8 Comments · Consoles, Electronic Arts, Maxis

I’ve always described SimEarth as a better text book than game – if you took the time to understand how everything fit together, you could learn a lot about evolution, photosynthesis, the greenhouse effect, etc. As a game, there were just too many things to juggle. Now you can download the TurboGrafX 16 CD-ROM version […]

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The Sims (2000-2009)

May 21st, 2009 · 6 Comments · Design, Feature:Map, Maxis

What this is about. To know the Sims series is to either love it or not get it. Initially pitched to EA as a “virtual dollhouse”, Will Wright’s masterpiece has never quite evolved past that blurb understanding of the game. For millions of gamers, this is enough. You have dolls that walk and talk and […]

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Will Wright Leaves EA, retires from AAA game design?

April 8th, 2009 · 4 Comments · Electronic Arts, Maxis

Stephen Totilo is reporting that game god Will Wright is leaving EA to focus on his other hobbies. Will Wright, famous designer of “Sim City,” “The Sims,” and “Spore” is leaving Electronic Arts, his publisher announced today. Wright will be running the Stupid Fun Club, an organization he started in 2001 with EA and had […]

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