Daily needs such as hygiene and eating can and must also be scheduled. The player can make decisions about time spent in skill development, such as exercise, reading, creativity, and logic by adding activities to Sims' daily agenda.

Sims communicate in a fictional language called Simlish, which is mostly composed of blowing raspberries and saying nonsense. They are unable to take certain actions without specific commands, such as paying bills, finding a job, exercising, and conceiving children. Unlike the simulated environments in games such as SimCity, SimEarth or SimLife, Sims are not fully autonomous. However, the player can override most of these autonomous actions by cancelling them out in the action queue at the top of the screen. If enabled in the game's options, Sims have a certain amount of free will, allowing them to autonomously interact with their world. Sims may receive guests at their home lot, invited or not, from other playable lots or from unhoused non-player character (NPC) Sims. Sims are influenced by the player to interact with objects and/or other Sims. It has been described as more like a toy than a game. The Sims technically has unlimited replay value, in that there is no way to truly win the game, and the player can play over and over indefinitely. The presentation of the game's artificial intelligence is advanced, and the Sims will respond to outside conditions independently, though often the player's intervention is necessary to keep the Sims on the right track. The structure of the game is actually an agent-based artificial life program. Several sequels were released - The Sims 2 in 2004, The Sims 3 in 2009, and The Sims 4 in 2014.

It also won several awards, and placed 31st on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list. Upon release, it garnered generally positive reviews and was described by Wright as being successful in attracting casual and female gamers. Seven expansion packs were released from 2000 to 2003, each of which added new items, characters, skins, and features.

The game's development was led by Will Wright and the game was a follow-up to Wright's earlier SimCity series Wright was inspired to create the game by Christopher Alexander's 1977 book A Pattern Language, and Scott McCloud's 1993 book Understanding Comics later played a role in the game's design. Players can also choose to pursue a social and successful life. Players can also use their Sims' income to renovate their living space, purchase home furnishings, or clothing for their household. Players control customizable Sims as they pursue career and relationship goals. It is a simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual people ('Sims') in a suburban household near a fictional city. The Sims is a strategic life simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts in 2000.

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