The Sims

Life simulation games is a sub-genre of simulation video games in which the player lives or controls one or more virtual lifeforms. A life... simulation game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation of an ecosystem". Life simulation games are about "maintaining and growing a manageable population of organisms", where players are given the power to control the lives of autonomous creatures or people. Artificial life games are related to computer science research in artificial life. But "because they're intended for entertainment rather than research, commercial A-life games implement only a subset of what A-life research investigates." This broad genre includes god games which focus on managing tribal worshipers, as well as artificial pets that focus on one or several animals. It also includes genetic artificial life games, where players manages populations of creatures over several generations. Artificial life games and life simulations find their origins in artificial life research, including Conway's Game of Life from 1970.
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William Ralph "Will" Wright is an American video game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis, now part of Electronic Arts. In April 2009, he left Electronic Arts to run "Stupid Fun Club", an entertainment think tank in which Wright and EA are principal shareholders. The first computer game Wright designed was Raid on Bungeling Bay in 1984, but it was SimCity that brought him to prominence. The game was released by Maxis,... a company Wright formed with Jeff Braun, and he built upon the game's theme of computer simulation with numerous other titles including SimEarth and SimAnt. Wright's greatest success to date came as the original designer for The Sims games series. The game spawned multiple sequels and expansions and Wright earned many awards for his work. His latest work, Spore, was released in September 2008 and features gameplay based upon the model of evolution and scientific advancement. The game sold 406,000 copies within three weeks of its release. He was born as William Ralph Wright on January 20, 1960, in Atlanta. He is of French, English, Italian, and Native American descent.
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Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers... responsible for its games. It is one of the largest video game publishers in the world. Originally, EA was a home computing game publisher. In the late 1980s, the company began developing games in-house and supported consoles by the early 1990s. EA later grew via acquisition of several successful developers. By the early 2000s, EA had become one of the world's largest third-party publishers. On May 4, 2011, EA reported $3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2011, and on January 13, 2012, EA announced that it had exceeded $1 billion in digital revenue during the previous calendar year. In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this “an incredibly important milestone” for the company. EA began to move toward direct distribution of digital games and services with the acquisition of the popular online gaming site Pogo.com in 2001.
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