20 Most Powerful Gaming Moments Of All Time
18. The Sims (2000) - God Complex
The Moment: Absolutely anything and everything you desire (in a domestic context, that is). Want your Sim to do an Apu and have eight children? Go for it! Harbour a desire to control a Sim to become a leading figure in the world of medicine? No problem. Want to take your Sim and their wife and drown them both in the pool while you watch laughing? Its not outside the realms of possibility, we suppose...
How Is It Powerful? The Sims is powerful as a video game because of that exact word - you are given the power to control every single aspect of these helpless beings' lives. Games like Bullfrog's Populous had given the player the opportunity to play God before, but never had a game allowed us to build up a fairly sophisticated relationship with a virtual personality before demanding that we either make them or break them.
The sensation of authority you get as you lead your Sim to a successful, happy life is certainly a powerful one, as is the guilt felt when you push your Sims to their psychological limit where they eventually usurp your control.