And it all just comes together like we had it planned

[austin_dern]

I think I'm fairly well settled in up at my brother and his wife's place. It's probably only amusing to me, but in the last several hours before going to bed my sister-in-law wanted to use her time to play The Sims 2. Setting up little simulated families is a significant pastime for her, and one of their rules for this vacation is that they won't be bringing their computers, nor the Blackberry, nor any means of getting in touch with them other than sending something to their gmail accounts and hoping they pick up. So she was setting up a new family, partly because she doesn't tend to play them out long, partly to show me how it goes. I haven't got The Sims, as I'm still waiting for reparations from Maxis for the Mac port of SimCity 3000, which was an act of unmitigated hatred. The game that I'll play which is closest to The Sims is Space Colony, where you micromanage people dropped off on a distant planet, which has its virtues but also pretty well tops out once you've got mining, space-corn, and nudging people into socialization before they slug each other down pat.

Her decision was to set up a little house with three residents based on the children from Family Ties, as the characters from old sitcoms inspire her to SimFamilies. Things went pretty well setting up Alex P Keaton as the guy in skater pants and a computer-guy-not-in-Silicon-Valley black vest, and Mallory as the girl in a pink gorilla suit (my sister-in-law's choice, not mine), but things foundered on the question of what was the name of the other Keaton child, played by Tina Yothers, whose character tragically had no name. Presumably they'll insert a wholly inappropriate one to the disappointing-movie-based-on-the-TV-show coming out next spring. My brother looked up the family on the Internet Movie Database, and argued for a place for unwelcome child addition Andrew ``I don't wanna be a Klingon Warrior'' Keaton. My sister-in-law and I argued against the inclusion, because nobody liked him and nobody watched any episodes he was in. My brother protested he was in 71 episodes, worth some mention; his wife reiterated that none of them were any good, and he got no Sim Representation.

Soon thereafter, the Keaton Children were set up in a house my sister-in-law described as the ugliest thing she'd ever Sim-Built, and the unnamed younger sister was kicking plastic flamingoes. My brother accused me of encouraging her Sims obsession. But she didn't just play; she also looked for YouTube videos of socially-deprived Sims being confronted with the Social Bunny, which I didn't quite get, but there was certainly a bunny going after listless Sims.

Trivia: In 1875 the United States Patent Office had 1,138 registered names and brands. Source: Advertising and the Transformation of American Society, 1865 - 1920, James D Norris.

Currently Reading: Ultimatum, Richard Rohmer. Rather an exciting read, actually, all the more remarkable when you consider that much of the second half details an emergency session of the Canadian Parliament. It probably helps that I'm the sort of rules freak that would actually like to know: before an emergency parliamentary session about a nation-threatening deadline only six hours away, does the Governor-General need to deliver a Speech from the Throne, and must it be inscribed on the appropriate scrolls? (Rohmer's answer: probably the Governor-General does, and it must; but it need not be a long one.) It focuses just on the day and a half after the imminent threat, giving things a tight focus and swift pace, although I don't believe the story is finished by the time the book is.

Comments

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

I used to play the Sims a lot, for two reasons. One was to design elaborate houses and fill them with furniture I could never afford in real life.

The other reason was to perform psychological experiments on unwitting Sims. Such as "Gilligan Island Syndrome": stranding several individuals on an "island" with no phones, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury. And no toilet. Or giving someone no food and no beds, but a whole row of espresso machines.

And then there was seeing how many neighbors I could lure into a building before one of them set the whole place on fire. (My record was igniting 10 people simultaneously)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I get the fun of making elaborate set-pieces for them to play in; that's sensible. It's the psychological games I don't get.

[orv.livejournal.com]

In my experience people tend to play the Sims mainly to torment the little computer people. To me this is proof that any religion that believes people eventually become god of their own universe is disturbing, since given the chance nearly everyone seems to become a vengeful, sadistic god.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

The webcomic Jack has something sort of like that -- bad people go to Hell, which is more or less a normal universe, albiet freaky and dreamlike. People can affect each other, for good or ill.

Normal people go to purgatory, which is *exactly* like the real world, except that proselytizing angels promise to have sex with you if you agree to be reincarnated.

Good people go to heaven, where they get to create their own universe to live in. Of the three heavens shown in any detial, two of them involved torturing and killing hundreds of people for amusement. But it's okay, because they're not 'real'. Even if you have friends that you need to interact with as part of your heaven, they're not really there.

It's really creepy. Kind of like Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's very creepy. Don't people like their fictional creations anymore?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That's a bit horrifying, actually. I've always tried to play my simulation games so that my nations are wealthy and peaceful (ideally with a world as peaceful as I can make it); my cities or towns diverse and healthy; my Space Colonists as happy as their jobs allow.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

As I've tried to max out mine. Sure, I'll now and then build things up, then throw disasters or strangeness in for a misere` sort of result, just to test it out. But that lasts about as long for me as designing the most horrible sost of uniforms possible in Madden 2006 and throwing them against each other for maximum eyebleed. It's fun once, and then you go back and play for real.

But that's why I can't quite get into The Sims. From watching it at an ex-girlfriends place, it seemed like the game inevitably led to "Well, they're all incredibly happy, this is boring. Why don't I try for this?" This led to steady attempts at bizarre or cruel.

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It's odd that the game would plateau at a boring level, actually. I'd imagine that with enough interactions you could pretty well never have everything stabilized and tranquil for very long. At the least I'd expect challenges to keep building.

(I don't deny that in some grand strategy games it's possible to get things fossilized in a pretty calm state. There was one Europa Universalis game where my England conquered and annexed Ireland, Scotland, and France; and with a unified Spain to the west and a unified Poland in north-east and Austria in south-east Europe, and a couple minor powers aligned to one or the other, we had a century-plus with no wars, no threats of wars, nothing but tranquility. It was eerie. Then Austria had to go and implode and things got mighty challenging again.)

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

It seemed to boring-plateau. Then again, I didn't actually play, principally because it was the Xbox version, and I knew I'd soon rebel and be craving a keyboard. (I like my Playstation 2 just fine, and for many games consoles are superior.. but not for The Sims.)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Huh. I only got tired of Space Colony which is similar in structure in some of the more advanced challenges where there were too many colonists and too many things going on to be able to follow them all. I like a reasonable amount of micromanagement, but this was too far.

I have no idea how people can play keyboard-heavy games on the X-box or that ilk. I remember how hard SimCity 2000 was, and how hard the Civilization games are without keyboard shortcuts; to do without would slow things down insufferably.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

oooo.. will this be a semi-permanent change in locality?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Just for a short while. In fact, it's almost over, but it's plenty to talk about.