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

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.

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"

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: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.

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.