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Gaming Site Reviews.. Real Life?

jbp8 writes: "There's an article on GameSpot reviewing the ultimate MMOG - real life!" The article gives real life an Editor's Choice award, focusing on issues such as leveling up ("Typically, a character will learn of the numerous viable career paths available by undergoing schooling. This can be a long and tedious process, equivalent to the sort of 'level treadmill' monotony that characterizes almost all MMORPGs") and player death ("..a serious issue in real life, and cause for continued debate among players, who often direct unanswerable questions on the subject to the game's developers.")

48 of 529 comments (clear)

  1. Damn ... ! by jayjaylee · · Score: 4, Funny

    I should have taken the Red Pill.

  2. Cool, Life is a game, so... by zubernerd · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...where can I find all the cheat codes?

    --
    Accentuate the positive, don't waste your mod points on the negative.
    1. Re:Cool, Life is a game, so... by anon*127.0.0.1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Cheat codes hell... I'd be happy with a damn rulebook.

      --
      I am NOT a man!
      I am a free number!
    2. Re:Cool, Life is a game, so... by Klimaxor · · Score: 2, Funny

      Gameshark....buut...I'll let you all decide the slot you'll stick yours

      --
      your sins into me, oh my beautiful one.
    3. Re:Cool, Life is a game, so... by PoisonousPhat · · Score: 2, Funny

      There are strategy guides out there. These so-called "bibles" of the MMOG vary widely in their approach, but when reduced kind of say the same thing. Unfortunately, most are not written very clearly, so some confusion and/or player frustration is to be expected after attempting to interpret said guides. Then again, you could just have someone else interpret the guidebooks' instructions for you, as many choose to do. What an extended metaphor this makes.

      --
      Losers choose to abuse the use of "loose".
  3. The admins by Eric(b0mb)Dennis · · Score: 5, Funny

    The only thing I hate about the REAL LIFE MMORPG is the freaking admins..

    Every time I try to PK or steal.. they are on my tail.. can't get away with ANYTHING! Maybe i'm just bad at it.

    --
    Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
    1. Re:The admins by YOU+LIKEWISE+FAIL+IT · · Score: 5, Funny

      Agreed. Wish they'd hurry up with the patch though.

      Promised bugfixes, balance adjustments and playability enhancements in Real Life 1.01:

      • Boyfriend/Girlfriend object to be represented by linked list instead of single object.
      • Bug causing male pattern baldness fixed.
      • Economy to be tweaked for 'balance'.
      • Improved treasure drops from "Tax Return" mob.
      • Improved AI.
      • Rules revision to allow limited multiplaying.
      • Rules revision to allow deployment of "wallhack" in shower areas.

      Anything I missed? I'm also looking forward to the new Spaceflight/Posthumanist expansion. Should be out around the same time as Duke Nukem Forever and the Diablo II 1.10.

      YLFI
      --
      One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
  4. Problem with Real Life (TM)... by JackAsh · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...is it's got very poor replayability, unless you pick the Buddhist specialization (or so I hear).

    -Jack Ash

    1. Re:Problem with Real Life (TM)... by Farley+Mullet · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, but it offers a veritable lifetime of gameplay!

  5. Life is pretty disappointing. by Joel+Bruick · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was expecting much more after the promising 9 month beta test.

  6. Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. by CharterTerminal · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I speak for many of us when I say: "Life is good."

    Mm, I don't know. I'd feel better about it if I could figure out how to restore from a saved version.

  7. addicted? by Xzzy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does that make those who committ suicide the real heros, because they beat the addiction and quit playing? ;)

    1. Re:addicted? by carpe_noctem · · Score: 3, Funny

      ask me in twenty minutes.

      --
      "Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
  8. Playing Real Life right now by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 2, Funny

    I spent all my education skill points on computer programming, and now I cant seem to use the damn skills because someone nerfed the ability to gain money with them like before. I wanted to be a god damned power user, now I am trying to get a skillset in another area that looks good, and that will probably be nerfed too!

    --
    If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
  9. Re:The problem with real life by Lancer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hmmmm. There are certain in-game populations (Hindus, for example) that do apparently have do-over capabilities. Perhaps you've simply chosen the wrong alignment?

    --
    Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
  10. Re:Can an actual MMORPG simulate real life? by heli0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "To borrow an idea from the Sims, can an almost entirely online social experience fill up the Social Meter?"

    Are you a writer for Sex and the City?

    --
    Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
  11. It just ruined it... by Sayten241 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It just ruined the game when people started selling their items on Ebay.

  12. I am not making this up by The+Monster · · Score: 3, Funny
    the vast majority of people would say that they still want to stay.
    I just checked the site's poll stats:
    Do you like real life?

    Yes 1194 (64%)
    No 666 (35%)

    Apparently those who don't like Real Life prefer Eternal Damnation.
    --

    [100% ISO 646 Compliant]
    SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.

  13. truth in avatars by gad_zuki! · · Score: 2, Funny

    It was also found that in the real life MMOG women rarely wear sexy armor, don't say "Mi'Lord", don't have a supermodel's figure, and most importantly do not have a penis.

  14. Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. by Poeir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Remember nobody MAKES you pay bills.

    You know I never really liked paying bills, I don't think I'm going to do that any more.

    --
    Sigs are like bumper stickers.
  15. Additional servers are waiting for us! by jesser · · Score: 3, Funny

    This further discourages players from engaging in PVP combat, but it does help real life's rapidly growing player population from getting too out of hand (though eventually there will be a need for additional servers).

    Some players insist that additional servers already exist, and that it is the players' responsibility to explore and "settle" them in order to guard against catastrophe and ensure that there are sufficient resources for new players. Skeptics point to extreme lag between the existing server and the suggested new host: ping times are measured in minutes, and player transfer could take months.

    --
    The shareholder is always right.
  16. Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. by mcc · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, from personal experience I can say that unsubscribing is a bitch. The customer service people have been instructed to hassle anyone who comes in saying they want to unsubscribe until they agree to stay; I know people who say they unsubscribed previously, only to find later that they were still being billed; and all the user interfaces through which you can have your account deleted are just plain user unfriendly. (I am beginning to suspect the "slit wrists" module, which is the one most of the help files direct you toward, is designed just plain not have any way to make it work at all. "Down not across" indeed, what rubbish.)

    It seems to me that most people who want to quit eventually just get so frustrated by this sort of run-around that they eventually just give up and keep playing.

  17. Re:I agree. by Blondie-Wan · · Score: 4, Funny
    You really think so?

    Can I have the remaining time on your Real Life account, then?

  18. Patch? by beamstar · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've been running Real Life for a while now, and occasionally get frame drops and skips, especially in the "Alcohol Consumption" sub-games.

    I quite enjoy these sub-games - is this a legitimate memory issue that will be addressed in a patch, or should I be upgrading my system?

    --
    We're all gonna die!
    1. Re:Patch? by cyroth · · Score: 2, Funny

      We are aware of the problems with the "Alcohol Consumption" sub-game. We are developing a patch but in the mean time there are several fixes you may want to try.
      1 - Have your character consume "Coffee", many have reported the effects of the alcohol game to be less severe
      2 - Play the game more often. Yes this may sound silly at first, but the routine for processing the alcohol seems to be more efficient when your character improves at colume consumption.

  19. Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. by Kenja · · Score: 2, Funny

    Its people running the hacked client and cheating there way to the top taht are ruining it for the rest of us.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  20. Too Much Like The Sims by gmhowell · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's too much like the Sims. Pointless tasks to get simoleans to impress people with house and stuff in it. WAY too much micromanagement. I have to figure out when to go to the bathroom, sleep, eat, etc?

    Still, I'm somewhat addicted to the game, and not looking to stop any time soon.

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  21. Re:Buddhism by ElectroKiwiMonkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    So are multiple-personality cases just Buddhists that hit Select while they were putting the code in?

    --
    I am not a man, I am a free number.
  22. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  23. Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. by unborn · · Score: 5, Funny

    So that's what it means when they say "REAL" gamers never restore from saved versions.

  24. Reminds me of a few lines from the movie Existenz by KenR · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ted: "I don't like it here. I don't know what's going on. We're both stumbling around together in this unformed world whose rules and objectives are largely unknown, seemingly indecipherable or even possibly nonexistent, always on the verge of being killed by forces that we don't understand."

    Allegra: "That sounds like my game all right."

    Ted: "That sounds like a game that's not going to be easy to market"

    Allegra: "But it's a game everybody's already playing."

  25. To quote Pvt. Joker by NoData · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The dead know only one thing: It's better to be alive."

    1. Re:To quote Pvt. Joker by Ender77 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Aparently they never been at college around exam time.

    2. Re:To quote Pvt. Joker by DavidTC · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think, in fact, we have rather strong evidence it's better to be dead...I mean, how think about how many living people voluntarily become dead vs how many dead people voluntarily become living.

      --
      If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
  26. Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. by CoolVibe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, take that BillGates character for example. I bet he used the money freeze cheat. Lamer.

  27. Re:I agree. by dJCL · · Score: 5, Funny
    I love "Real Life" I play it all day, every day. I wake up in the morning and start playing and don't stop until I go to bed, and even then I'm still playing.


    I'll put it this way: There may be other games that let you have sex, but the feedback is sooooo much better in "Real Life".


    Enjoy!

    --
    On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
  28. Yeah, I've played that game... by tunabomber · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's way too violent and fills my mind with all kinds of impure thoughts that make me want to go on killing sprees, unfortunately.

    --

    pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory71 ...
  29. Quick release by transient · · Score: 3, Funny

    The truly amazing thing about Real Life is that the development process only took six days, although that all depends on who you ask.

    --

    irb(main):001:0>
    1. Re:Quick release by Powercntrl · · Score: 2, Funny

      The truly amazing thing about Real Life is that the development process only took six days, although that all depends on who you ask.

      Exactly - it was rushed and that's why there's so many bugs. Unfortunately, fixing the bugs would break compatibility with the current version of real life. The last time the creator tried it, he got an overflow error, lost all his work and had to start over from scratch.

      --

      ---
      DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  30. Think Different by Powercntrl · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was creating a world on the PC and all the sudden it was like "bleep beep beep beep beep" and I was like, "Wah?".

    It devoured my world.

    It was a really good world.

    Then I had to create it again and I had to do it fast and it wasn't as good.

    It was kinda, a bummer.

    I'm God and I'm a deity.

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  31. Character Creation by po8 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...for some reason you have no choice in determining your character's initial starting location, appearance, or gender, which are chosen for you seemingly at random.

    This was generally a good review. Unfortunately, the reviewer completely failed to explain the finer points of character creation.

    A unique feature of real life is that, while players cannot choose their own character attributes, new players can enter the game only when their characters have been created by players already online. The mechanic is that two players of opposite gender and appropriate age and alignment combine their attributes randomly to create a new PC. This mechanic makes the gender attribute more than superficially significant: much of game play, including many socials, are gender-specific.

    The newly-created avatar actually encumbers the female "mother" character for 9 months, after which it typically spends time as essentially an item in the mother's inventory. Character creation is normally part of the "parenting" system referred to in the review, although it is not uncommon for characters other than the creators to parent the newbies.

    Many players of real life find character creation among the most enjoyable aspects of the game. There is a practice-only option for character creation: in fact, practice character creation is itself one of the most popular activities in real life, and is discussed endlessly in-game.

    Some character classes in real life, for example, the "nerd" class, are usually nominally male, but essentially genderless from the gaming POV. Perhaps the reviewer's character is a nerd: if so, I'd encourage use of the in-game training and character mods to develop some character creation skills. I think the reviewer might be surprised by how much fun they can be.

    1. Re:Character Creation by mdielmann · · Score: 2, Funny

      after which it typically spends time as essentially an item in the mother's inventory

      It's worth noting that the admins get upset if you drop this item. Also, although its worth is very high, the admins will visit if you try to sell it.

      --
      Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
  32. .\ nerdiness by mnemonic_ · · Score: 2, Funny

    If there were ever a story to serve as the definitive example of slashdot nerdiness, this is it.

  33. Not enough save points! by alien_blueprint · · Score: 2, Funny

    I haven't found *any* yet. So, if I screw up, I have to live with it! That, or just reset back to the beginning ...

    There should be more floating around, so that if we slay a particularly nasty middle manager we don't have to keep doing it over and over each time we die. I'm scared to take on any more, in case I get killed.

    The other advantage would be that every time we are about to do something risky, we could save *first*! About to ask the boss for a raise? Save first! About to finally ask the girl in the next cubicle over out? Save first! About to take a financial risk? Save first! Entering a tough bit on an annoying PS2 game with not enough save points? Save first!

  34. Nethack by cliffy2000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    And yet, real life STILL doesn't have as many features as Nethack.

  35. not balanced by klaasvakie · · Score: 4, Funny

    I find that Real Life is not fair to chaotic characters. Lawful characters have it much easier. I mean, just look at the artifact weapons: Lawful characters have the Thermonuclear Bomb which does 4d10 shock damage, 3d8 fire damage, and 2d6 radiation damage for 100 turns afterward.
    Chaotic characters only have the SCUD Missile which has a -1 to hit and only 3d6 damage.
    Lawful characters can enchant the Thermonuclear Bomb up to +6 when it becomes a Hydrogen Bomb which does 8d10 shock damage but less radiation damage. SCUD Missiles cannot be enchanted but instead lose -1 to hit for every year left in the desert.

    Not fair i'm telling you.

    --
    # ssh -l neo the_matrix; killall -9 agent_smith
  36. If it works on my PC, then maybe.... by lhbtubajon · · Score: 4, Funny

    glittering prizes

    glittering prizes

    glittering prizes

    glittering prizes

    Crap! Why isn't this working?

  37. Re:I agree. by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 2, Funny
    "I'll put it this way: There may be other games that let you have sex, but the feedback is sooooo much better in "Real Life"."

    Is this 'sex' quest kind of like the Jedi quest in Star Wars: Galaxies? No guarantee you'll get to attempt the quest, and odds of about 1-1000 of succeeding? Eh, maybe I can wait till someone just sells their woman on EBay

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!