Raiders of the Lost Sim
windy_moon:
Quote from: witch on 2005 October 15, 11:27:01
Trouble is I think the complexity and openendedness of the sims has spoilt me for most games. I don't like playing rigidly defined roles with predictable outcomes.
*nods*
That's the beauty of The Sims. It is infinitely different, depending on the player...hence the mass appeal. It's only one idea, though, in a relatively confined setting with relatively confined world rules. Certainly there are more worlds to conceive!
ZZ wrote:
Quote
Trouble about small girls is, those I meet, which admittedly isn't that many these days, all seem to be attracted to Sims2, which is unfortunately totally unsuitable for 7 year olds, although the original label in the UK for the base game was 7+ I know sims 1 is mostly suitable for kids, but it's not easy to explain to a 7yearold why her big brother or sister can have Sims2, but he/she can only have Sims1. Perhaps the time has come for EA to make a child-orientated sims game, based on home, school, shopping, holidays etc., but with all the sophistication of sims2 minus the adult features. I mean, if they don't really like the idea of kids being seen in bathrooms, why not send them to the bathroom then when they lock the door it blanks out like a dorm room? And I don't mean the game should just be a censored version of Sims2, but a totally child-orientated game, with parents, older teens, etc. as peripherals, and including teachers. Kids could get good grades, move up a class, that sort of thing. There could be a sports day every few sim days, and sim kids could get fit in order to win races etc!
*nods furiously*
I would rather my kids weren't playing The Sims 2 as is...and the younger was particularly p'od when I wouldn't let him play Sims 1 when he was 9. P'od, I tell you. ::)
I tried to placate with RollerCoaster Tycoon and some particularly simplistic Sim type games that were more age appropriate, but, they didn't have anywhere near the depth. I gave into an unrelenting Sims 2 campaign.... My husband looks at the more bimbo-ish Sims characters and says "You're letting them play that, are you sure you know what you are doing?" (Sorry, I'm too busy having my own Sims sneak over to Don Lothario's house to think about this right now.)
The thing is, the kids have to pick their way around Romance Sim aspirations and whatnot. They aren't any worse for the wear, but, I'd dearly love to have a Sim game like the Sims that's a bit more age appropriate.
(I'm happier when they play Rise of Nations. Yeah, wars and stuff, I know, but the Sims is so up close and personal, I'd rather they were a little bit older for the content as is.)
laeshanin:
It is depressing in gaming shops. As everyone has pointed out there is a real lack of games that could appeal to the female mind, and I really don't like violence, guns and so on that are generally populated by unfeasibly over-endowed girls. Perhaps it's just that we are not soo attracted to living in that virtual landscape that lads seem to find so fascinating or could it be, perhaps, that the "top-dog" competitiveness of these things is offputting?
And it is a very valid point Witch made about openendedness... a game is far more likely to intrigue me if the outcome is uncertain. So why aren't there more like this?
Kukes:
Quote from: Renatus on 2005 October 15, 09:58:47
Quote from: syberspunk on 2005 October 15, 09:35:14
Actually, doesn't Lucas have a whole like division devoted to video games? LucasArts?
He does indeed! They've been putting out games for quite a long time now (1987!). My favourites are the old adventure games - Maniac Mansion, the Monkey Island series, Loom, The Dig... they're good 'everyone' games because they require thinking and very little in the way of twitchy muscle reactions and usually are low on violence. Some of these games have been re-released as freeware and to work on modern systems; others you still have to pay for but there is a way to make them work on modern systems with SCUMM VM (SCUMM being the acronym for the game engine). Others have been re-made under other engines.
As far as adventure games go, Sierra used to make some good ones.
:(
Don't mention Sierra. It makes me cry to see the state these companies are in today (LucasArts included). The rise of shooters, racing games, etc. - basically everything that stocks the game store shelves these days - is pretty recent really. Many of the games pre-2000 were targetted both at male and female gamers, of differing ages - this teenage boy syndrome is affecting everything from movies to games to music, I've noticed. One of the genres with the greatest amount of female gamers was the adventure game industry - and, even though they're rarely produced these days, you can get them from abandonware sites like Home of the Underdogshttp://www.the-underdogs.org/. As Renatus said, for LucasArts games you need Scumm VM but for others like Sierra DOSBox is pretty fantastic.
baratron:
Quote from: witch on 2005 October 15, 11:11:57
Anyone ever play 'Neverhood'? Best puzzle game I ever played, entirely suitable for children and wonderful music.
Yep - and the Neverhood Chronicles was published by... Dreamworks *fanfare*.
Did you collect all the tablets and read the whole back story? It was amazingly detailed. I loved the clay animations.
Unfortunately, the followup, Skullmonkeys, took the puzzle aspect and threw it out the window. It was all jokes about farting :(.
ZephyrZodiac:
Everybody seems obsessed with farting! It seems to me that our level of civilisation has just about reached a near rock bottom as it can get!
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