Mobs Move Into Sims Online Power Vacuum

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a San Jose Mercury News report discussing the rise of racketeering in The Sims Online. According to one of the afflicted, "[other players] ..show up at your house and they request protection money. `You have to pay me 100,000 simolians if you don't want your house torn down.' It's technically harassment." The reasons for this and other extreme in-game behaviors are also discussed: "Sometimes, [organized gangs] are a sign that the game lacks enough interesting elements to engage the players - so they create their own drama. More often, it means players are so attached that they invest the time to exploit its rules."

Comments

SimJail? SimParoleOfficer? SimChico'sBailBonds?

[Asprin]

Anyone know what they're doin' to the perpetrators? I think a large-simolean fine (paid to victims) and a couple of weeks with their Sims being isolated in an 8x8 cell in the crossbar hotel would be fitting.

Re:SimJail? SimParoleOfficer? SimChico'sBailBonds?

[TripleA]

A suspension of the user account seems more fitting.

Re:SimJail? SimParoleOfficer? SimChico'sBailBonds?

[C0LDFusion]

Yeah, if you put the violators in a cell, what commands smuggle drugs in your ass?

Re:SimJail? SimParoleOfficer? SimChico'sBailBonds?

[C0LDFusion]

If the moderator things drug smuggling is off-topic for a discussion about prison, then he most likely thinks prisoners still wear striped outfits and have a ball-and-chain connected to their legs.

Re:SimJail? SimParoleOfficer? SimChico'sBailBonds?

[Asprin]

Ultimately, yeah, for chronic rulebreakers, but I think there's some room fun here with people who have found abusive (and creative) ways to manipulate the bits. You wanna be a SimGangser? Fine, but the game has consequences, and some of them involve having your character locked in a cell alone with nothing to do for three weeks while the people you robbed get all your stuff. Think of it like an account suspension, except that it gives the convicted a more clear sense of punishment.

Re:SimJail? SimParoleOfficer? SimChico'sBailBonds?

[Asprin]

a:>pkzip -a -ex hemmoroid.zip stash.dat<BR><BR>

Just make sure you use the -ex switch for maximum compression - believe me, you want this thing as small as possible.


(Yes, your ass runs DOS -- why is that funny?)

Re:SimJail? SimParoleOfficer? SimChico'sBailBonds?

[Rysc]

That's about the same as execution. Isn't death (of character) a little extreme for racketeering?

I'm signing up now!

[dbretton]

With the Mob running things and my Frank Sinatra Sim avatar, I am a shoe-in for becoming a superstar!

I'm surprised that this didn't happen earlier

[Sayten241]

Since The Sims is an attempt to emulate society, it is surprising that this didn't happen earlier. Social entropy would dictate that something like this would have to happen in every society. What I want to know is: do people really have the ability to tear down people's houses? I cannot think of a reason that the makers of The Sims would allow this to be possible unless they were going for a true-to-life simulation. It would seem odd that they would do this because it would only be an easy way for people to abuse other people.

Re:I'm surprised that this didn't happen earlier

[JolieBlanc]

Not when I was playing, though that was in the beta and it may have changed. The worst they might be able to do is invade en masse and break stuff through overuse, but the lot owner always has the right to boot them off the property and ban them. So really, it's a threat without any teeth.

Terminate their accounts ..

[dk.r*nger]

.. by SHOOTING at DAWN in a public place.

Mwa ha ha ha!

The Sopranos Spoiler

[codexus]

That's so annoying. I read an article on the Sims online and I get a huge spoiler on what's going to happen next in The Sopranos. Not everyone has seen all the latest episodes and in europe, they are airing episodes a few months late at least.
If I was reading a Sopranos forum and got spoiled, I'd deserve it, but how am I supposed to know there is a spoiler in that article?

Re:The Sopranos Spoiler

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe if you had a life instead of sitting drooling on yourself in front of the TV ...

Re:The Sopranos Spoiler

[gmhowell]

My brother and father watch the episodes new (I just wait for my father to get the DVDs and watch them there). I long ago gave up trying to avoid spoilers. They KNOW I don't want to pay for HBO, but they still tell me, every Monday, what happened the night before.

Of course, if you pay attention to the industry rags, seeing that Joe Pantoliano has a new TV series coming out should have been a dead giveaway:)

not surprising, BUT...

[EricV314a]

have you ever seen a story like this and said to yourself "damn, I wish I could have thought of that"?

doh

[rask22]

and here I just started playing shadowbane looking for good online pvp.

Someone explain, please

[truffle]

Like many people I bought and played the Simms Online for about a week and then deleted it.

Reading this article, which doesn't include any game mechanics at all, I'm left wondering:
- How do you tear down someone's house
- What other in game tactics to Griefers and the Mob use against other players
- How do you rip out someone's heart (thought this feature is now disabled)

The Simms is such an incredibly stupid game, my immediate instict is that this article blows this incredibly out of proportion.

Is it cheating?

[jago25_98]

I do this for a job in real life so please stop the descrimination.

Re:Is it cheating?

[Anonymous Coward]

descrimination == descriptive criminalization?

almost as violent as progress quest

[UltimaL337Star]

I'd say this is good publicity, I might actuallty consider the sims if it had more possible stuff like this... I bet theyre pretty proud.and being a sims noob could anyone tell me how exactly do they threaten you? can they actually take a wooden plank with a nail on it and break all your windows?

Metastudies.

[WalterDGeranios]

That gives a whole new meaning to the term "game theory." The real challenge is to come up with a sim-environment that would encourage a complexity of behaviour closer to the real world. Imagine a sim-President threatening a sim-U.N. with sim-irrelevancy.

Of course, in the language of the actual players it would probably sound more like "d00d if u dont help me im not gona back u wehn u need it!!!!!!11111"

Re:Metastudies.

[matts.nu]

The real challenge is to come up with a sim-environment that would encourage a complexity of behaviour closer to the real world

What is The Matrix?

Re:Metastudies.

[C0LDFusion]

SimArchitect: "The first SimsOnline was perfect, it was a work of art. Flawless. A marvel matched only by its monumental failure."

Will there be a SimNeo? Will he be the result of @%$^%$&^#@$&#%^&#%^&%^&@^@$%^@ $%^ (Spoilers deleted for your protection)

How to dissilusion a libetarian

[Crashmarik]

Next time you get ambushed by radical libertarians heres the counter argument. If people can't even behave decently in an online game, do you really expect them to do any better in real life ?

Re:How to dissilusion a libetarian

[C0LDFusion]

I think you're confusing libertarian socialists (AKA: Anarchists) with libertarian capitalists (AKA: Libertarian party). Libertarian capitalists believe in laws, government and all that. We just don't believe it's everyones responsibility to support those who choose not to work and that people should be allowed to do what they choose as long as it does not cause harm upon another. Libertarian socialists dislike any form of authority and despise anything that seems like a hierarchaic system.

Big difference.

Re:How to dissilusion a libetarian

[Crashmarik]

With the libertarian Socialists you get gangs.
With the libertarian Capitalists you get lawyers.
With other forms of government you get beureaucrats, theocrats,technocrats,oligarchs,etc.

You pays your money and you takes yer chances.

Re:How to dissilusion a libetarian

[thebigmacd]

How is a socialist of any kind an anarchist? Socialists believe that everyone should help support others, which is impossible if everyone is doing everything their own way.

Re:How to dissilusion a libetarian

[C0LDFusion]

That's a stereotypical view of anarchism, I suggest you do some reading and drop the stuff school feeds you.

Re:How to dissilusion a libetarian

[Kwil]

Anarchist means no government. It may or may not mean "the individual uber alles"

Re:How to dissilusion a libetarian

[thebigmacd]

School doesn't feed me anything about anarchy. I suggest people understand the meaning of the word anarchy before they decide to march around in support of it while being puzzled and incensed as to why people don't feel for them.

(1) Absence of any form of political authority.
(2) Political disorder and confusion.
(3) Absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose.

[New Latin anarchia, from Greek anarkhi, from anarkhos, without a ruler : an-, without; see a-1 + arkhos, ruler; see -arch.]

Dictionary.com

Re:How to dissilusion a libetarian

[thebigmacd]

Anarchist means no government. It may or may not mean "the individual uber alles" And this complements socialism how? From dictionary.com: Socialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

Surprised this hasn't already been done...

[Stonan]

This is not a problem with the game lacking enough stimulis. It's an inherent problem with the human mind. Some feel that because of the wires, they have complete detachment and can do whatever the hell they want.

I've seen a few MUDs that keep their users in check by having authorized people with 'superhuman' characters specifically designed to combat and destroy single or groups of pathetic little ankies who need to cheat at an online game in order to satisfy their egos. This really doesn't come as a surprise to me because I've been dealing with this since the time of the BBS. From my experience, the people engaging in these activities have absolutly no chance of intimidating anyone in the real world. With BBSs it wasn't really that much of a problem. The only access was a phone line and the number was easily traced.

It would be nice if this could be done again (showing up with 5-10 people on the doorstep of the offening ankie results in alot of pained expressions on the face of the guilty if not a loss of bowel control). But an up-to-date version of this would be to surround the twit as soon as he logs on with about 20-25 bots that continually push him around inside the circle while yelling at him such remarks as 'Who do you think you are? You think you're big and tough, huh? Well, how come you can't leave the circle then, huh? Not as tough as you thought you were, huh?' and others.

I guess another way would be to block the IP address. This would catch the ankies using Mommy and Daddys account but this can be defeated by those who know how to mask or broadcast a false IP.

I like my other suggestion better. It gives the gimp a little taste of his own medicine and don't think it would be that hard to program a bot to do this.

Re:Surprised this hasn't already been done...

[Baron_911]

Very curious suggestion! It kind of makes sense in a weird kinda Sims addict kinda way... It seems to me that people who are into this game take it VERY seriously (if people are forming simulated mafias in a simulated real life simulator...), so what could be more devestating to this people then to punish them in there own world! I can see it now, when the bullies are traped in the corner by bots... Or for not so serious offenders, have bots that just hang out at their house all day and bug them. :)

Yes, it was alot easier to deal with Greif in the MUD days... just make the mods God characters, and launch the biggest fireball you can think of at trouble makers. Or throw them in Limbo with the pink dragon....

This sounds great!

[metalhed77]

How long before competing gangs start up? And how long after that till one gang reigns supreme and a legitimate sim govt appears? That would truly amaze me.

Great....

[010_digital_100]

Just what my Sim wants...to wake up with a Sim Horse Head in his Sim bed in his Sim mansion.

I better give that Sim singer a part in my Sim movie.

Wooo Hooo!!! Just as I predicted!

[Dolemite_the_Wiz]

In a previous posting about my Beta Testing comments of The Sims Online, I had noted that one of the problems with this game was 100% right on the money after reading this new story about the Sims.

EA is soooo losing touch with their customers.

First, it was EA completely and utterly screwing up their '007: Nightfire' release on all gaming platforms. This resulted in the release of a PC platform that was so buggy, poorly written, and barely playable. Not only that, EA had a HUGE chance to cash in on getting Half-Life fans transfer over to this game for Multi-Player and Modding. There was a huge interest in re-creating maps from every single Bond Move, but thanks to EA, that never happened.

Think I'm wrong? Check this out!

Damn, I'm going to go buy a lottery ticket now after this prediction coming true!

Dolemite
_____________________

You highlighted the wrong terms.

[Kwil]

Let's try it again, with different highlighting.

Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

Often != Always.
Owned Collectively != Centralized Government.