Slashdot Mirror
EA Considering Sims TV Show
Reuters is carrying the news that Electronic Arts is considering creating a television show based on 'The Sims'. The show would allow viewers to vote on what the avatars in the show would do. From the article: "One idea could be that you're controlling a family, telling them when to go to the kitchen and when to go to the bedroom, and with this mechanism you have gamers all over the world 'playing the show."
Viewers could tell the Sims when to work 80 hr weeks with no overtime pay!
Why can't Reality TV just die already? Plus, it's not reality, waking up at 3am to get first post on Slashdot is what the TRUTH is.
"One idea could be that you're controlling a family, telling them when to go to the kitchen and when to go to the bedroom,
If they leave the bedroom option in there, I think I can see the future of this show already.
The coolest voice ever.
... but then fake.
Who will watch that once the new of it is over?
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
Don't they already have one?
It won't get past the FCC, especially if they let them buy the vibrating bed...
So basically this is a daily 30 minute infomercial sponsored by the evil alliance?
EA has signed an exclusive contract with humans stating that only EA is able to makes games involving such.
The coolest voice ever.
If people get to "vote" on what the sims do, they might end up playing like me and just force feed them coffee and never let them sleep or go to the bathroom.
and i say that as an ardent Sims fan (hell, I bought a new video card just so I could PLAY sims 2). The demands of today's TV entertainment are such that any TV show that's true to the game will BOMB MASSIVELY. TV is about 6-minute chucks of instant gratification and resolving every problem within a half hour. The Sims is about neither of these. If this gets off the ground it will become just another Hanna-Barbara-ish cookie cutter cartoon show, where the only similarity it has to the Sims is in the name (I Robot anyone?) and the characters go through the same tired, demographically neutered plot contrivances as on every other show.
They will never stop until somebody makes the
That is by far the dumbest thing I have ever heard. There is something worse than reality tv!
Wow! With this new TV show, I can turn on the TV and watch the Sims watch TV!
(Apologies to Penny Arcade)
Omnes stulti sunt.
A "virtual" reality TV show? How desperate for entertainment are we?
-- Nic
Wouldn't this be like:
... well I just don't understand why anyone would spend their time on it.
a) playing a game with terrible latency and / or controls
b) watching someone with multiple personality disorder play the game
In either case I really don't think it'll fly. The Sims was popular ( well , I didn't like it ) because of the fact that you control it. If you don't have control , or are only one vote of thousands
The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
The Sims have sex.
The Sims have sex.
Out pops a baby.
The Sims, ignoring their baby, have sex.
Seriously, is a show controlled by the masses through voting a really good idea? In this instance I am suddenly reminded why the Founding Fathers(tm) of America didn't want the majority of people to vote.
What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
There are formats, there are formulas, and then there are gimmicks. This TV show idea is a gimmick, and gimmicks rarely last more than a few installments before the public sighs a big "ho hum" and the idea goes, as Douglas Adams might put it, "to the big golden spike in the sky, baby."
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
I think what people really need is interactive Discovery Channel
Now THAT would be news...
Will the audience be able to decide if the Sim takes a toilet break or soils himself? If the option is there we all know what will be chosen...
---- Take the Space Quiz!
I'm surprised nobody (at my threshold?) has mentioned Rooster Teeth Productions' The Strangerhood, an online series done using The Sims 2.
Personally, however, I prefer their Red vs. Blue, a series done using Halo, and more recently Halo 2.
Robert Bindler
A Computer Science student's views on technology.
This is EXACTLY what Montag's ditzy wife Mildred in Farenheit 451 was addicted to, for those of you that have read that particular book. The full-screen televisions mounted on the parlor walls beamed in images of people referred to as "relatives", and the viewers could vote on what these virtual people would do in each episode.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm watching him watch his Sims watch TV."
Now it's going to be:
"I'm watching him watch TV to watch the Sims so he can vote for what the Sims watch on TV."
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
...I joked long before Sims came out that one day they would make a game on the PC that required people to do laundry or dishes, tasks that no one likes doing in real life and people would love it. Then it became a reality.
Most reality television shows have been awful, this one appears to be the next step in the de-evolution of the human species. This show just perpetuates my theory: Most humans do not want to think, they just want to be told what to do. This removes their need for personal responsibility and accountability.
Fellow slashdotters excluded, of course....
I think what people really need is interactive Discovery Channel
Interactive Steve Irwin! I like it!
We could tell him which dangerous animals to poke (and then declare "grumpy"), and which poisonous snakes to put on his head!
I'd even watch THAT on pay-per-view!
You can't take the sky from me...
The Sims, sponsored Juan Valdez and Toto Toilets.
Why I don't give a fuck...
1.) All the characters will wear EA branded clothes.
2.) All the thiefs will wear ESPN/sega clothes.
3.) The sims character will only watch EA sportcenter.
4.) The only profession available in the sims world is programmer for EA.
5.) All the commercials between the show will be Madden commercials.
6.) When the characters are in the shower, they'll sing EA slogans.
7.) The sim dating service will give each other EA sports games only.
8.) There will be a EA monopoly holiday that requires all the sim characters to work even more overtime.