A closer look
Will Wright originally designed the blockbuster game The Sims to be an advanced architectural design simulator called Jefferson, where the little virtual people were only added to evaluate the quality of the house layouts. However, during playtesting, the developers realized that players had absolutely no interest in architectural integrity and were vastly more entertained by tormenting the digital inhabitants. The entire focus of the project immediately shifted from high-concept urban planning to managing the mundane biological needs of gibberish-speaking avatars. It perfectly encapsulates the human condition that when given a blank canvas to build magnificent dream homes, our immediate biological instinct is to trap a fake guy in a windowless room, delete the swimming pool ladder, and watch him slowly meet his maker
