When I was in 2nd grade or so, I was staying the night at my Aunt's house and she let me play TS1. The first family I made was a single mom with her daughter. They hated their lives and I sucked at taking care of them (red plumbobs, puddles and flies everywhere, broken appliances galore). Despite that, I fell in LOVE. Never stopped playing since and I'm now 18 years old.

My husband & I are high school sweethearts. The first year we were together, he took me over to his uncle's to introduce me & this led me to babysitting his two cousins (I think they were 9 & 3 at that time). His cousin Curtis had TheSims installed on his dad's computer & showed me how to play. He knew about most of the cheat codes. I was only able to play for about 30min after they went to bed & the family I created certainly didn't last long. I knew nothing about skilling them or how to prevent them from dying. I remember the wife-sim I created tried to cook a simple meal while I was busy trying to get her hubby into the shower. Next thing I know really creepy music starts playing & the guests all started wailing. She had burned to a crisp. I wasn't able to play TheSims again for years, Curtis uninstalled it & gave it to one of his friends when he got bored of it (silly silly boy), but I never forgot it or Grim's music.
A few years after high school, my husband bought the console version of TheSims for me & a few months after that, he found the Sims2 for console. I was absolutely thrilled & quite addicted. It did bother me that the console games were more goal oriented; do this so you can go do that type of thing. Plus once you "beat" the goals, you were kinda stuck. We didn't get a computer into the house until 2006 (I was staunchly against having one, knowing his level of game addiction. I figured we'd never speak again other than meal times when he scarfed his food to get back to whatever he was playing). My future in-laws bought him one for his birthday, so he made a point of finding the Sims2 for my birthday . I was hooked line & sinker, it was beyond anything I expected it would be after playing only on the playstation. We used to scrap a bit about whose turn it was to use the computer lol & how long the other one was playing last time. It's only been in the last 3 years that I discovered the amazing online community & the joy of cc. It has really turned my game around! Plus it's not glitching anymore with finally being patched & all the other fixes developed. Of course, once that happened, it was a family discussion about me buying myself a laptop, as my husband said he didn't have much space on his pc for all the downloads I was collecting

My original draw to The Sims was kind of lame really. My life was unbearable and I didn't see any way to change my situation at that time. I decided to take a free writing class sponsored by a local college and one of the people in my class played The Sims and I stopped to pick some things up before class and he had the game going on his computer. I tend to completely immerse myself when I read or play computer games and the idea of "becoming" someone else and living a different life seemed like a much needed mental mini-vacation. Once I played, I was hooked. I could create stories and even my own little world. When Sims 2 came out I refused to convert. Then my Mom died. I was devastated and couldn't even listen to music or watch TV. After several months I finally got back into forums and saw some Sims 2 video footage. I checked out the teaser in my Makin' Magic disc set. Discovered I could make Sims look like anybody I knew. Decided I wanted to get Sims 2. I created my family and in a way it helped when I missed my Mom. I'm happy to say that I was finally able to change my situation and am no longer living with abuse. I am happy in my life now and prefer living a real life. But I still love my Sims. Now if I could only get them to work on Windows 8 so I could take them with me on my laptop

I saw it in stores, but wasn't sure about it, seeing it had a T rating and I was 12 at the time. (I wasn't going to press my luck with my parents.)

Then, one day, when Nickelodeon magazine used to cater to teenager up to age 16, I read an article with the developers. I liked it from the beginning. Of course, being that I was still 12, I waited for my 13th Birthday, which was October 23, 2000. I bought The Sims 1 and whatever expansion packs were available.

From then on, it was my addiction.

However, my gaming style throughout the years reflected my skills as a gamer.

Because I was used to platformers such as Sonic the Hedgehog and RPG like Pokemon, this was a new challenge. I'd actually kill them off through the various (yet limited) methods of death during my school years (my academic life at that time, junior high, was more like "Life In Hell", where I just couldn't win, so sometimes, I'd make Sims of various people who wronged me and have them die at my hands).

I guess you probably would understand that nowadays, since the Sims 3 came out, I would rarely, if at all, kill a Sim off.

I can't remember what actually drew me to the game in the first place since I was still in elementary school, but I remember seeing it in the scholastic book orders and begging my mom to buy it for me. I think it was the deluxe edition base game. Few years later I bought the complete collection. I used to get EPs for christmas every year. By the time Sims 2 was out, I'd borrow them from friends. Now of course, I have to buy my own dang games.

Well... my parents got the sims 1 in 2002 for my sister. She didn't let me on to play it, so I'd sneak on while she was at school and created my very own family. (Keep in mind that I was 3 in 2002) I'd just... click stuff, and then other stuff would happen. I even remember thinking how much better it was than the phonics games my mom would buy me xD When the Sims 2 came out in 2004, my sister got it, but since I had school by then, I couldn't sneak on when she was gone... so I had to ask her. She let me on occasionally, but it wasn't as much as how much I went on the original Sims :P

It all started with a promo video in a simcity game. I got the sims 1 (and all the expansions when they came out) and never stopped playing the series.

I didn't get addicted to it until a few years ago. :3 I found it amongst our many games, and I thought it looked fun. I asked my parents if I could play it, and got so into it. I remember sneaking on the computer at night just to play it. Now my 5 year old brother and sister play it, and I'm playing Sims 3. I also got my dad to order TS2 off Amazon. Excited

I remember years ago when I was just a kid and my siblings played the Sims 1. At the time I was too young to play (well I was five around when sims 1 released) but I kept begging to let me play. Eventually I managed to be able to play when Sims 2 came along. I was so horrible back then, I had a family of five that quickly turn into just the teenager that got fired from his job. I could play a lot more often once I finally got my own computer. I eventually got the Sims 3 once I got a computer to run it.

My first simulation game probably would have been SimAnt. But that was quite a while ago.

I used to play sims city back what I was younger (6 or 7 probably) and I remember going to pc world with my family, and begging my dad, at that time I was only allowed to play sims city (which I didn't understand properly) or Barbie games and the like. Eventually my dad caved in and got it for me, and I was hooked for years, I didn't have any expansions, nor access to the Internet on my PC, then my friend started play the expansions and she let me borrow on holiday and superstar and then finally I bought makin magic with pocket money!
A little while after making magic one of my older brothers friends lent him sims 2 and i got my own copy a few days later, and I follow all the expansion packs for it up until just after seasons when i lost interest a little, until I finally started playing sims 3 of which I have all of the expansion and stuff packs, except 70,80,90 and university.
I discovered the exchange around the time of unleashed when I got Internet (but still only had base game)but didn't find custom content for ages after that, I finally got really into custom content for sims 2, but I haven't got much for sims 3 (took ages to load sims 2 with all my cc) but my game runs slow enough with a few choice sims store products and my create a world project

It started on a old laptop, I think along with old computers when I was but a small child. Many of my Sims where killed though as at that age of 4 I did not know much better when I played sims 1.

The tragic clown actually makes a return in
The sims 3 supernatural, as you probably know there is a potion called "Origin of the tragic clown" and it turns you into a tragic clown.

When I was 7 years old The Sims was the first non-educationally labelled game my parents bought me for my first ever computer - and the rest, as they say, is history.

I saw a review about Sims the Complete Collection. My husband was just to go out on his third deployment and learning my interest, brought the game for me. He thought it would be a great to keep my mind busy while he was Iraq. And it was That was 2007. He was home three months and had to return overseas. This time, he brought me Sims 2 and now Sims 3. I have been a Simmer ever since. And yes, my husband still feeds my addiction

Back than I was into roleplaying and strategy games and when I first read of The Sims I was exited as well as sceptic. It sounded so different from anything I used to play. But the more I read the more I got hooked and when the game came out I bought it the first day. Mind you, I went to the store with an odd feeling in my gut, for I considered Sims a "chicks game" and though I´m female myself I absolutely did not want to be seen bying a girlie game. Stupid, I know, but that´s how I felt back then.
I played Sims very much like an rpg at first. There were skills to gain and equipment to buy, didn´t matter how the house looked as long as it was efficient. Soon I got into the storytelling aspect, re-created my own family as sims and also made some custom skins but to this day most of my sims turn out career-orientiated.

I got it as my eleventh birthday gift. It was the one with three different games in it though I don't remember the names of them. The original and two others, one which gave you the genie lamp... I stayed up all night playing it and when my sister woke up the next morning and dsaw me still on the computer she got so mad and yelled, "Great! Now I'll never get a turn!" And stormed back into her room. LOL

It all started when my friend was obsessed with TS,she played it all day,and she was always "busy"..So I decided to try it myself :D
She gave me CD,and than I was always "busy" xD

I think I was like 6 or 7 years old. My mom's co-worker let us stay at her summer home for a week (really beautiful beach house in the outer banks. I loved going there every summer when I was little) I remember my friend came with us and he brought his older brother, who had the Sims on his laptop. I got soooo HOOKED on that game after watching him play it. I spent more time playing the sims that week than I did at the beach or doing all the other stuff families do on vacations. The first family I made was a recreation of mine....we all died within the first few days because the house I built was just a huge box with beds and a tv (And I didn't even have enough money to finish the box. There was like one wall tile missing) It didn't dawn on me that Sims might need to eat or use the bathroom XD

I knew about the game, cant remember exactly when I first heard, but I started playing when I broke both of my legs in the summer of 2000. I was Only about 12 at the time but the game was a saviour (that and rocket power and hey arnold) It saved me from feeling completely terrible spending most of the summer holidays in the house, heh.

A little girl I was babysitting for got the Sims Double Deluxe and I remember thinking (a) How awesome it was and (b) that a child her age (she was like 8) really shouldn't play a game like this. Anyways after I got paid I went to the local store and picked it up. A couple of years later I ended up buying the entire series when it came out in that huge pack. I love the soundtrack, and to me the Sims 1 has the best soundtrack hands down.

I found it in a thrift store. My friends came over my house and we all made little sim versions of ourselves. The game was so much fun and you could not get me off the computer at all. However the robber and the grim reaper scared the shit out of us. Once I saw all the amazing youtube vids people were making using sims 2, I just had to get it. Now I'm forever a sim maniac. Although, I didn't really like sims 3, but I'm optimistic for sims 4.

oh man it's a classic story out the pages of my life.

I was in high school back then when my friend let me borrow his "The Sims" cd, he said it was a good game. I was skeptical at first being into action adventure back then, with games like Half-Life and Soul Reaver.

So when night came, little ol' skeptical me popped the cd in, installed it, and began playing. I started with the Newbies (for the record, I still like them more than the Goths and am disappointed that only their daughter Brandi made it to Sims 2).

And so I played. I played for a very long time. I played for 72 hours straight. My only breaks where taking a leak and getting food. Even then I ate in front of the computer. I wanted to see everything, wanted to know would happen. When's the next promotion? When can I buy this? It was crazy! And in all that I was oblivious to the fact that you can speed up time! Heck, I was playing in normal speed the whole time! I was so engrossed I didn't even take time to check all the controls first. I only stopped because I had to be somewhere else. If I was free the whole week, who knows how long I would've played?

From that day forward, whether I was aware of it or not, I became a Simaholic...

I bought the game for my son for Christmas the first year it came out, he was 7 years old. I opened it up before and was totally hooked. He got bored rather quickly and I took over. He used to complain about it, and I said fine, take it back and play it all you want. He of course moved on to First Person Shooters and other such games. I've been hooked ever since. I still play Sims 1 on my laptop, Sims 3 on my gaming computer. I still think the first game was completely charming and it still surprises me.

I'm going to concur with the "I had an old computer" crowd here as just about anything that needed more graphics capability wouldn't run. My first copy of The Sims was the original base game I got used from my half-brother (he'd uninstalled it from his computer while he attended college, said he was worried he wouldn't study). I remember being young at the time and tried to control the sims directly, like a third-person RPG. I also tried to jump right into it, creating a family and moving them into an empty lot. It didn't go so well, and I actually uninstalled the game entirely.

I later re-installed and played the tutorial Newbie family, got the hang of it, and discovered why my half-brother uninstalled it! No, this story doesn't involve bad grades, but it does involve spending a lot of time playing it. I re-created my original family and tried making them friends with the Maxis Sims, when I realized there would be no penalty for switching to the other families and playing them for a while. Actually made Cassandra Goth a popular girl! I remember crying the first time one of my sims started a fire while trying to cook (before I knew they needed cooking skill points to avoid that), and they didn't have enough money to rebuild the kitchen; pizza for breakfast it is! I could go on and on, and all before I had even one EP.

The sibling got the game when it first came out, I looked up in wondrous and childish fascination. I was too young to understand what "sorcery" the Sims 1 was. Years later, I was old enough to snatch the case of the shelf and play the Sims myself. I loved it- everything about it :D
A few years after that I lent only the base game CD to a family friend, who was my age and was like really good at computers (for our age then). She LOST the disk! I STILL cannot believe it The parentals told me to get over it, but I couldn't- it wasn't even a DVD, it was a CD ROM! It is really special to me. Unfortunately because of that...incident... I have not been able to play the Sims since 2008; but I still have my two amazing expansion packs, shelved next to all my Sims 2 and 3 games. I still feel sad when I think about it, since watching the sibling on the computer playing the Sims IS what got me into playing games in the first place * sigh heavily.

But it's ok, I still have the best memories of my short experience of the Sims- that's what counts right? :D