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.

34 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. by sulli · · Score: 4, Funny

    Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
  2. Non-violent games by CrazyJoel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  3. Shouldn't it really be by whoda · · Score: 4, Insightful

    MS Solitaire? It's come with every version of PC based Windows I've ever seen.

    1. Re:Shouldn't it really be by Shagg · · Score: 4, Funny

      It gets disqualified from the official tally because MS has a monopoly in the windows card gaming market.

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
    2. Re:Shouldn't it really be by joshuaos · · Score: 3, Funny

      I prefer mindsweeper. I spend my entire ninth grade year of highschool playing that game. Come to think of it, that was my last year...

      --

      When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!

    3. Re:Shouldn't it really be by hummer · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes that's correct your honour.... Solitaire is 'Integrated' with Windows. We can't possibly remove it without breaking the operating system.

      hummer

  4. Consensus by geogeek6_7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    This game has also produced 6.3 million examples of why humans shouldn't be God.

  5. Mr. Malda by SquadBoy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here you go. BTW you are most welcome. :)

    http://www.transgaming.com/gamepage.php?gameid=9

    --

    Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
  6. the sims new gaming model by macsox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  7. Annoying game by homer_ca · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

    1. Re:Annoying game by orangesquid · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'd say its a fairly accurate representation of real life.. I get up two hours before school so I can read slashdot and freshmeat in the mornings!

      --
      --TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
  8. Sims and Wine - just say yes by WillSeattle · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?
    1. Re:Sims and Wine - just say yes by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 3, Informative

      Unfotunately, as far as I know, none of the expansion kits works in Wine yet. So you can buy the Mandrake distro + The Sims for Linux (which isn't available without the distro) and play the basic version which has already been out for a couple years - no Hot Date, no Livin' Large, no Vacation, and pay another $60+ for the privilege of doing so. This was true at least as of a month and half ago, when I signed up for Transgaming and was deeply disappointed by that and other aspects of the effort.

  9. Quake Plug In by A.Soze · · Score: 5, Funny

    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)
  10. Dolls by Sludge · · Score: 5, Funny
    The Sims has capitalised on a very smart way of getting grown men (amongst others) to play with dolls.

    Gender repression denial is a hugely untapped market.

  11. Re:I would pay $39.95 by Lysander+Luddite · · Score: 3, Funny

    Then you could have little people following around a guy in a white suit exclaiming "Smiles everyone, smiles!"

  12. What about half-life / counter-strike? by t0qer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:What about half-life / counter-strike? by Chmarr · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You can have a 5 minute or 5 hour game of counterstrike and call it a fairly 'complete game'.

      There's no way you can have a 5 hour game of Sims and call it 'complete'. Its a long-term strategy game, and that kind of thing just doesn't work in an arcade (or PC Bang, or whatever) :)

    2. Re:What about half-life / counter-strike? by t0qer · · Score: 3, Interesting
      There's no way you can have a 5 hour game of Sims and call it 'complete'. Its a long-term strategy game, and that kind of thing just doesn't work in an arcade (or PC Bang, or whatever) :)


      Ok with that logic then why does Starcraft rank as #2 in these places? Starcraft doesn't really fit your mold of a quick fix game.
  13. Medic! CmdrTaco's talking about his Sims again! by ArcticChicken · · Score: 5, Funny

    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."

  14. I don't get it by praedor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I play the Sims to unwind after work.

      Of course, my job is being an elite commander of a mutli-national elite counter-terrorist squad dedicated to the destruction of contraband nanotech viruses and eliminating cults of unspeakable extradimensional entities.

    2. Re:I don't get it by mjh · · Score: 5, Funny
      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?

      Becuase, if you're a geek, in the sims you occasionally get laid. For some of us, that's as unrealistic as running around with a BFG, and being able to get shot with a rocket launcher 7 times before dieing.

      --
      Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
  15. Any games targetted towards women? by chrae · · Score: 5, Insightful
    • 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.
    1. Re:Any games targetted towards women? by PlaysWithMatches · · Score: 3, Funny

      Say what you want about the Simms - it's definatly an involved game.

      Yeah, but it's kinda out-dated. The Dimms is more advanced. :)

      --

      Mozilla's a nice operating system, but it needs a better browser.
  16. It's all about the system requirements by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  17. Praise those 6.3 million people by SkulkCU · · Score: 3, Interesting


    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
  18. Sims as a reality replacement by chrisvr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!

  19. Well... by mosschops · · Score: 3, Funny

    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*

  20. Re:Sims are disturbing by realgone · · Score: 4, Funny
    I mean it's one thing to play a game were you do somethign you can't really do in the real life... but play in life?

    You obviously haven't seen my kitchen sink recently. Those chore-loving Sims are high fantasy, far as I'm concerned. =)

  21. Re:Sorry by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 5, Funny

    My girlfriend and I started doing the same thing - "my hunger bar is turning red," "just let me finish maxing my fun bar, then I'll work on the social bar." The most frightening Sims moment is when she stood behind my chair waiting to talk to me while I was playing Sims, in which the Sims character was playing a computer game while his partner waited to talk to him.

  22. Re:Haven't seen anything yet by MisterBlister · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Wait until more people get to playing CounterStrike or the new Warcraft.... The Sims has nothing compared to those

    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.

  23. Finally! by fm6 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Somebody who can actually justify posting as an AC!

  24. Ironic, isn't it? by The+Cat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...