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"The Sims" Online, and on the PS2
bahamlabs writes "Sony is is attempting to venture into the online gaming market with what is now the most popular computer game of all time, "The Sims"." It'll be interesting
to see how both the console version of the game, and the online version deal with
expansion and customization- the two things that allowed The Sims to become
among the most entertaining games ever.
With Eq they squashed numerous fan-story sites, as well as many, many in-game control-hungry stompings of players creativity. They turned the game from what could have been a great RPing platform into a service provided that catered to the "l33+ dewd" player, giving power to those who had the most time/money, not those who tried to be creative.
Think they'll change that much to help those of us who love to customize and be creative with the Sims? I somehow doubt it.
I'd also love to see Diablo ported to the Playstation. This is another one that would work remarkably well on the TV screen, and that has a straightforward interface for most of the game.
What are some of the other online games with simple interfaces? With enough choices like this, online console gaming could finally take off!
Says the RIAA: When you EQ, you're stealing bass!
Will someone please explain to me the attraction of the Sims? When it first came out, I gave it a couple of hours, and decided it was a waste of time. When everyone tried to convince me it was great, I gave it another go. Still nothing. I'll grant that all video games are pretty much a waste of time, but this brings inanity to new levels.
Note: this is not a troll. I just don't understand why people would want to play the damn thing.
It's harder to turn your housemates into lesbians in real life than it is in the Sims.
The Sims Online has nothing to do with Sony. They are not providing any service for the game. The Sims PS2 is a separate product and is NOT an online game. It is being produced by Maxis and developed by Edge of Reality (who ported THPS, THPS2 etc... to the N64). It will have a classic mode as well as a new level/goal based game mode.
Except that you can easily add a keyboard to the PS2 if you really want one.
No, that's ridiculous. Do you think an unexpanded version of the Sims wouldn't have been the mega hit that The Sims is currently? The Sims sold just fine before any expansion packs. Because lots of people want to manage a virtual family. Lots of people can and do love The Sims with no additions whatsoever.
At least that's what Microsoft want us to believe.
With the bestselling PC-games being ported to PS2, XBox will die a quick death like Hailstorm, Windows/Alpha and PenWindows (read: Microsoft will pretend to push it and then tell all customers to f**ck off without warning)
I think MS will lose a lot of their fanboys with XBox...
Cheaper, takes less time, and is more rewarding.
Popular attitude on
Cheaper: Who cares. Those that can afford it do, those that can't can find other entertainment. No inherent quality here.
Takes less time: Not sure why this is listed as some sort of benefit, what are you going to use the extra time for? Laying around, doing more of the same? Why not do something that takes a long time rather than a few short ones, depending on your personality type, completing one long activity may be more rewarding than multiple short ones which leads me to:
More Rewarding: This is just a crock of shit, which leads me to believe that you are an immature, shallow thinker. The value of a reward is a function of the rewardee, (and to a lesser extent the rewarder), not some arbitrary designation placed by those who feel forced to judge other.
So why don't you live your life, and the people who want to spend time playing the Sims (or anything else) will live theirs and you can keep your meanigless value judgements to yourself.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
The PS2 has 2 standard USB ports, so you just buy a mouse for 10$ (or less) or just grab the one that is hanging on your PC...
That's exactly what it's supposed to be and that's why it's so popular with women. It's the dollhouse they couldn't afford when they were a kid.
Well, will there? The Sims seem to be awfully popular with this Linux-savvy crowd, so it would logically follow that they'll release a Linux version for everyone, right?
Easy does it!
This comment has been submitted already, 276865 hours , 59 minutes ago. No need to try again.
Could somebody please explain *why* The Sims is such a popular game? I've played the game, and found it to be completely boring and even slightly confusing. Whats the appeal?
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I think inkfox is in the dark about how Diablo has already been ported for the original playstation. And apparently it got fairly good reviews, so you could argue that it's a good landmark for how a PC-based RPG made a graceful transition to a console title. However many of the people I know got addicted to playing Diablo as a (m)morpg, and the console version supports only a basic two-player version.y system, I find it difficult to imagine that they will find the online version will get the same rabid response from the gaming community that drove the original single-player 'The Sims' to blockbuster status on the PC.
I personally can't see myself playing a(m)morpg sim game like 'The Sims'. Everquest and it's ilk seem to be the 'killer-app' for mmorpg's and they do it very well, because they reward players for working together for short-term rewards and long-term gain. The system also has an inherent, "my Palidian is bigger than yours!" ego-stroke factor with the upgradable array of quasi-unique items and the structured leveling system. You play to improve your character (both XP and GP) and then take on new, more challenging enemies.
On the other hand, games like The Sims reward intellectual gameplay based on long-term development and more qualitative goals; build a pretty house (what do you consider 'pretty'?), develop lots of positive relationships with NPCs, build some skills, budget time for work/play, etc.
I always found that I could pop open the sims for 'just 10 minutes' (which invariably becomes 30...) but I will sit down for a good chunk with an RPG (to date I think most of my playstation RPG sessions were at least 30 minutes, if not more like 1hr +...) Without adding a new 'competitive' aspect to The Sims, or building a structured points/leveling/neighboorhood/my_sims_need_therap
This isn't to say that I don't love The Sims, but I think that it is going to take some serious re-tooling of the game's underlying goals and concepts to produce a (m)morpg that will sell to the online-console-gamer market.
"If I wanted your input on my pet project, I'd stick my hand up your ass and use you like a sock-puppet." - Muse
oops.... i mean i heard that people do that... i read it online somewhere.
i do have to say that i never thought of that trick on my own. someone came and did it to my Sims neighborhood while i was away..... poor sims. for the creative people with issues there are many ways for sims to die (like walling them in while they sleep, which i have never tried). i think my housemate explored the possibilities after his favorite Sim died from spontanious combustion. another lesson in why you should back up your data.
It's like the Real World on MTV, and the accursed 'reality' shows. The Sims allows people to look in on other people's lives, even if they aren't real. The game is made in such a way to create drama to entertain, and give just enough control to keep people "playing".
I hate reality TV. I hated the sims.
The sims is just reality TV you can interact with.
Or can appreciate people who don't like video games.
Take my girlfriend for example: She's really not into the objective nature of most video games which either keep the game interesting by appealing the need for visual stimulation (Quake)or mental simulation (Command and Conquer).
There are a slew of people who get dizzy from all the visual stimulation and don't want to joggle the brain with strategy games.
The Sims doesn't make people dizzy and they can't lose, because they're not in competition with another player or AI.
Really it's the first really successful girl friendly game, and one of the reasons people like it because they can explore scenerios with the Sims that they wouldn't otherwise risk in thier own lives.
It's not that hard to figure out if you can make an effort to understand why people don't like every other game.
"Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce
People say this all the time, they also say the opposite. I can tell you one thing, I can get much better-looking, faster moving and more detailed 3D graphics out of my PC than ANY game I have seen for the PS2.
However - my PC/video card/512 mb of ram combo cost way more than my PS2, WAY MORE, so it's not really a fair comparison.
PCs and consoles are JUST DIFFERENT. A top of the line PC is generally going to be more powerful, and give you better-looking graphics but it's a totally different way of playing games. It doesn't make it more fun, just a different kind of fun.
I think some people are missing the point. While the sims is a mediocre at best simulation of life, the fun part about it is that you have the ability to control whatever you want. You don't get that chance with life. You build up their little lives and completely wreck it to where it's worse than your own. I'm not sure how popular this will become on console though, but most everything can be done with pointing and clicking on the game.
check again, www.news.com.com, news.com.com, www.cnet.com and www.news.com are all CNet, and all resolve to the same block of IP Addresses...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Ah, online GTA3 would just be ruined by the one guy who manages to steal a tank and then just roars around the neighborhood plowing over everyone else.
This may be a little off topic, but.. :) :)
:)
I've never actually played sims but my younger sister has every expansion pack and plays the crap out of that game. One day I was asking her about it the game, I wondered if you were able to kill/fight anyone in the game. Her answer was a hesitant no, she said, "Well, I did kill my maid, she wasn't very good at her job." "How'd you do it, if you're not allowed to kill anyone?", I asked. Here's how she did it.
1. Build a small empty room next to your house.
2. Put a fishtank or something that a maid would want to fiddle with in there.
3. Ask maid to clean fishtank.
4. Close the door by building a wall.
5. She'll starve in there.
6. Optionally, turn the room she's in into a pool, that'll cut her lifespan down to about 2 days.
My little sister freaks me out sometimes.
Ansi's and stupid tricks!
Now, you don't let them do casual things, you'd make them do things you would never (unless you're an idiot) do, like: electrocute, stunt with fireworks (in-house), drown those sims, call the police for nothing, drown them, the Sims is just like an ordinary horror game, really!
If at first you don't succeed, then sky diving definitely isn't for you.
Did you ever play with Action Figures or GI-JOE? Those were all dolls. Just given different names because boys didn't want to play with dolls. The original GI-JOEs were about the size of what you might consider a doll. I am going to go play with my (fake) stuffed animals now, thank you.
What?
There are a wide number of games which are high selling and I think most gamers can agree _aren't_ fun (cough, Who Wants To be a Millionare cough). This is probably another one of thoses cases where your average RTS/FPS/et cetera fan won't be interested. I know I'm not interested, but then, you'd need a *real* Linux port to get me to play.
As in, something that's not a very slightly modified windows binary with a wine wrapper (and to play even the 'transgamers' have to purchase the distro).
This is _really_ silly when the codebase has been ported, twice. The first time without the polygonal parts, and the second without graphics whatsoever (if I recall correctly).
Check out ioquake3.org for a great, free, First-Person Shooter engine!
I know I would buy one.
Why? cause it's cheaper than upgrading any PC i have to becoming a decent game box.
And, hopefully someone will start hacking at it, and get it running some more fun things. On board networking, great video out, great audio capabilities, could turn into a decent home entertainment system (actually, it is a decent one right now, if you don't mind keeping everything in WMA on it, and not be able to retrieve information from it). I would hope someone could break open the box and start hacking with it, get linux on it. (I don't know if the CD ROM drive un able to read burned CDs is true or not).
It would be a fun project box. And because I spent 3 hours playing halo on it, and I want one.
You need to compare something like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 on the PS2 and the PC. Everyone, even Sony fanbois like you who have seen and played the two games running side by side admit that the PC version kicks seven shades out of the PS2. It even adds to the console version, a more complex online environment accessible through a standard 56k modem, skinnable characters, the ability to change the music, downloadable parks, etc. etc. I'd bet good money that the Sims games are better on the PC too for more reasons than just the graphics.
Noone who got motion sickness from PC gaming would go out and spend £250 on a graphics card anyway, because they wouldn't be playing the games that warrant it in the first place.
Oh! Look Score 0... you're a troll! Silly me.
And just what do you think your sims are doing when you tell two of them to "play in bed" on your vibrating heart bed. (in the Livin' Large set.) Sure doesn't look platonic to me ;)
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