The Sims 3

[Michael Sacal]

Is it worth it? How is it played? Can it be played without having to pay a fee to get on a website, just on the laptop to kill time?

Is it an RPG gsame with goals and stuff?

[Soracia]

Mmmm. I've always considered the Sims series to be nothing more than a giant Tamagotchi and EA's policy of bringing out more and more pointless expansion packs to be on a par with fast food.

[Peter J Poole]

My daughter was nigh on addicted to Sims for years.

I always thought it was kind of like playing with dolls, only without dolls...

Whatever floats yer boat, I guess.

Cheers.

[kaiho]

i tried playing the first Sims but it kinda bored me after 2 days ....

i prefer Sports related games or a dose of Age of Empires from now and then.
That MAME32 nostalgia also gets my attention from time to time.

[Soracia]

My daughter was nigh on addicted to Sims for years.

I always thought it was kind of like playing with dolls, only without dolls...

Whatever floats yer boat, I guess.

Cheers.

Heh.

There was another paragraph to my initial post, detailing how popular The Sims and its ilk are amongst female players, but are they badly served by such games. Upon reading it to my partner (who works in the games industry, and has worked upon such games), she sighed saying: "Do we have to open that can of worms again?".

So I won't, but if anyone else would like to take the flak............

[Jude Terror]

I had no interest in playing this game until I found this blog:

http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/

Now I actually want to check it out.

[Michael Sacal]

I had no interest in playing this game until I found this blog:

http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/

Now I actually want to check it out.

I read about that at EW.com. It is quite impressive.

But I still don't understand how the game works. Is this person able to do all of this on his computer without use of a website to interact with other players (i.e. the characters that his characters interact with are controlled by the computer and not other players like him), or is it like Second Life and you have to pay a fee to play the game?

[Peter J Poole]

Heh.

There was another paragraph to my initial post, detailing how popular The Sims and its ilk are amongst female players, but are they badly served by such games. Upon reading it to my partner (who works in the games industry, and has worked upon such games), she sighed saying: "Do we have to open that can of worms again?".

So I won't, but if anyone else would like to take the flak............

I ain't afraid of no worms...

Game psychology 101, from pretty much any study of how kids will play when left unsupervised: - boys like competitive play, girls like co-operative play.

Boys like: quickest, strongest, fastest, beat the boss games. There has to be a winner.

Girls like: tell a story, solve the puzzle, work together. The puzzle or problem has to be satisfyingly resolved.

There are huge generalisations there, but over large sample groups that is how things consistantly work out.

Most girls (women? females? - feh, choose whichever offends you least) who are into MMORPGs are into the co-operative/social side a lot more than guys are...

(Heh... my daughter played some Guild Wars when she was about 12 or so... she had almost as much fun designing her characters and colour co-ordinating their armour and accessories as she did playing the game...)

I'm not sure how 'being badly served' applies? If you enjoy it, the game has succeeded.

Cheers

[Michael Sacal]

Boys like: quickest, strongest, fastest, beat the boss games. There has to be a winner.

Girls like: tell a story, solve the puzzle, work together. The puzzle or problem has to be satisfyingly resolved.

What about games like Gauntlet, which told a story about characters who were quick, strong, and fast that had to defeat the boss by solving puzzles and working together?

[Peter J Poole]

I had no interest in playing this game until I found this blog:

http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/

Now I actually want to check it out.

Holy Crap!

Where the Hell is SimSocial Worker when you need him/her?

Cheers.