LCP also doesn't seem to have met sales expectations, judging by the fact that a series of planned add-on expansions never ended up getting made. This Activision title was reasonably well-received in its day, but largely dismissed as a low-challenge educational game suitable only for young children. Social simulation wasn't an entirely new genre, and indeed Wright drew inspiration from 1985's Little Computer People (alternatively known as House-On-A-Disk). As time went on, his creative interests would shift again, to also take in the lives of the people inside the buildings. Switching from macro- to micro-management, Wright's new spin-off project aimed to focus on the architectural design of individual houses. The game was the brainchild of Will Wright, the designer behind the SimCity series, who had decided to approach the world of his popular city-building franchise from a new angle. The original The Sims - now sometimes called The Sims 1 for the sake of clarity - was released in February 2000, and received regular updates via expansion packs through to October 2003.

Start at the beginning, right? When faced with a self-imposed task as massive and daunting as writing a retrospective on The Sims franchise, going back to the very first game was the obvious launchpad.

As The Plumbob Turns is a regular column in which RPS's in-house Sims fanatic Rebecca delves into the history of her favourite franchise.

Sims 1 free to play