Hey all you RPG players, remember BURPS?

[Cigarskunk]

If you've ever done RPG games (ie/AD&D, Shadow Run, etc) then you've probobly heard of GURPS - generic universal role playing system.

If you've heard of GURPS, then you've either heard the joke or came up with the joke about BURPS - boring universal role playing system - which allowed you the chance to play normal, everyday people and worry about raising your family, paying the rent, etc, etc.

Well a few nights ago, I saw it advertised on TV - it's called "Meet the Sims" - apparently that game has now been modified so that you can play your sims with other people's sims on line.

Watching that commercial I came to the realisation that it had finally happened - society had degenerated to the point that the wage slaves escape thier boring, tedious life of going to work, raising a family and taking care of the home by playing a game which featured going to work, raising a family and taking care of the home. :shock:

/em runs off screaming

[Sylphan]

But the game more than just exists, it's a huge hit. Based on sales volume, The Sims is the most popular computer game ever.

I'm way with Cigar on this one, why on earth would anyone want to simulate real life?

I want to Role Play, meaning a different role.



I mean, what can you kill? Can you roleplay a homicidal psycopath... they look just like everyone else.

[Cigarskunk]

But the game more than just exists, it's a huge hit. Based on sales volume, The Sims is the most popular computer game ever.

That's the problem - it's not just a small handful of folks who think simulating thier life is a great way to get away from it, it's LOTS of people who's only escape from reality is, well, reality. :shock:

[ArrakeenNaedShoj]

My wife plays the Sims. I was even forced to buy several of the expansions for her as they came out. Once we upgrade her computer next month, she will start playing the Sims Online.

That being said, I agree with you 100% CS. I have to take out the trash in real life, why the hell would I want to play a game that makes me do it?

[Cigarskunk]

Just came up with an evil thought - do the Sims have computers they can use? What if one were to give the Sims a copy of the Sims so that that the Sims could play thier own game in game? :twisted:

Even better yet, what if Sims players have the same conflicts with EQ players along the same lines of Trek fans vs Star Wars fans - it'd be fun to do a patch which resulted in the Sim characters logging into and playing EQ all day instead of doing whatever Sim characters do with thier time.

[ArrakeenNaedShoj]

Yes in the game, the Sims have their own computers with which they can play video games, or surf the internet for jobs, or (i think) study. And it is very odd looking over my wife's shoulder to see what she is doing in the game and seeing her tell me (she has all her characters based on people she knows in real) to play a video game, when in real life she is always telling me to stop.

[Quinner Sparrowhawk]

/ROFLMAO

I asked some of my students about this and a few admitted to cheating so their Sims didn't have to get jobs. /sigh

This thread reminds me of an old Dragon magazine cartoon. A warrior and cleric sit down to RP a game called Papers & Paychecks.

[TheEmerged]

Just a note about the popularity of the Sims Online -- they're having major, borderline catastrophic retention problems. I've heard conflicting reports about HOW catastrophic, but the most conservative I've heard is that fewer than 25% are staying passed the free month. I've heard numbers as low as 1 in 20...

BTW, that cartoon was in the old Dungeon Master Guide. I've got a scan of that picture somewhere, if I can find it I'll link it...

[Aandaie]

I tried sims online in the beta, its a moderately ok "graphical chatroom."

The problem is that when you try to turn it into a GAME it suffers from many of the same problems as EQ:

"Hey I want to play the pizza game with you guys"

"Sorry, no. Your skills are very low and you'd not contribute anything and only take. You have to go and get higher skills first"

(player goes and sits on couch where other people are reading, reads book in game while leaving room and watching tv for awhile.)

In case you don't get it, this is exactly what happens with friends you want to play with in Everquest. "oop, sorry we outleveled you."

It took what was basically a good idea, then ruined it by having "live" skills which improve. The idea of the more people in the house reading cooking, the higher cooking gets, is nice but its still slow and boring.

[UbercyrusForbeis]

I was watching Tech-TV and they said the biggest things in the game right now are the odd-jobs to make money and the "skill" stores.

/boggle

In the online version, There are endless things to do, but all people want is to be the richest or smartest. Ubah gamers are everywhere.. flee, save yourselves!

I've played the non-online game, enjoyed the first few steps (building a house, putting stuff in it) and then lost interest when it became an issue of doing RL crap. I enjoy SimCity, as creating a city and making it work is interesting.

[Cigarskunk]

OK - turns out that my last GF was into this thing as I found her disk in a drawer. Downloaded and played a few rounds of the solo version - eat, clean, goto work, rinse and repeat - worst than camping a rare spawn.

So I set up a Sim concentration camp. :twisted:

Put a bunch of ovens around and caused the Sim to set it's house on fire.

Made a sloppy Sim and then let it rot in it's own filth.

Walled a Sim into a room with no food or sanitation.

Built a pool then removed the ladders while they were in it.

I'll kill one of those little @#$%s yet. :twisted:

[Frabbens]

I'll kill one of those little @#$%s yet. :twisted:

The only sim I ever succeeded in killing had zero cooking skill and was locked in a 2x2 doorless room with only a fridge and a stove. Sim gets hungry, goes to fridge, starts cooking, starts horrible conflagration, tries to escape... :twisted:

I played for a while, mostly to get families to build huge, freakish, elaborate homes, and then gave it up. I can't imagine how this would be any fun online.

[Insert-RN]

Am I the only one who finds irony in the fact that someone who plays EQ is complaining about another online game that takes expends large amounts of time?

I sure hope not.

I play Sims Online.. sort of. It's entertaining, and really, I like it more for the social aspect than the game itself. A lot of the obnoxious tedium of the solo game is out of the online version, thankfully.

*shrug* It's a different way to waste your time. It's really not any different than EQ, imo. One man's trash is another man's treasure, so they say.

[joatmoneq]

Sims heehhehe

I enjoyed the Sims........ for a little while. I only got the first XP pack for it.

I completed my one goal in the game.
Get my little bugger married to some Girl in the house next door that only had a phone.

Then I made a castle on the biggest lot.

Then I made an platoon of lawn Gnomes.


It was fun for a bit, and it taught me that if I want to get out of my house in a hurry, I should have my house set up so its a straight shot from my bed to the bathroom to the kitchen, to the frontdoor.