You must know that the LDW games categorizes as casual games,
( here's a link to wikipedia here )
of the sim(mulation) genre.

And since FT and VV1 were released ( around 2003 and 2006 ) there was a LOT of parodies, spin-off or games based in these of LDW, like...
Wild Tribe, My tribe, Totem Tribe(maybe, look at the review in Gamezebo), Artist Colony, Gemini Lost-(hence in the name of the all the games )

Also, the first time that i have seen Insaniquarium and Plants VS. Zombies, both from PopCap, i thought that were based in FT and PT,respectively. And ironicaly, VF looks like The Sims series( from Maxis, Electronic Arts )
What do you think about this idea?