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EA Considering Sims TV Show

Posted by Zonk on Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:37 PM
from the who-wants-to-see-this-sim-wet-himself? dept.
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."
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  • From EA? (Score:5, Funny)

    by codesurfer (786910) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:39PM (#11379318)
    Viewers could tell the Sims when to work 80 hr weeks with no overtime pay!
    • Re:From EA? (Score:4, Funny)

      by waveclaw (43274) on Sunday January 16 2005, @02:18PM (#11379869) Homepage Journal
      If I watched TV anymore, I would be looking forward to watching the *fun* of this community programming of a virtual community by the mass community.

      Okay, I know it's karma whoring/destroying but I cannot resist the obvious:


      The Sims is the only game where you can kill someone by trapping them between strategically placed toilets.

      -- <Arcturus|BuF>, www.bash.org [bash.org]
      • It is the only game with that feature.... no more. You see ever since half life 2 death match you could indeed kill people with toilets (strategically placed firmly to the side of the head is my favourite)
        • 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 req
  • Die Already (Score:5, Funny)

    by CypherXero (798440) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:40PM (#11379325) Homepage
    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.
    • Re:Die Already (Score:4, Insightful)

      by earlytime (15364) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:49PM (#11379382) Homepage
      I wouldn't call this reality tv as much as i would call it a round peg shoehorned in to a square box. This is not at all suited to tv, the internet is a much better stage for this kind of "performance". Who wants to watch a sim make coffee, then a commercial, then watch a sim sleep, then a commercial? If you want to see a large scale version of "the sims" play a mmorpg version of the sims". TV execs just don't get it.
    • Or better yet, how about we ban all EA news posts? I am sick of seeing daily, hourly and soon to be news ticker updates on this disheartening, soul-sucking company. What, do you all have stock in this poor excuse for a 'software development' conglomerate?
    • by BaseLineNL (822690) on Sunday January 16 2005, @01:20PM (#11379535)
      Don't you see the beauty? With this show you have the power to do it! Just vote for a pool party. Then, when the entire cast is in the pool, vote to remove the ladder.

      *Insert drowning scene*
      The End.
    • Re:Die Already (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dashing Leech (688077) on Sunday January 16 2005, @02:58PM (#11380070)
      "Why can't Reality TV just die already?"

      This would be a very bizarre cross-breed indeed. Most "reality" shows aren't reality, they're game shows (Survivor, Big Brother, Bachelorette, etc.). Perhaps the "follow people around" shows count as reality (The Osbornes, Nic & Jessica, etc.). The Sims TV show would fall in the latter category so would be more of a reality show than the game shows, but is virtual so is less reality. It's quite the irony.

      But of course it would fail. People watch the Osbornes, Nic & Jessica, Ashlee, Carmen & Dave, Anna Nicole, etc., because they're celebrities (though I don't understand why that would be enticing). I doubt the Sims qualify.

  • by Faust7 (314817) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:40PM (#11379330) Homepage
    "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.
  • by Tribbin (565963) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:40PM (#11379333) Homepage
    ... but then fake.

    Who will watch that once the new of it is over?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:42PM (#11379344)
    Don't they already have one [strangerhood.com]?
  • by hode (771261) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:42PM (#11379347)
    It won't get past the FCC, especially if they let them buy the vibrating bed...
  • Hmm (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pHatidic (163975) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:42PM (#11379348) Homepage
    So basically this is a daily 30 minute infomercial sponsored by the evil alliance?
  • by Faust7 (314817) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:42PM (#11379351) Homepage
    EA has signed an exclusive contract with humans stating that only EA is able to makes games involving such.
  • by DrKyle (818035) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:42PM (#11379352)
    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.
  • by bechthros (714240) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:44PM (#11379361) Homepage Journal
    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.
      • I want to ask, will they have the "Sim Speak" (or whatever it is they call it)

        "Na paaalaa oolooo leekeelaaaa!"

        If so, will it have subtitles? Seriously, the game was bad. A cartoon/TV show will be even worse.
  • Amazing (Score:2, Insightful)

    That is by far the dumbest thing I have ever heard. There is something worse than reality tv!
  • by sinclair44 (728189) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:46PM (#11379366) Homepage
    Wow! With this new TV show, I can turn on the TV and watch the Sims watch TV!

    (Apologies to Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com])
    • by Esion Modnar (632431) on Sunday January 16 2005, @01:24PM (#11379560)
      I got it! We need a reality TV show where we watch a family watching people on TV playing the Sims, and they're watching the Sims watch TV, on which there's a reality TV show featuring a family watching people on TV playing the Sims, and they're watching...

      Oh, and don't forget to frame the whole picture in a Gameboy DS top and bottom display for over 15 hours continuously.

      Next on G4...

  • Reality? (Score:3, Funny)

    by TooTechForYou (816044) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:47PM (#11379369)
    A "virtual" reality TV show? How desperate for entertainment are we?
  • by Lupulack (3988) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:48PM (#11379377)

    Wouldn't this be like:

    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 ... well I just don't understand why anyone would spend their time on it.

  • 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.
  • Silly gimmick (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The I Shing (700142) * on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:54PM (#11379403) Journal
    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."
    • Some gimmicks *do* catch on, though.

      Reality TV: Gimmick and (unfortunately) popular.

      MTV: Gimmick and caught on almost immediately.

      Bad anime made to sell action figures (think Draginball Z): Gimmick with millions of American viewers.

      So don't discount it just because it sounds gimmicky. It may surprise you how many idiots addicted to bad TV there are out there who will actually watch this type of thing.

  • by pentagono (850381) on Sunday January 16 2005, @12:56PM (#11379411)
    I think what people really need is interactive Discovery Channel
    Now THAT would be news...
  • So in addition to "Reality TV" we're going to have "Non-Reality TV" as well?
  • If there making a Sims TV show, it's not going to last too long. The Entire cast will be dead by the first episode either by Fire or drowning or some other Darwin Award like way.

    I've always said that everybody who plays The Sims has an uncanny facination with death. Dont believe me? Ask anyone who plays The Sims their most favorite moment. I can almost guarantee it has death involved in one form or another.

  • well, if its succesful, it will be the definite proof that shit can indeed be turned into gold.
    • Or proof that EA can turn gold (the sims, which is actually quite a good game) can be turned into shit. Although juding by the number of "chavs" I see walking down the streets ever day, Argos appear to have already achieved turning gold into shit :)
  • by Walkiry (698192) on Sunday January 16 2005, @01:00PM (#11379438) Homepage
    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...
  • This could be really quite interesting.

    Especially if they really let the players vote on what the Sims would do. But I guess they wouldn't really let, as people would cause all sorts of "wierd plagues" to hit the characters.
  • Strangerhood (Score:5, Interesting)

    by someguy456 (607900) <someguy456@phreaker.net> on Sunday January 16 2005, @01:06PM (#11379466) Homepage Journal
    I'm surprised nobody (at my threshold?) has mentioned Rooster Teeth Productions' The Strangerhood [strangerhood.com], an online series done using The Sims 2.

    Personally, however, I prefer their Red vs. Blue [redvsblue.com], a series done using Halo, and more recently Halo 2.
  • 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.
  • And how. [penny-arcade.com]

    "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."

  • ..wow.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Berserker76 (555385) on Sunday January 16 2005, @01:25PM (#11379569)
    ...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 Will Wright had batted an idea similar to this after The Sims came out, and before EA's name became nearly synonomous with Microsoft.

    Of course, I always liked his other TV show idea which was to record people's interacttions with robots... such as a tennis ball pitching one (going about 60 mph on the delivery). That would make better tv IMHO.
  • Playing The Sims is already boring as hell. Watching The Sims being run by the kind of people who vote for things on reality TV...
    • Remember all those giant EA genesis carts? Remember how all the games sucked? They lacked any style, visually...unless chunky and ugly is a style. The choppily animated EA logo was a sure sign of a forgettable experience ahead. At best.
      • Hey, I liked King's Bounty. [rpgclassics.com]

        Especially amusing was when the cartridge would heat up and start hosing the quantities of critters defending the keeps. Just a bit frightening heading into a castle and seeing that it's now defended by approximately "1KK" peasants.