I’ve played all the main Sims games, from the first one through The Sims 4, but I’ve never been a fan. It’s a fine game and I can have fun with it for a while. I haven’t played every expansion or add-on. There are far too many of those.
These pages are from Computer Tips & Tricks, no. 5/2000. Kim Dorff Hansen’s guide is called “Lær at leve!”, or “Learn to Live!”, and runs across pages 10–13. It gets into creating a person, building a usable house, making friends and keeping the whole thing from falling apart.
Open my original photographs of page 10
Keeping a Sim fed, rested and out of the way
The guide starts with balance. You can aim for a successful career, a comfortable house and a happy family, or make somebody whose life is a complete mess. Its opening jokes about an unpleasant bachelor living in a pigsty. The game gives you room to create either kind of household.
In the original game, the needs panel covers Hunger, Comfort, Hygiene, Bladder, Energy, Fun, Social and Room. A Sim needs food, sleep, a toilet, company and entertainment, while the condition of the house matters too. Dirty dishes and rubbish pull down the Room score; light and decoration help it. The Deluxe Edition manual explains those eight needs and how objects satisfy them.
The house has to function while all of that is happening. The magazine recommends leaving space around furniture, keeping routes open and expanding a room at a time. A hot tub takes more usable space than its occupied floor tiles suggest, because Sims need to reach it. Filling every available square with furniture can leave a house that looks equipped but is awkward to live in.
Personality is another practical choice. The original Create a Sim gives you 25 points across five traits: Neat, Outgoing, Active, Playful and Nice. Low scores mean the opposite tendencies, such as being sloppy or shy. The magazine advises spreading the points instead of pushing everything into a couple of categories, then giving extra weight to the qualities you want.
Read the original personality, building and money advice on page 11
A house full of people who need managing
Under “Små robotter”, or “Small Robots”, Hansen describes Sims developing regular habits. They follow paths around the house and keep returning to particular activities. His advice is to think about how they use the rooms, with larger pieces of furniture kept towards the edges and room left around beds and work areas.
The section on skills ties the furniture to work. Books help with cooking and mechanical knowledge, chess with Logic, exercise equipment with Body and a mirror with Charisma. The guide also recommends lamps in every room, including the bathroom, and points out that a wardrobe lets Sims change their clothes.
Friends take work too. The magazine warns that a badly timed joke or kiss can damage a relationship, and suggests inviting people over for things they enjoy. It also points out the complications of keeping several romantic partners around the same house. Its proposed solution includes different work schedules and enough space to keep people apart.
And yes, you can do some fucked-up things in The Sims. Underneath the pleasant house and family setup, it gives you plenty of control over other people’s lives. The magazine is quite comfortable discussing affairs, jealousy and the financial advantage of moving a wealthy neighbour into the household.
Its disaster screenshots are less glamorous. One shows a kitchen on fire; another shows a burglar in the house. The original game’s manual documents fires, electrocution and starvation among the ways a Sim can die. Taking care of a household includes keeping it safe, unless causing trouble is what you’re playing for.
Open the original fire and burglar photographs from page 12
The small advice fills a whole page
The final page is full of ordinary household details. Turn off the television and radio in a room where somebody is trying to sleep. Keep the house and garden clean. Allow enough time to wash, eat and leave for work. Put fire alarms indoors, in the room where the fire needs to be detected.
The guide recommends using the sofa or an armchair for a nap when a full sleep would take too long. It also warns against sending somebody off to work hungry, dirty and exhausted, with bills and unhappy friends waiting for them at home. Several small problems can pile up while you’re concentrating on one person.
There’s advice about listening to Sims as well as watching the bars: water sounds can reveal that somebody is in the shower, and snoring tells you somebody is asleep. The last passage recommends different work schedules for large households so that fewer people need attention at the same time.
Open my original photograph of the final tips page
Selling the next expansion was already part of it
This was the boxed expansion era. You bought the game, then there was another box with more things to do and more things to put in the house. The Sims was already built into a business of selling additions long before today’s enormous DLC menus.
The original game ended up with seven expansion packs: Livin’ Large (called Livin’ It Up in European releases), House Party, Hot Date, Vacation (also released as On Holiday), Unleashed, Superstar and Makin’ Magic. EA lists all seven in its Legacy Collection announcement.
My physical catalogue includes all seven of those original expansions, as well as The Sims: Deluxe Edition. Deluxe already includes the first expansion, along with The Sims Creator and extra objects and skins. I also have Livin’ Large listed separately. Owning the boxes and playing every expansion are different things; I haven’t played them all.
The later games added more ways to divide the extras. As checked on 15 October 2026, The Sims 4’s Steam page listed 114 DLC entries, covering different types of packs, kits and upgrades. EA’s own catalogue separates Expansion Packs, Game Packs, Stuff Packs, Maker Packs and Kits. The idea of selling additions has grown into a large storefront of its own.
We can choose how much of that we keep buying. Buying the main game shouldn’t become a commitment to buying the whole catalogue. A base game has to be worth playing on its own.
What the boxes contain, and what the accounts control
My collection covers all four main games, including several bundled editions. These are some of the relevant PC editions in my catalogue:
| Edition in my collection | Advertised game content |
|---|---|
| The Sims: Deluxe Edition | The original game, Livin’ Large / Livin’ It Up, The Sims Creator and Deluxe extras. |
| The Sims 2: Double Deluxe | The Sims 2, Nightlife and Celebration! Stuff. The package also advertised a bonus DVD. |
| The Sims 3 Plus Seasons | The Sims 3 and the Seasons expansion. |
| The Sims 4 | The base game; additional packs are separate purchases. |
The original Deluxe Edition readme describes installation with a serial number and playing with the CD in the drive. Its website registration and web features were separate. The Double Deluxe manual likewise gives a DVD installation and disc-in-drive launch procedure, with website registration offered for the online community. These older disc editions provide routes to playing the first two games without compulsory EA account binding.
For The Sims 3, the original packaged PC/Mac terms distinguish playing the game from registering for online services such as downloads and SimPoints. Later Origin-based editions use account activation; EA’s archived disclosures document that requirement. The original 2009 PC disc release is an account-independent alternative to those later releases.
The Sims 4’s PC base game is now free to download, with an EA account and online activation required. It launched with Origin; EA’s current FAQ specifies the EA app for installation and registration, then allows offline play after installation. The Steam release also requires an EA account, activation and the EA app running in the background.
I dislike that treatment of a physical game. Once a product code has been bound to an account, passing on the box doesn’t transfer the account’s entitlement. A disc that still depends on a company’s account system gives the owner less control over keeping, reinstalling and passing on the game.
There is also a console alternative for The Sims 4: the PS4 disc version supports offline play, while EA’s console Gallery update requires EA account linking for that online sharing feature.
EA brought the first two games back for modern Windows PCs in the 2025 Legacy Collections. The Steam terms for the first game specify linked EA and Steam accounts, and EA’s Sims 2 Legacy listing requires an EA account for its EA app edition.
This is why I think we should stop buying digital games that tie access to compulsory accounts. We can refuse another account-bound purchase, skip the next pack and keep using an independent edition we already own. Continuing to buy every addition rewards the publisher for carrying on with the same restrictions.
My Sims 4 gameplay
For some reason, The Sims 4 is the only one I have gameplay of, even though I’ve played all the main games. This is Part 01:
Sources and image credits
Magazine: Kim Dorff Hansen, “The Sims — Lær at leve!”, Computer Tips & Tricks, no. 5/2000, pp. 10–13. All eight original photographs are retained above. The two redesigned text excerpts are labelled. Physical editions were checked against my game catalogue dated 13 October 2026, pp. 23–26 and 28.
- The Sims: Deluxe Edition manual — needs, personality, skills and disasters; Maxis’s Deluxe Edition readme — included content, CD checks and registration.
- EA’s The Sims 2: Double Deluxe manual — compilation contents, disc installation and optional website registration.
- The Sims 3 product terms and EA’s archived product disclosures — packaged and account-based release requirements.
- The Sims 4 FAQ, Steam listing and EA pack catalogue — account requirements and add-on listings, checked 15 October 2026.
- PlayStation’s Sims 4 page and EA’s 16 January 2020 console patch notes — console offline play and Gallery account linking.
- EA’s 25th birthday announcement and the Sims 1 / Sims 2 Legacy listings — expansions and re-release terms.
- Additional game images: EA/Maxis’s official Steam product galleries for The Sims: Legacy Collection and The Sims 4. Used for this personal gaming article under EA’s content policy. Game imagery © Electronic Arts.
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