Comment by milesvp
13 days ago
They really were at the center of simulation. They had so many offerings that many people have never even heard of, like Sim Earth. I ran into it at a point in my life when I was playing with a lot of ideas about sustainability and waste, and it ended up being very influential in how I think about the world. It was almost a throw away game, there just wasn't much to do, but setting up initial conditions and watching them play out was fascinating to me. It taught me a lot about critical mass, and resource utilization rates.
As a side note, Oxygen Not Included feels like a master's class in sustainability, especially if you don't over abuse some of the game's broken mechanics.
It’s funny to look back as someone who was seven when SimEarth came out. It was anything but a throwaway game for me, as I played it for months on a mostly daily basis. Same with SimAnt and whatever other similar games I could get my hands on.
SimAnt and SimEarth were also staples of my childhood gaming, barely knew how to play SimEarth but it was a blast! A lot of game design takeaways from SimAnt for me too.
For me it was SimFarm.
Oh I had forgotten about that one. Something was so satisfying about planting in that game. Thanks for the reminder!