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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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
I think the appeal is that you get to pat your self on the back for keeping YOURSELF alive so long, as well. It's hard to keep them alive and happy, so therefore, you're doing a great job in real life by just managing to take a shower once in a while.
The Sims has MASS MARKET appeal. That's why its the #1 selling game of all time.
Sure, CS and Warcraft3 and Doom3 appeal greatly to the 'hardcore' gaming crowd, but that market is insignificant next to the throngs of women, men, adults, children of all ages who think The Sims is a lot of fun.
And I hate to break it to you, but these games (CS, Warcraft) aren't ever going to appeal to the mass market -- unless later iterations are changed to the point of pissing off the existing players, that is.
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.
The Sims is fun. That's all there is to it. Really. The people who look into more deeply and then say they can't understand why anyone would want to play at life (or worse - the people who say it's sick to want to play at like) are the only ones getting sucked into an alternate reality here. The fact is, it's just a game. It's essentially a building/money-management/time-management game. It follows the same formula as all games do - set up a premise, give a challenge, and then provide a reward for completing the challenge.
The premise is that you get to control a bunch of simulated people. The challenge is to keep them happy so they can succeed at their job and ultimately this rewards you by allowing you to add more crap to their house or build a bigger house or whatever. It's fun to be able to design any kind of living environment you want and then see how "people" react to it.
It's also just as escapist as any other game. Think about it- when was the last time you controlled the lives of an entire neighborhood of people? Jesus, people, it's not like this is a first person shooter where your goal is to go take a shit every five minutes.
Lighten up.
If you need to interpret my post, then you don't get it.