Real Lives 2004 - Living Other People's Normal Lives?

Thanks to USA Today for its article discussing an educational videogame which allows players to live the life of another person. The piece explains: "Real Lives 2004 starts by automatically generating a life based on current population and birth rate statistics", before explaining possible outcomes: "Our teen-testers were able to experience many different lives in just a few hours. One was a boy born into a poor family in Zhangzhou, China, who did not attend college or vocational school. As a mail clerk, our teen-tester faced decisions about gambling, alcohol and drinking... He found romance but had no children and he died at age 84 from cancer."

Comments

Awesome!

[SuperMo0]

I could live out the life of a /. troller without all of the associated social stigmas!

Re:Awesome!

[shadowcabbit]

Real Lives 2004 Patch History

Version 1.1, May 16, 2004-- Major bugfix to grpahics display options. "/. Troll" command no longer shows sexually explicit ASCII 'art'.

1.15, May 18, 2004-- "/. Troll" command now filters obscenity.

1.2, May 19, 2004-- "/. Troll" command now includes disclaimer. Disclaimer reads as follows:
"WARNING: Do not try this at home. Trolling can be hazardous to your karma. --CmdrTaco, Slashdot.org (please visit my site though)"

1.3 May 23, 2004-- "/. Troll" command reduced in power; trolling now provides 3 Happiness instead of 30.

1.5 May 26, 2004-- Fixed bug in "/. Troll" command that didn't penalize trolling. Trolling now provides 3 Happiness and -10 Social.

1.7 May 29, 2004-- Reports of real-life suicides has prompted us to remove the "/. Troll" command from Real Lives 2004. This command will not be reinstated in any further patch.

Ahh the memories

[hookedup]

I remember playing something similar, although really archaic. It was a game in grade school in the late 80's on UNISYS machines called "A Day In The Life Of".

I cant really remember much about it other than going to the mall and hanging out, what a blast... Ahh i miss those days of the giant trackball..

My go

[beders]

I got to be Commander Tacho andpost duplicate stories!

Man that was awesome...

I think Michael Zorek said it best with...

[Anonymous Coward]

"I wanted to meet stimulating and interesting people of an ancient culture, and kill them."

Older 'life simulators'

[MacBrave]

I used to have a game for my C-64 called 'Alter Ego' that allowed you to live out the life of another person. Different events would occur based on the choices you made. A pretty neat game for the time.....

Re:Older 'life simulators'

[krazykong]

Actually, someone has actually recreated that game in a web based format. It can be played here..

Real life? WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is, real life is boring for a lot of people. That's the whole reason they turn to games in the first place.

Like...

[Talith]

... my life isn't depressing enough...

Don't slashdot The Underdogs, but...

[FooAtWFU]

URLs not linked for nicety purposes, but designed by Dr. Peter Favaro and published by Activision in 1983 we find:
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Alter+E go%3A+Male
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Alter+E go%3A+Female

Alter Ego is one of the rare games that's not only outstanding in every respect, but, like Fool's Errand, is so original in concept that it's hard to categorize. You play your own alter ego in this game, going through life stages while making decisions that impact several characteristics, such as calmness, trustworthiness, etc., that in turn affect the number of choices you have in future situation. You might learn a surprising thing or two about yourself while playing this life simulation. Overall, an outstanding game in every respect, and much more realistic than Maxis' recent blockbuster The Sims years later. Two thumbs up!

Form free link

[Fizzl]

Here

Mmmm.. Karma whoring.

Upload our lives.

[subzerorz]

Can you upload your own life and let it run a simulation to see how you will end up in life? This would be interesting to see when your 40, 60, or 80 years old.

Just Like GRIOT In Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut

[Doug Dante]

In Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut, the program GRIOT was used to:

• Statistically predict future events for people based on a series of questions ("Are you married?", "Do you drink every day?" ... )
• Randomly generate backgrounds for people in the Witness Protection Program or for people using other fake identites

One character claimed to have been on the Phil Donohue Show, but the main character figured that he may have been qouting from his randomly generated GRIOT background. Statistically, every once in a while, GRIOT would have to say that a person had been on a TV show.

Fascinating

[Lord_Dweomer]

This is one of the most fascinating types of games I've ever fantasized about. And now they've made it. I wish it had video.

One of the things I'm REALLY looking forward to is once people become "gargoyles" and start wearing small video cams almost 100% of the time to record their lives.

Then you will have a much better way to live someone elses life. In fact, I think it could offer up a whole new genre.

It could be quite cool to have enough video footage to be able to live someone elses life with the video acting out your choices in a much more advanced way than is possible today.