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I'm glad that the lesbian Sims got you to play for at least a few hours! The fact that some guys just love to watch lesbian couples was an unintented benefit of a larger goal. If that side-effect annoys any women, then they can get even by making gay guys and watching them too.

The actual intention was that The Sims might prevent at least one person from committing suicide because they were gay and their parents and community couldn't accept it, by providing an idealistic place where nobody makes a big deal or treats you differently because of your sexual orientation, and you can have a relationship with anyone you want without being persecuted.

I came up with the idea of making all Sims characters potentially bisexual. Here are some comments I wrote on the design document, in which I threw down the gauntlet about gay sims.

The whole relationship design and implementation (I've looked at the tree code) is Heterosexist and Monosexist. We are going to be expected to do better than that after the SimCopter fiasco and the lip service that Maxis publically gave in response about not being anti-gay.

The code tests to see if the sex of the people trying to romantically interact is the same, and if so, the result is a somewhat violent negative interaction, clearly homophobic. We are definitly going to get flack for that.

It would be much more realistic to model it by two numbers from 0 to 100 for each person, which was the likelyhood of that person being interested in a romantic interaction with each sex. So you can simply model monosexual heterosexual (which is all we have now), monosexual homosexual (like the guys in SimCopter), bisexual, nonsexual (mother theresa, presumably), and all shades in between (most of the rest of the world's population).

It would make for a much more interesting and realistic game, partially influenced by random factors, and anyone offended by that needs to grow up and get a life, and hopefully our game will help them in that quest.

Anyone who is afraid that it might offend the sensibilities of other people (but of course not themselves) is clearly homophobic by proxy but doesn't realize it since they're projecting their homophobia onto other people.

There's a wikipedia article about Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters in video and computer games, which says:

The video and computer gaming industry has been slow to grab the pink dollar, with Maxis being the first to enter into this new market. It is generally felt that young white males (most of whom are heterosexual) are the force driving the industry forward. Hence any effort to market games to anyone else is tied to an industry question, "Will heterosexual men want to buy this game?" In the 1990s the industry began to make some efforts to market games to women by creating software titles with strong and independent female characters as seen in Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. The commercial success of both games (and their numerous sequels) does suggest that male gamers are willing to play a female character. Yet, it remains to be seen if a straight male would be willing to play an openly gay or transgender character, as they generally are willing to play sexy and powerful female characters.

The Sims

In 2001, Maxis broke new ground with a new television commcerial for its computer game The Sims. Highlighting the ability of the characters to date, the commercial featured an attractive twenty-something man in a nightclub flirting with a woman, until he is suddenly drawn to an attractive man in the club and after a brief pause agrees to date him. The games have become very popular as they allow

From the Book of the Five Rings, I'd guess.

Perhaps you're thinking of Miyamoto Musashi of IBM Japan, and his Book of the Five Rings?

There is a reason that The Book Of Four Rings and The Art Of War are recommended reading for any entrepeneur...

..is here. It was written in 1645: [author bio]

..is here. It was written in 1645: [author bio]

You're absolutely correct - Sun Tzu is the author and the book is called 'Art of War' - another book worth reading is 'A Book of Five Rings' which pretty much is the more Zen based Japanese version. I didn't have my coffee yet this morning when I stepped on my little soap box.

On the other hand, if you spend the whole weekend reading how to fence, preparing to fence, and fencing, you're liable to go insane. At least I would. I can't stand to do anything - even something fun - for that length of time. (I've got nothing against fencing; in fact, I used to fence myself, but quit because it doesn't mesh with my personality. I'm a nice guy, not agressive at all; no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't become agressive during the bouts and so would be way to defensive.)

You raise a good point. Combat books are a lot more than just mental preparation. I would recommend you read a good translation of Book of the Five Rings, by Miyomato Musashi. Here's an online version. You can buy this at Barnes & Noble in the business motivation section, to give you an indication of it.

These are people that have earned utmost respect from dedication and focus, and their books explain how you can do this in any field, not just combat. I think that combat is an intrinsic part of building confidence. I'm not speaking purely of physical, but physical (obviou), verbal (debate), mental (chess).

You can be as aggressive as needs be, in the field that suits you best. If everyone was aggressive physically, you would naturally be that way. My guess is that you have spent most of your life living in an environment where mental combat is the most important, and that's where the passive nature comes from. I grew up in a more physically combative environment, and while I can speak well and carry good debate my main combat prowess does come from the physical.

Reading combat books, of all sorts, has improved my life dramatically. I would also classify the well-known Art of Happiness book as a combat book. It teaches you how to combat selfishness and greed, and improve your lifeview. It involves much consideration (5 points for catching the reference).

Actually something somewhat similar has happened. I was thinking of the "Easter Egg" in Maxis' "SimCopter". I remember hearing a lot of people rushed out to buy the game (otherwise not a huge success) to see this easter egg.

Didn't you recognize the guestbook entry by the esteemed ex MIT professor, Dr. Lirpa? Dr. Lirpa has made a great number of breakthroughs, including in the field of hydrodynamics, audiodynamics, political theology, and aerodynamics, among others. Dr. Lirpa is not a force to be trifled with.

Link one: http://www.kanga.nu/arch ives/MUD-Dev-L/1998Q4/msg00164.php

Link two: http://www.samurai.com/list s/bryans-list-1998/0398.html

I haven't tried it because I'm stuck on a windows box without a decent nslookup but it looks simple enough.

1st annual content
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Good luck to this year's contestants!

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Kiro