With the development of the information society, video games for personal computers and consoles, as well as mobile games for smartphones and tablets over the past couple of decades have become a part of the life of most people. The degree of realism and the breadth of possibilities in individual game genres have reached a high level of technical performance. First of all, this of course applies to life simulators, the most famous and popular of which is "The Sims" game series - over 20 million copies have been sold in 20 years. Today, the games in the series are the object of research by Russian and foreign scientists and are devoted to the development of foreign language skills during the game, problems of social interactions and practices, the use of game tools to visualize architectural objects etc. The article presents the results of an empirical study of the social features of the simulation of the city, housing and neighborhood relations in the last three games of the series, carries out by content analysis of messages on the largest Russian forum dedicated to "The Sims" games series. The comparison of the features of the game simulation with real living conditions of people in suburban residential buildings and apartment building in a metropolis was carried out. The presence in the world of a game of real neighborly practices, social institutions, housing inequality and limitations of life in metropolis was revealed. The existence of isomorphism, the interpenetration of real housing practices and the virtual world of "The Sims" series was noted.

Keywords: 

• housing sociology, 
• dwelling, residential house,
• multi-apartment building, 
• neighborhood, PC game,
• social simulation, life simulator, 
• The Sims.

Cite As (APA): Litvintsev D.B. (2020). Social Features of Simulation of the City, Housing and Neighborhood Relations in The Sims Computer Games Series.  Kulʹtura i tehnologii, vol. 5, no. 3, p. 155-165. (In Russ).

 doi  10.17586/2587-800X-2020-5-3-155-165      EDN  SFZILJ      PDF  Read in Russian