Slashdot Mirror
The Sims Overtake Myst
krugdm writes "Gamespot is reporting that The Sims has now sold 6.3 million copies and has overtaken Myst as the best-selling PC game ever." My Sims lie dormant awaiting a wine that
can breath life into them once again. I just have been too busy to reboot.
Finally, postcards from someone's vacation move into 2nd.
Quake is number one on the Slashdot Poll today. Are geeks really that prone to violence?
Addlepated - punk & metal
Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
sulli
RTFJ.
Me thinks so
I've always thought that the games like Sims are disturbing. I mean it's one thing to play a game were you do somethign you can't really do in the real life , like waste hordes of orcs or travel throught the City of Doors, but play in life?
I passed the Turing test.
Wait a second, Taco! You don't have time to reboot, but you would have time to put into the massive time-sucking vortex called The Sims?
Something's wrong here.
The most valuable commodity I know of is information. - Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, Wall Street
It's weird that the top games are these non-violent, non-gorey games. But, the violent games far outnumber the non-violent ones.
That's unless you like trapping your sims in small shacks and setting fire to them.
Oh, and Mortimer punched me when I stole his wife.
Such is the infinite Grace of Popeye.
MS Solitaire? It's come with every version of PC based Windows I've ever seen.
This game has also produced 6.3 million examples of why humans shouldn't be God.
is because this game is also geared towards woman players which make up nearly 50% of the gaming market (no joke).
To err is human, but to really screw things up requires a computer
Here you go. BTW you are most welcome. :)
9
http://www.transgaming.com/gamepage.php?gameid=
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
How many copies of minesweeper did Microsoft sell? See, that's the best-selling PC game ever.
one of the most revolutionary things about the sims is that a second version has not been important for so long -- that they can add more and more to the game with simple expansion packs that are relatively simple to create but hugely profitable.
it will be interesting to see where this model continues to go -- release a fairly simple but intricate and engaging first version and add to it continuously, for a fee.
go get it
Time scale always annoyed me. Click on the sink and it takes 20min (game time) to put away the dishes. Click on the radio and it takes 15 min to walk across the room to turn it on. You have to wake up 2 hrs before work for enough time to shit, shower and shave and then eat breakfast. Where do they get these lazy fucks?
It's always fun to invite your neighbors over to your house and then as they get confortable and think you're nice, suddenly invest in some walls and keep them there hostage! MUAHAHAH =)
I would like to make a meaningful comment but my energy meter is too low.
Hacker Media
Says something about human nature, eh?
Or does that just speak volumes about me?
Perhaps I should keep these observances to myself.
Wait until more people get to playing CounterStrike or the new Warcraft.... The Sims has nothing compared to those
My Sims lie dormant awaiting a wine that can breath life into them once again
Mine sleep in vomit : wine abuse ?
for a mod to put my Sims on the Myst island.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with all your metadata.
no text.
Wait. That IS text!
Look, you can even buy a distro (Mandrake) where they bundle in The Sims. And the bonus is you can then play Warcraft III when it's released, becuase it includes a sub to transgaming.
So reboot already. The time for Linux to be the gaming platform of the future is now. Windows is dead, and Bill G is starting to realize this. Good thing he cashed out a lot of money for his (actually good) Foundation.
Got me The Sims. Gonna get Warcraft III. Need Black and White for WINE next.
-
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
"I just have been too busy to reboot."
Does that mean you're too busy to play as well?
I'm waiting for a plug-in that lets me go house to house and frag my Sims at leisure. Then I'll feel like a God...
"Goodness, how did you people ever live long enough to invent tools?"
-Hobbes (the tiger, not the philosopher)
"Goodness, how did you people live long enough to invent tools?" -Hobbes (the tiger, not the philosopher)
it's the ultimate chick game. my wife must have played it for more than 200 hours before she finally came to her senses.
"It's OK, my sheet's got a hole in it!"
I'M NOT PRONE TO VIOLENCE! *crushes the chair against the wall*
DO YOU HEAR ME? *whacks the keyboard as he types*
DAMNIT! I'M NOT PRONE TO VIOLENCE YOU FRIGGING ROTOR! GRRRR!
:o)
Don't we have enough flaming morons playing this fine, fine game already? It's a rare piece of software that can have so much allure that the idiodic user base can't destroy it.
All of you gosh darn high falutin geeks with yer GOOEYs and whatnot.
...Forever!
Why, in MY day...we had only text-mode console games AND WE LIKED 'EM.
ADVENTURE, ROGUE, NETHACK
The expansion packs have to be worth shelling out $20-40 for, and the last two haven't been. The middle expansion pack was so annoying (cockroaches and flies, anyone?) I uninstalled the game and haven't played it since.
Gender repression denial is a hugely untapped market.
Can anyone explain to me why this game is not exactly like playing with Barbie dolls? Granted, I play lots of console games...maybe this is another thing I just don't "get". =)
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
What other game requires you to play an organ to fly a spaceship. Genius.
If the game had a demo where I could check it out. I might have thought about buying it.
don't forget this one :-) :-)
Because the Sims aren't real your dog can't attack them. However, your dog can still eat their information!
I don't know the numbers on those two titles, but considering how many PC BANG (bang is korean for room) I.e. game houses that are popping up specializing in CS, it made me wonder if this entire article was just marketing "fluff"
I just don't see many pcbangs renting out stations so people can play SIMS.
All your Myst are belong to us.
And each of these 6.3 has called in sick to work due to being soooo close to getting two female characters to kiss. And Greenspan was blaming the economy on the tech slump..
["Marge, I agree with you - in theory. In theory, communism works. In theory." - Homer]
Non-violent? I have to say one of the most disturbing (yet mildly amusing) comments about a video game on Slashdot came from CmdrTaco last year:
Referring to the possibility of a Sims TV show:
"This sounds pretty lame... unless they use my Sim Neighborhood: I used skins from 20 Female Television stars ranging from the girls of Friends, Xena, Buffy, and beyond. I made many households and played the game normally for awhile. After the ladies all fell in love with each other, purchased everything available in the game, and had successfull careers, I started luring neighbors over and trapping them in my attic, or drowning them in my pool. You haven't lived until you've seen Xena Warrior Princess die in a terrible grill fire while Sculley flails her arms in terror. Now that would be good TV. Especially with anatomically correct skins."
I do not understand the draw of this game. There, I said it. I live life every day, mow the lawn when it needs it, go to work...why the HELL would I want to play a "game" within which I get to do the same crap? I play to escape and solve mysteries/puzzles, put my tactical and strategic wargaming skills against those of the computer or another person. Why do I want to play a game where I have to go to work, mow the lawn, etc?
That said, I WOULD find it interesting if the game maker would BRING BACK the plague hamster that kills. Add plagues, pandemics, crime, terrorists, serial killers... THAT would be frickin' cool (or COULD be if done properly). You character goes for a walk at night and gets mugged or does the wrong girl/guy and gets a disease. Has a car accident. Make it gritty and more unpredictable. Toss in the wildcards. THAT would make it more interesting.
As it is, I'll never touch it or even look at the box. I'll stick with Deus Ex, Half-Life, the coming Call of Cthulhu (YEAH!), and Warcraft III. REAL escapist fun games.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
- Its worldwide appeal spans hard-core gamers, casual computer users, and even gaming's most elusive group of consumers, women. Over
- 50 percent of new Sims players are female."
Other game makers should take heed to this. Targetting females or more specifically not targetting only males would make a lot of other games sell much better. IANAW, but I'm sure women aren't impressed with big breasts and alpha blended puddles of blood. And to tell you the truth, I don't care for it much either.Sure, a hot chick on the box will sell a few copies but good gameplay and depth in a game is what makes people tell thier friends to buy the game too. Say what you want about the Simms - it's definatly an involved game. That's why it sold so good.
Just my opinion.
It's weird that the top games are these non-violent, non-gorey games. But, the violent games far outnumber the non-violent ones.
No. It's all about the system requirements. A game like the Sims has a much larger population to sell to than a Quake.
Of course Quake is a bad example. Id games are not merely about retail sales, licensing their engines are a big part of their business. So while Quake's requirements are a little steep, next years games based on the same engine do not seem as bad.
The licensing of the engines also contributes to the raw number of titles that show up. There can be a lower cost of entry to game business this way, less risk, etc.
I know people don't like hearing this, but I never really considered Myst a game. It was more like a story book with some clicking thrown in, and some maddeningly inane puzzle things.
Nice story, bad game. Obiously, quite a few people disagreed, but whatever.
.sig last updated Jan. 14, 2000
It's a dream come true for everybody who tries to manipulate the lives of others who would be perfectly fine on their own.
I just hope that this means that they either learn that they can't even keep a fake relationship together, so maybe they should leave the real ones alone.
Somehow I wonder what the current Slashdot Poll has do to with this. :-/
What does it say about our society today that the Sims games are so popular? Video games were always a pretty antisocial pursuit, but at least we didn't fool ourselves into thinking they weren't. The Sims becomes a replacement for living our own lives, and we don't even mind it.
It's amazing how the Sims can suck people into this alternate reality where the game play consists of managing characters who, for the most part, are just living their lives. And all of a sudden you look up and it's six hours later, and you haven't taken out your own trash, or called one of your friends, or worked out, and are eating cold leftover pizza. And instead of being bothered by the irony of that, you tell yourself, "just a few minutes more, I almost have these two characters ready to get married."
It's way creepy. And even creepier that I'm thinking "gee, it's been a while since I fired the game up, I think maybe I'll go see where I left off." And I should be going to the gym, cleaning the house, making dinner or spending more time trying to find a job!
I just have been too busy to reboot.
I guess that's better than too busy rebooting, like the rest of us working under Windows. *sighs*
Does that 6.3 million number just count the sale of "The Sims" or does it include "Livin' Large" also? Does it include the expansion packs (e.g. "Hot Date")?
Of course, I'm not gonna complain - Myst is the most overrated game in the history of the universe and deserves to be relegated to the footnotes of gaming history. I mean, does anyone think that more people played Myst than other games of the era (i.e. Doom?)
... "Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the w
If there is such a thing as reality tv, which there is, it explains the rage for a game like the Sims. People want to be able to watch other people do what they do and this opens the door for a controlled environment in which to do it. I guess what I am trying to say is that if you like Survivor, Big Brother, and maybe even webcams that are strategely placed in NYC or atop of somebody's tree in the middle of Indiana so that you can watch the corn grow, then most likely the Sims sounds like fun. Not trashing the game, just over-analyzing it!
Hm, Myst was the #1 game for a long time, and now The Sims is the #1 game? That's two for two games that I can't stand...
"the sims" is a stupid fucking game. If it's really the best all-time seller then that confirms that the world is full of dumb-ass fuckers.
same thing goes for myst, just another boring piece of crap.
They waste all their time posting on Simdot, and bitch to me when the get modded down.
SOLITARE
The Sims is just a trend....
It's too much like my real life. Sit in my apartment, read, watch tv, go to work just so I can come home and do what? Buy a shiny new toaster? I want a game that makes me feel important even though I'm not, not one that just confirms how meaningless and futile my life is.
A game with no people or a game with roboslaves to allow you to play god. Sounds like geek heaven to me. If only the real world could be that way. We could all be the far weird comic book store guy from the Simpsons.
13.5 Million if you include the expansions...
"I just have been too bush to reboot."
HAHAHAHAHHA. Uh huh, Wintel sheep.
Only for games, right?
Suuuuuuuuuuuure.
Of all the Sims games Sim Ant was the best, it had all the usual Sim ingredients...instead of controlling the lives of humans you had a colony of Ants. But unlike The Sims it had good old fashioned warfare thrown in.
You could either try to take over a rival ant colony or even better you could attack your local pesky humans by first invading their garden, then trying to invade their house.
The thing the bored me with both the Sims and the Sim City series was the pointlessness of the game.
OK Sim City had disasters and The Sims had 'beat the Jones's ' need to upstage your neighbours but I still got bored quickly.
Really if I wanted a simple goal orientated game, that modelled human behaviour I much prefer to boot up 'Jone in the Fast Lane'. Ok so the graphics are dated, and it only models the life of a student but its a damn site more fun than the Sims.
The sims was bundled with a special gaming version of Mandrake, so there's an extra 3 copies sold right there...
it will be interesting to see where this model continues to go -- release a fairly simple but intricate and engaging first version and add to it continuously, for a fee.
Zillions of Web sites operate under the same model: Yahoo Mail, Salon.com, Slashdot...
Heck, even Microsoft started doing the same thing when it began charging for Microsoft Plus! and service packs to Windows 95.
It's a scary sight - believe me
Someone above posted that they'd pay to be able to put their sims on Myst island. That got me thinking, wouldn't it be cool if you could put the sims in other games as well.
You could get your sim to work out and become a football player and play him in the next Madden.
They could join STAR and be in the next Resident Evil game.
They could become drug lords and be in next GTA
The possibilities abound!
Me, I'm waiting for the iPod version, so I can upload my sim onto some computers at CompUSA, it would then lounge around with other uploaded sims, acting as an itelligent agent looking for kewl software for me to later download.
some of us like both!
I'm not saying that women don't/can't enjoy games popular with men, just that most women I know don't care for them. When I picked up a copy of the Sims for my brother, a friend of mine gushed over the box and said she'd buy a PC just to play the game and its expansions. Hot Date was a popular birthday gift among women friends.
Perhaps a romance-style adventure, heavy on the character-interactive, would appeal to many women. I don't know - I'm a guy, so my clue factor is pretty low when in comes to games-that-appeal-to-women.
Most programmers/game designers are men - I think it's probably pretty obvious that a game company that wants to cater to women should go woman-heavy in recruiting designers/coders.
It is nice to note, though, that if a developer is truly creative and careful in developing a stable piece of software, the market will respond with financial rewards.
A stripped down demo version of The Sims would have sucked, taken too much work, and severely delayed the release of the actual game. Instead, Maxis released SimShow to introduce people to The Sims and kick start the skin industry before the game was released in March 2000.
Given the choice, Maxis thought it would be better for fans to have a simple useful tool for creating content that enriches the game, than yet another useless lobotimized game demo.
Of course the best place to see thousands of user-created Sims demos is The Sims Exchange, where players have uploaded more than 50,000 families. You can view the houses and people on family web pages and albums with stories about them. And if you have the game, you can download and play with any of them.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
So you work at McDonalds?
I guess flipping hamburgers makes for great weapons training.
For all the good Transgaming is doing (mmm... Starcraft), it should be noted that the Sims only works if you get the special Mandrake Gaming Edition of it. It contains hacks to the Sims code that lets it work in Wine. The standard store-bought version doesn't work at all.
If they're in that advanced stage of alcoholism to not even be able to move, they shouldn't be picking and choosing the type of wine. pick any alcoholic beverage and run with it. i guess the sims have a 1 step AA program: step 1 -- just don't run on wine. ;)
THE SIMS FUCKING SUCKS.
Without weekends and resonable time scales the game isn't worth playing. Why is there such a fuss over this piece of shit game. People please grow brains and start living your own life not some game that forces you to wake up at 2 am just to take a shower and eat or you miss you car for work.
I read the post about Malda's comments about "anatomically correct" skins, then panned down to this post, saw the URL, and suddenly it all made sense: His Scully and Xena skins were sporting wangs.
Once, I'm happily playing the game (or trying to with limited success) when suddenly my Sim drops to his knees, clutches his forehead in his hands, and warbles this plaintive cry. I shuddered and shut it down.
I disappoint enough people in real life without having to shatter the mind of some poor virtual bastard too.
He lives his life, and I live mine. We both like it that way. Although that disturbing wail sometimes echoes in my sleep.
In real life, you can't kill a guy to get his wife, but my Sim doppelganger did just that. Repeatedly.
:-)
I wish the mechanics of the game would allow for multiple amorous relationships with mutiple women. Then I'd get myself a SimHarem and move to SimUtah.
PC Bangs were restricted to pr0n..
you can pick your friends,
you can pick your nose,
you can't however,
pick your friends' nose.
Is import our Sims characters to Myst!
(Or better yet, import all our Sims characters to Everquest...
Bob Newbie hits for 90 points damage.
nah..bad idea)
The Sims has capitalised on a very smart way of getting grown men (amongst others) to play with dolls.
They're not dolls, they're action figures. That's what my son tells me about all his transforming figures, LotR figurines, and all that stuff.
Now if you could just do magic in The Sims - sweet!
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
I'm replying anon to preserve precious karma. :) Funny you should mention that since I'm *very* into shemales. :)
Think about it.
But at least we'll be able to play Warcraft III.
Or maybe they could do a WINE-compatible version of The Sims: Hackers Unite!
Then we can have LAN parties inside of LAN parties.
Severely sweet!
-
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
...minesweeper instead :)
"If you're thinking what I'm thinking, you're right." -
Somebody who can actually justify posting as an AC!
I'd wager good money that while the sims and myst sold more games, Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Starcraft or even Everquest have been played more hours by the fewer people.
Granted, this doesn't make publishing companies happy (except for Verant maybe), but it should make the developers happy.
"As it is, I'll never touch it or even look at the box."
It's hard to appreciate anything if you oversimplify it. Now there are 6.3 million people that think you're an idiot, heh.
"Derp de derp."
nt
Go to www.transgaming.com and register for $5 a month. You can then vote on getting the expansion packs/windows versions of The Sims running on Linux. They really pay attention to the outcome of the votes. If there is support, they will do it. They also have many games running great on Linux, and a native version of The Sims for sale. Go now, its a good thing!!!!
You folks apparently have nothing better to do than play silly computer games.
There are other things to do in the RealWorld(tm), work being one of them. Get a life !
Troll working for YHBT HAND
>His Scully and Xena skins were sporting wangs.
Exactly, that would make perfect sense for someone in the computer programming profession.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
As one of my friends put it...
Simulating life...at the expense of your own.
:)
I have bought The Sims....and no expansion pack, I'd be waiting in line for an adult expansion! Yay! :-))
I gave up on the game after the first time playing it.
Ten minutes (real life ten minutes) just to walk over to the fridge and open the door to get some food. . . . nooo thank you!
The Japanese do MUCH better LifeSims IMNSHO.
Besides, the game is WAAAAY to limited. Unless I can plot to control the world, what's the point?
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
it's all about having control over other people - it's definitly a highly esteemed social value, and maybe it's even built into our brains genetically as well.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Sims are good but damn slow , and using dated rendering ideas, they should go FULL ON 3d rendering using polygons etc..., this isometric stuff is too 80s
But, but I thought all PC games were warezzzzzzzzzzzed!
I thought that rampant copying and wanton piracy were destroying the industry!
I thought that people would never buy something they could just rip and download for free!
I thought that games were a niche market!
I thought that games would never appeal to the mainstream!
I thought PC games didn't make any money!
Whaddya wanna bet whoever came up with the idea for this game had to perform the equivalent of giving birth to a washing machine in order to get it green-lighted by the publisher?
This game has made approximately Three HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS in gross sales (if it was priced at $50).
This provides a two-word answer to any game publisher from this point forward who says:
"Ehhh, PC games can't make money"
"Ehhh, ehhh, Piracy is damaging the industry"
"Ehhhh, you need state of the art 3D graphics to sell"
"Ehhhh, people only want to play action games"
"The Sims"
Of the top two best selling PC games of all time, with a total combined sales of approximately ELEVEN MILLION UNITS, one was an adventure game and the other was a simulation.
Hmmm.. maybe the MARKET IS TRYING TO TELL THE GAME INDUSTRY SOMETHING, YOU THINK????
ahem...
this is shipped units, not sales. There is no mention of the return rate. I'd be interested in seeing what NPD cosnidered the most selling game of all time as their figures come from retail sales, not manufacturer shipping invoices.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
-Don
The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch
Corporate intrigue, radical psychics and reality-bending drugs all figure prominetly into The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch. In a not too distant future the spiritual activity of interstellar colonists is controlled by P.P. Layouts, a company owned by Leo Bulero. Legally P.P. Layouts sells minituarized homes, accessories and dolls that colonists collect like gold. Coupled with the illegal drug Can-D (of which Bulero's company has a monopoly), it allows the colonists the group experience of inhabiting the minds of Perky Pat and her boyfriend. For this period of time, they are allowed to live out their earthly fantasies denied to them by the loneliness of space.
When Palmer Eldritch, an exiled businessman returns from a far away galaxy with a new (and legal) drug called Chew-Z, Bulero's monopoly is in grave danger. Chew-Z is a drug that claims to deliver eternal life. The book follows P.P. Layouts employee Barney Mayerson as he confronts questions of loyalty, judgement and love. His insecurities about his ex-wife and his own addictive personality thrust him in the middle of a mystery as to the true nature of Chew-Z and what it means for the future of the galaxy. Palmer Eldritch is omnipresent throughout the novel as the reader tries to figure out his intentions. The characters experience profound changes and hallucinations thoughout the book and the question of the true nature of god is addressed as well. The reader is left wondering if God just exists to make a few bucks.
"Perky Pat Paraphernalia" by Steve Young
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
This is one of the funniest posts I've ever read on /.
Who's gonna clean the kitchen?
thanks for the laughs!!
yes, you can hire a maid, make a phone call and she will clean for you
She managed to do this with two of the three female Sims in her house. She then promptly invited over all of the male sims in the neighborhood and had a big, naked, party. None of whom seemed to notice very much. Morons.
I have pictures. I'm not joking. I am, however, a sad waste of skin.
They didn't kick me out at all, I was bored as fuck, and dropped out.
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!