How The Sims became the best place to eat on the internet

Last year, Kayla Sims started raising her own cows and chickens. She traveled a bit, trying for the first time dishes like bhel puri, tuna maki rolls, beef yakisoba and feijoada. She even cooked a little; one day, she made a rib roast in a crown and a hamburger-shaped birthday cake.

But she didn’t need a farm, an airline ticket, or a stove — just The Sims, the ancient video game that lets players create characters, called Sims, and build a virtual life around them, from their homes to their clothes and the jobs they work for.

For Sims (that’s actually her last name), one of the most fun parts of the game was being able to learn more about cooking, farming, food and cooking from around the world — all from the comfort of her table in Oviedo, Florida, where she streams herself playing The Sims on YouTube and Twitch with the nickname “lilsimsie”.

“There’s no way you’ve ever experienced all these things in your life,” said Sims, 22. But playing The Sims “you learn about a lot of other foods that you’ve never seen. And I think everyone probably has that experience.”

Since its debut in February 2000, The Sims has become one of the most successful PC video game franchises in history, with more than $5 billion in sales in 2019, according to its publisher, Electronic Arts. Millions of players around the world connect every day to create avatars of Sims and see their lives unfold vividly. The game’s popularity soared during the pandemic; the Simmers, as fans call themselves, have racked up 1.2 billion hours of gameplay in 2021.

Part of this new and, for some, renewed interest may stem from the simple need to fight boredom. But much of the game’s appeal can be attributed to players’ ability to create an increasingly accurate view of how their Sims live, dress, and eat.

In early versions of the game, food was used simply to satisfy Hunger, one of the basic needs every character has, or to add an element of exoticism when Sims traveled to new locations. But The Sims 4, released by game developer Maxis in 2014, expanded the depth and realism of player interaction with food.

“I think The Sims 4 was really where we made this conscious effort to admit that food is more than a place,” said Lyndsay Pearson, vice president of creative for The Sims and a Maxis employee since 2002. (Electronic Arts acquired to Maxis in 1997.)

Many Simmers cite the “City Living” expansion pack, a 2016 update, as a major game-changer — it made food something to explore and learn about. Players can take their Sims to food stalls, where not only can they find foods like pork adobo, tagine, and goi cuon, but they can also learn to tolerate spicy foods, use eastern chopsticks correctly, and ultimately acquire the ability to make these. dishes at home.

Today, Sims can own and operate a restaurant or cafe, create menus, and hire and fire employees. They can rise from assistant dishwasher (earning 15 Simoleons per hour) to celebrity chef (410 Simoleons) in the Cooking career, or become professional food critics.

They can be vegetarian or lactose intolerant, and most Sims children go through a picky eating phase. Sims with the Foodie personality trait, one of nearly 60 traits players can choose from when creating a Sim, pride themselves on eating fine foods and can watch cooking shows for inspiration. They can invite friends over for a sausage roast at the backyard fire pit, order delivery from a Sims service called Zoomers, search for rare ingredients in nearby Granite Falls, or join family members to cook a meal.

In all, there are over 300 dishes that Sims can try or cook in over a dozen game updates.

Loel Phelps, project director for The Sims, said his team uses consultants, research and input from employees with diverse backgrounds to decide which foods and elements of cooking and eating best fit the spirit of the game.

“The Sims is about real, lived experiences, so when we have a theme or setting, I enjoy reaching out to people around me or exploring food trends on Instagram and TikTok,” Phelps wrote in an email. “What are your favorite iconic dishes? What do people eat for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner in that environment? Why and how do they eat these foods, and we have the right tools in a virtual kitchen to prepare them, serve them them and eat them?”

Writers create extensive descriptions of these foods, explaining how they are prepared, as well as the real-world cultures from which they originated. Want to learn all about pho, nigiri, choripán? The Sims can be your guide.

Just like reality, the world of The Sims is imperfect. Some of the food is so pixelated that it doesn’t look as appetizing. (“Some things look gross,” Kayla Sims said.) And most of the dishes players cook most often — like spaghetti, pancakes, clam chowder and tuna casserole — still reflect a white American palate.

As a result, many players, both in the US and abroad, do not see their eating habits reflected in the game, especially dishes originating in South Asia or Africa.

“I’d like to see things I used to eat as a kid,” said Micah Henson, 26, a doctoral student in applied mathematics at the University of Washington who grew up in the southern US, cooking alongside his mother and grandmother. “I eat kale and macaroni and cheese and candied yams and black-eyed peas, especially the traditional New Year’s black-eyed peas.”

A spokesperson for Maxis, which continues to operate as a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, said that adding new features, items and cuisines “with the aim of making all our players from all cultures and backgrounds feel represented in the game” remains a priority. On Wednesday (16), for example, dishes inspired by Brazilian Carnival and Chinese Lunar New Year will be added to the game for free.

But the process is slow, and if there’s a food that doesn’t exist in the game, there’s always the option to create it — a practice known as “modding.”

Dr MunMun Chattopadhyay, 36, a doctor in Kolkata, India, has gained fame creating high-quality personalized food content for The Sims. From her website, players can download pixelated versions of grits shrimp, cornbread, nasi lemak, rhubarb pie, and fried tofu, as well as foods she ate as a child, such as tandoori chicken, biryani, idli, and malai kofta.

Last year, Maxis officially added some food items designed by Chattopadhyay to mark the game’s 21st anniversary. But the doctor’s motivation for the modification goes beyond the desire for formal recognition. Like most Sims players, she seeks an escape from everyday life — and satisfies her own fascination with food along the way.

“Actually, I’m just walking and walking and walking all day, but I have a baby and now I’m pregnant again, so it’s very hectic,” she said. “It’s just a wish-fulfillment of sorts. What I can’t do in real life, I’m doing in The Sims.”

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves