18 Essential Landmark Titles Every Gamer Must Play

12. The Sims

Back in 2000 when kids first began relentlessly pestering their parents to buy The Sims for them, the response they got was usually the same: "You want to play a game where you sit in front of a computer screen for hours on end and control somebody else's simulated real life instead of going outside and living your own?" "Yeah mom, you wouldn't understand." Plenty of people did understand though, as The Sims became one of the best-selling games of the decade. Even today, the franchise now expanded into various sequels and spin-offs, it is still one of EA's most profitable series. While the concept of the game may have seemed bafflingly pointless to many, it was nonetheless addictive and challenging to those who gave it a chance. Importantly, The Sims is credited with attracting a large amount of female gamers to the medium, a massive 60% of its players being women. The core gameplay may not have changed too drastically over the years, but the more recent instalments still stand up to the success of the original.