Some games act like real life.
You can fly a plane. You can build a city. You can even play sports. These games help us learn. They are a lot of fun! What would you like to do?
Some games act like real life.
These are called sims. You can fly a plane or drive a truck. You can even build a whole city.
Some games let you play sports. You can also act like a doctor. These games help people learn new skills. They are a lot of fun to play!
Simulation games, or "sims," act like real life. They try to copy real activities. Some sims are for fun. Others are for training or study.
There are many kinds of sims. In construction sims, you build and manage things. You might grow a town using limited supplies. Life sims let you control living things. You can manage people or nature. Sports sims let you play games like football. Some focus on the game. Others focus on planning the team.
Some sims act like jobs. You can be a pilot in a flight sim. You can be a driver in a truck sim. There are even medical sims. In those, you act as a surgeon.
You can even use a gravity sim to launch planets.
Sims can also help students learn. They let kids live through an experience. This can build empathy for others. It can help with solving problems. The first economic sim was The Sumerian Game in 1964. It was based on an ancient city. Later, SimCity became a very famous city builder. It helps players see how cities work.
Simulation video games are often called "sims." These games try to copy real-world activities very closely. They can be used for many different things. Some people play them just for fun and play. Other people use them for training or for deep analysis. Some sims help people predict what might happen in real life. In many of these games, there are no strict goals. This lets the player control a character or a world freely.
There are many different ways to play these games. In construction and management games, you build or grow a project. You must use limited resources to make your community thrive. Life simulations let you control living things or ecosystems. Some sports games focus on playing the match itself. Other sports games focus on the strategy of the team. You can even find games about very specific jobs. These include flying planes, driving trucks, or even being a surgeon.
History shows that these games have been around for a long time. The first economic simulation was The Sumerian Game in 1964. It was a text-based game made by Mabel Addis. It was based on the ancient city of Lagash. In 1968, Cornell University funded several other simulation exercises. These included games about running a hotel or a restaurant. In 1983, a game called M.U.L.E. was released by Danielle Bunten Berry. These early games helped show how simulations could work for training.
Many famous names and dates shaped the world of sims. In 1981, Sega released Space Tactics to use a motion cabinet. These cabinets moved to match the action on the screen. Yu Suzuki later led a team to make the racing game Hang-On in 1985. Another big moment was in 1989 with the release of SimCity. This game was made by Will Wright and changed city-building games. Later, Wright's company Maxis made games like SimLife and SimEarth. These games simulated huge things like genetics and global ecosystems.
Simulation games are also very helpful tools for learning in school. They allow students to learn through direct experience. Instead of just reading, students can "live" through an event. This can help them feel empathy for other people. It can also help them practice making hard choices. These games help build skills like problem solving and critical thinking. They can even change how students feel about their own values. This makes learning feel much more active and interesting.
Simulation video games, often abbreviated as "sims," are a diverse category of games. They are designed to closely mimic real-world activities. These games attempt to copy life for many different purposes. Some people use them for training or deep analysis. Others use them for prediction or simple entertainment. Unlike many other genres, sims often lack strictly defined goals. This allows a player to control a character or an environment freely.
The mechanics of a simulation depend on the specific subgenre being played. In Construction and Management Simulations (CMS), players build or expand fictional projects. They must do this while managing limited resources. Unlike strategy games, the goal in a pure CMS is not to defeat an enemy. Instead, the player focuses on building within an ongoing process. In life simulations, also called artificial life games, players control living things. These games might focus on individual relationships or an entire ecosystem. Social simulations are a specific type within this category.
Other types of simulations focus on specific professional or physical tasks. Sports simulations can emphasize the actual playing of a sport, like the Madden NFL series. Other titles, such as Football Manager, focus on organization and strategy. Some even use satire for comic effect. Vehicle simulations include flight, racing, submarine, train, and truck simulators. There are even medical simulations where a player acts as a surgeon. Police simulations allow players to take on the role of law enforcement. Military simulations, or wargames, can be set in fantasy or science fiction. These attempt to simulate warfare at tactical or strategic levels.
Some simulations offer a very deep sense of immersion. Immersive sims are typically played from a first-person perspective. They create a consistent, lived-in world with many different gameplay systems. This gives players "agency," meaning they can complete objectives in many different ways. This often leads to emergent gameplay, where unexpected things happen because of player choices. Job simulations can range from realistic to hyper-realistic. These include blue-collar jobs like house flipping or power washing. Even digital card games can simulate casino games like blackjack or poker.
The history of simulation games reaches back to the mid-20th century. The Sumerian Game, released in 1964, was the first economic simulation. It was a text-based mainframe game designed by Mabel Addis. It was based on the ancient city-state of Lagash. In 1968, Cornell University funded several simulation exercises. These included the Cornell Hotel Administration Simulation Exercise. Another was the Cornell Restaurant Administration Simulation Exercise. The restaurant game even allowed teams to compete against one another. These early games were shown at national hotel and club manager conventions in 1969.
Technological shifts in the 1980s changed how people experienced simulations. In 1981, Sega released Space Tactics, which used a motion simulator cabinet. This was part of a trend called "taikan," meaning "body sensation" in Japanese. Yu Suzuki’s team at Sega later developed Hang-On in 1985. This was a racing game where players moved a motorbike replica. Sega also created hydraulic cabinets for games like Out Run and After Burner. One very sophisticated cabinet was the R360, released in 1990. It could simulate the full 360-degree rotation of an aircraft.
Another major milestone occurred in the late 1980s with city-building games. While Fortune Builder was released in 1984, SimCity in 1989 is most closely associated with the genre. It was developed by Will Wright. Wright’s company, Maxis, later released SimLife and SimEarth. These games simulated much larger scales, such as genetics and global ecosystems. Beyond entertainment, simulations serve a vital role in education. They turn learning into a matter of direct experience. Instead of just reading about concepts, students can "live" them. This can increase motivation and help students develop empathy. By making choices, players can see the moral and ethical implications of their actions. This helps develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Where will your curiosity go next?
🖼️ Images & Media (2)
More to explore
✨ What else?
Related topics you might enjoy
🔬 Go deeper
More advanced topics to explore
What is Nepedia?
A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.