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Games Entertainment

Gaming Site Reviews.. Real Life? 529

Posted by simoniker from the where-can-i-get-my-copy? dept.
jbp8 writes: "There's an article on GameSpot reviewing the ultimate MMOG - real life!" The article gives real life an Editor's Choice award, focusing on issues such as leveling up ("Typically, a character will learn of the numerous viable career paths available by undergoing schooling. This can be a long and tedious process, equivalent to the sort of 'level treadmill' monotony that characterizes almost all MMORPGs") and player death ("..a serious issue in real life, and cause for continued debate among players, who often direct unanswerable questions on the subject to the game's developers.")
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Gaming Site Reviews.. Real Life? More

Gaming Site Reviews.. Real Life?

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  • Damn ... ! (Score:4, Funny)

    by jayjaylee ( 684876 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @10:59PM (#6431731)
    I should have taken the Red Pill.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:52PM (#6431978)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Real Life is not a very fun game. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HanzoSan ( 251665 ) * on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:00PM (#6431738) Homepage Journal

    Real life is about hard work, its about survival, its about solving problems, its about paying your bills on time, taking care of responsiblities, doing things you dont want to do because they must be done.

    That is real life, it certain isnt a game,and its not fun. If I had a choice I'd choose to live in some of these game worlds over this one.

    Oh, and you only get one chance, so real life is stressful as hell. Failure is not an option.

    • Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gotr00t ( 563828 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:07PM (#6431771) Journal
      Then why do over 6 billion people still play it then? I'm not implying anything, but given the choice of staying in this not very fun game or ending it, the vast majority of people would say that they still want to stay.

      Is this because most people are skeptical about what happens after they quit the game or because they're enjoying it too much? Even though it isn't "very fun"?

      I think I speak for many of us when I say: "Life is good."



      • Unlike in Video Games, you don't have a choice but to play this one. There's no guarenteed out, if this is all there is, and there is no way out then you cant stop playing.

        I dont think you can say life is good for the majority of the 6 billion people. For a very rich and successful person in America, yeah life can be good.

        Still doesnt change the fact that even if you are successful you didnt start off that way, Life has to be bad before it can become good.

      • Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. (Score:5, Funny)

        by CharterTerminal ( 199214 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:12PM (#6431803)
        I think I speak for many of us when I say: "Life is good."

        Mm, I don't know. I'd feel better about it if I could figure out how to restore from a saved version.

      • I am not making this up (Score:4, Funny)

        by The Monster ( 227884 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:31PM (#6431892) Homepage
        the vast majority of people would say that they still want to stay.
        I just checked the site's poll stats:
        Do you like real life?

        Yes 1194 (64%)
        No 666 (35%)

        Apparently those who don't like Real Life prefer Eternal Damnation.


        • Life isnt about loving or hating it, its about what you accomplish in the time you have to experience it.

          So you dont like life? Invest your life in a useful way which benefits the world.

          So you like life? Invest your life in a way which benefits the world.

          If you are useful it doesnt matter if you like life or not, you still accomplish your mission and are successful at whatever you decide to do with yourself.

      • Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. (Score:5, Funny)

        by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:35PM (#6431911) Homepage
        Well, from personal experience I can say that unsubscribing is a bitch. The customer service people have been instructed to hassle anyone who comes in saying they want to unsubscribe until they agree to stay; I know people who say they unsubscribed previously, only to find later that they were still being billed; and all the user interfaces through which you can have your account deleted are just plain user unfriendly. (I am beginning to suspect the "slit wrists" module, which is the one most of the help files direct you toward, is designed just plain not have any way to make it work at all. "Down not across" indeed, what rubbish.)

        It seems to me that most people who want to quit eventually just get so frustrated by this sort of run-around that they eventually just give up and keep playing.
      • Because in most religions, suicide is a sin? Actually kinda twisted when you think about it.

      • To quote Pvt. Joker (Score:5, Funny)

        by NoData ( 9132 ) <_NoData_@@@yahoo...com> on Monday July 14, 2003 @12:12AM (#6432053)
        "The dead know only one thing: It's better to be alive."

      • Then why do over 6 billion people still play it then? I'm not implying anything, but given the choice of staying in this not very fun game or ending it, the vast majority of people would say that they still want to stay.

        Us 6B people were forced into this situation. No one asked us if we wanted to live the existence we would potentially live before we were born. Once we're born, though, most of us are forced to continue living. Most of us don't have complete control over our behavior, and self-sustaina

    • I dunno man, take life as a game and it can be kinda fun. Remember nobody MAKES you pay bills. You spend the money in advance which means you need to pay bills later. You could run away and live in the woods if you really want to. Thats what makes life so great. There are much more paths of live than in EQ.

      At least this world is fairly reasonable and you can figure out some of it after a few years.

      Im not so sure failure is no an option. Im not suicidal but if you really think this world is no good you CAN


      • Life is not fun because you arent allowed to lose.

        You don't pay your bills and you'll be a homeless bum. You live in the woods and you can get killed by animals or diseases, like I said you cannot afford to lose in this game because you only get ONE life.

        At least this world is fairly reasonable and you can figure out some of it after a few years.

        Its taken me my whole lifetime to figure this world out and I still cannot say I have it completely figured. Please share your wisdom with the masses.

        Im not
      • Remember nobody MAKES you pay bills.

        You know I never really liked paying bills, I don't think I'm going to do that any more.
      • Actually, you can't go and live in the woods. At least, not for very long before you get either arrested for trespassing, or (if you own the woods) arrested for property tax evasion.
    • The subgames are alot more fun. I have been playing Real Life for a while now, and one of the only reasons I got a JOB (legitimate way of making money in the game) was to have greater access to these subgames.
    • Its people running the hacked client and cheating there way to the top taht are ruining it for the rest of us.
    • Yes, one should work and pay their bills, but doesn't exclude having fun (at work if very lucky), and after work for all of us lucky to live in a rich part of the world.

      You should compare your life an Israeli, Iraqi, or Burma before whining that "life is hard". Most of here at slashdot have it very good.

    • Re:Real Life is not a very fun game. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by antis0c ( 133550 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @12:50AM (#6432182)
      Oh, and you only get one chance, so real life is stressful as hell. Failure is not an option.

      Specifically you only get one chance? You know this how? Lots of religions belive in re-encarnation, which many embody the meaning of more chances. A lot of religions believe not only in re-encarnation but rather as a means to have a second chance at life, to do what you are suppose to do. If you succeed in doing what you are suppose to do, then you go to your religions "heaven".

      I try never to speak in absolutes, so I highly doubt anyone has continued to re-encarnate and remember their previous life fully. Thats the difference between the real world and a game world. Sure you can die in both, but only in the game world can you learn from your mistakes and apply them to your second new life. Even if re-encarnation is true, its a clean slate and you don't remember what happened before.

      Of course socieity in a way fills this gap through historical records allowing you to study others mistakes and learn from them. Thats what allows our race to grow through the centuries as opposed to doing the same thing, every generation, over and over like the rest of the animal kingdom. No other animal on earth can record and aggregate experiences like humans and continue to pass it down. I'm often saddened when I think of the Dark Ages, roughly 500 years of technological evolution halting with our own will. Had the Dark Ages never occured, we'd more than likely living in a world very much like that of Star Trek or various other Science Fiction stories. 500 years is a lot of time, over 10 generations.. Imagine 10 generations ago, then apply Moores law and fast forward another 10 generations.

      That has to be by far something I wish was possible, and who knows, where-ever I go when I die I may be able to see mankind evolve in the future. Watching from above somewhere. Then again, its a very real possiblity that when I die, that's it. There's no soul, no spirit, nothing that continues on. My existance is merely the sum of all the cells in my body and an electrical current that runs through it, my only purpose on this earth to procreate and then die.

      Scary thought.

  • Cool, Life is a game, so... (Score:4, Funny)

    by zubernerd ( 518077 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:02PM (#6431746)
    ...where can I find all the cheat codes?

  • the "real world" (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Thinkit3 ( 671998 ) *
    The real world is physics. Nothing more and nothing less. It's not the "employment world". Those are just as arbitrary as everquest's rules. If someone says money is power, take out a gun!

  • The admins (Score:5, Funny)

    by Eric(b0mb)Dennis ( 629047 ) * on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:04PM (#6431757)
    The only thing I hate about the REAL LIFE MMORPG is the freaking admins..

    Every time I try to PK or steal.. they are on my tail.. can't get away with ANYTHING! Maybe i'm just bad at it.

    • Re:The admins (Score:5, Funny)

      by YOU LIKEWISE FAIL IT ( 651184 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:25PM (#6431861) Homepage Journal

      Agreed. Wish they'd hurry up with the patch though.

      Promised bugfixes, balance adjustments and playability enhancements in Real Life 1.01:

      • Boyfriend/Girlfriend object to be represented by linked list instead of single object.
      • Bug causing male pattern baldness fixed.
      • Economy to be tweaked for 'balance'.
      • Improved treasure drops from "Tax Return" mob.
      • Improved AI.
      • Rules revision to allow limited multiplaying.
      • Rules revision to allow deployment of "wallhack" in shower areas.

      Anything I missed? I'm also looking forward to the new Spaceflight/Posthumanist expansion. Should be out around the same time as Duke Nukem Forever and the Diablo II 1.10.

      YLFI

    • Re:The admins (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Daverd ( 641119 )
      A cool thing about Real Life that's unlike other MMORPGs is that often times they'll accept in-game currency to resolve problems like that.

  • Heh - Real LIFE? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mcrbids ( 148650 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:05PM (#6431764) Journal
    I've recently discovered "GTA: Vice City" and have been playing a fair amount of it.

    The realism I find amazing - it looks very much like real life. (but I sure wish real life came with a Paint-n-Spray!)

    Anyway, I was bike-riding with my 14 Y.O. son (yes, I'm that old) and I saw a neon "Open" sign out of the corner of my eye. And the pinkish-red color was just like the color on the bright, moving icons for health found in Vice City.

    And the thought crossed my mind as I rode along - "Get health?" followed by the immediate "D'oh! - real life, move on" thought...

    I don't wonder within a few years psychologists officially recognize a mental disorder of "Video Game/Reality dissociation" or something...

    (Notice above, I said "in Vice City" as though it was a place and you didn't even notice!)

    • Re:Heh - Real LIFE? (Score:5, Informative)

      by swtaarrs ( 640506 ) <swtaarrs@NosPAm.comcast.net> on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:12PM (#6431802)
      psychologists officially recognize a mental disorder of "Video Game/Reality dissociation" or something...

      I agree with you. I have played a lot of Vice City since I got it last christmas. I just started driving, and sometimes when I see pedestrians walking beside the road, I'll get an urge to run them over, hop out of the car, and pick up their money. :-/ Luckily I have indulged any of these urges yet :)
      • Luckily I have indulged any of these urges yet

        That should be Luckily I haven't indulged any of these urges yet

        I guess I should pay closer attention to what I type before I submit.
      • I'm old enough that I dropped a lot of quarters into Spy Hunter back in my college days. One day I was driving down the highway and had a momentary urge to drive into the back of a Coca Cola truck. (To get the oil slick, I'm sure.) Unfortunately it didn't want to put its ramp down for me. Damn those red trucks!

  • Problem with Real Life (TM)... (Score:5, Funny)

    by JackAsh ( 80274 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:06PM (#6431766)
    ...is it's got very poor replayability, unless you pick the Buddhist specialization (or so I hear).

    -Jack Ash

  • Life is pretty disappointing. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Joel Bruick ( 685266 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:07PM (#6431773)
    I was expecting much more after the promising 9 month beta test.

  • So... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Cobralisk ( 666114 )
    Basically the matrix?
  • Who needs real life when you have Real Life [reallifecomics.com]? And no, I don't have anything to do with it, I just like the comic.

  • Can an actual MMORPG simulate real life? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by indros13 ( 531405 ) * on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:10PM (#6431791) Homepage Journal
    To some extent, I wonder if an article like this is long overdue to point out to some players that online games are not, in fact, real life. On the other hand, think about this:

    For many players of games (my roommate included), online gaming is pretty much their entire life. I recently calculated that my roommate has played Everquest for 5 hours a day (on average) for the past two years.

    Since he has virtually no social life, never has people over, and doesn't belong to any organization outside of work, one could assume that he is incredibly lonely, yet he doesn't seem so.

    To what extent can an online game substitute for real human interaction? To borrow an idea from the Sims, can an almost entirely online social experience fill up the Social Meter?

    • Re:Can an actual MMORPG simulate real life? (Score:5, Funny)

      by heli0 ( 659560 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:27PM (#6431869)
      "To borrow an idea from the Sims, can an almost entirely online social experience fill up the Social Meter?"

      Are you a writer for Sex and the City?

    • It *is* real human interaction (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:52PM (#6431974)
      "To what extent can an online game substitute for real human interaction?"

      The majority of the time you are interacting with real human beings. What else would we be interacting with: dogs, apes, squirrels?

      When people come accross someone who can find enjoyment in life without the hassles of looks, body weight, body fluids, the horrible effects of aging, they are jealous.

      These are all things that normal people worry about, and when they don't understand how a gamer can be so happy in life and not worry about these things, they have to find something wrong with that person; they have to call them a gimp or a failure, a freak and a loser.

      Online human interaction can be more fulfilling than "real world" human interaction, if it is done in a structured environment with interesting tasks and many solutions.

      And no, it isn't only more fulfilling for those who are "socially inept". It is more fulfilling for anyone; where what matters is your intellect and your creativity.

      When you say that a gamer is "socially inept", what you are saying is that they are poor at playing the game you want them to play; they may not even want to play it. Yet, you taunt and jeer them because you can not understand why they are so happy.

      What are they so happy? They have every reason to be very very happy, and these are good reasons. They are successful at what they want to do. They have many aquaintences who they go on grand adventures with. Now only this, but they are able to give so greatly to others. You can make someone's day -- a real human being -- by your "in game" actions. You can make them smile; you can make them feel loved; love in the sense of brothers and sisters; the love of a companion: male or female does not matter.

      And it is not a false sense of love. It is love that is as real as the love of your mother and your father for you, and you for your brother and your sister and your fellow man and fellow woman. It is love between real people, and it really matters. It is real.

      Yes, if a gamer has obligations to a spouse or children, or to paying the bills, then it is wrong for the gamer to ignore these obligations, or to treat them with disdain. These are obligations, the results of choices you have made, and you must live with them.

      But for those of us who are not yet so obligated, there is no reason why we should bind ourselves to this dying and decrepit world. There is no reason why we should be what society wants us to be, or what the people who are hip and fashionable and popular want us to be.

      When we can interact with real human beings and when we care about others as brothers and sisters, and treat them with the love and respect that they are due simply in virtue of being persons, we do a great thing.

      No one can take this away from us. No one can tell us that what we do does not matter, or is not real.

      No, we may not be helping to eliminate hunger in Africa by playing this game, but what the fuck have you done to eliminate hunger in Africa? You haven't done a damned thing.

      I can make someone's day. I treat others with the utmost respect. I can make them happy. I can make them laugh. I can make them feel loved. I can make them feel worthwhile. I can comfort them when they are down. I can help them up when they are in bad times. And they do these things for me.

      This is what matters; helping real people, and helping them in tangible, real ways.

      Yes, criticize me for not giving money to staving children in Africa, but first, tell me, just tell me, is what you have done in this world so much greater than what I have done? Have you comforted and inspired so many people? Have you loved them as human beings? What the fuck have you done for Africa? You do what you do for yourself.

      It is as real as anything else in this world; the perceptions are as real; the emotions are as real. The people are real.

      Why won't you let us be happy? We give you our bodies for 40 hours a week. What won't you let us live?

      For the love of God, why won't you let us LIVE?

      • Re:It *is* real human interaction (Score:5, Interesting)

        by MyHair ( 589485 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @02:30AM (#6432436) Journal
        That's somewhat disturbing to me. This phenomenon of online socializing deserves a lot more psychological study and philisophical debate, but I won't even try to analyze it myself. I'll also avoid judgement (for the most part) and just post my personal experience and opinion in my little world.

        Online socializing has never been "real" to me. I was on 300bps dialup BBS systems back in the early 80's, and I've done a lot of online messaging over the years and met quite a few people that way (BBS parties and some online dating). To me, people are completely different online versus real life. Some people intentionally misrepresent themselves (as in the classic guy-impersonating-a-horny-teenage-girl), but even those who are trying to present their true selves are altered by the sense of anonymity or the lack of body language and other instant feedback. "LOL" just doesn't get the whole message accross.

        When I tried online dating I never felt like I knew anything about the girl until I met her. To me it was like two different people (appearance description jokes aside). Someone who was appealing in email was frequently unappealing personalitywise in person.

        I had an email penpal female friend for a couple of years. We confided a lot in each other, using each other as a safe way to get the perspective of the opposite sex and helping each other through insecurities and perplexing actions by our dates. Even though I shared things with her that I haven't shared with others, I still don't feel like I know her. It's entirely possible that we wouldn't be able to stand each other in person. I really appreciated her help and vice versa, but it never felt like a real life friendship to either of us. I wouldn't have considered letting her stay at my place or borrow my car if she had been into town on business, for example. A real life female would be offered the use of my place and car, assuming I trusted her.

        I do get some social enjoyment out of online situations. I laugh at myself about it. Slashdot, for example. I enjoy being modded up, and I take it a bit personally sometimes. I like when people reply positively or thoughtfully. But it's still very different from real interaction.

        By the way, I never take game interaction seriously, but the only MMOG game I played was WWII Online which didn't lend itself to role playing or extended socialization. Way back in the BBS days there were some MUD-like games, but I didn't take those seriously, either.

        The anonymity and privacy online does help in some cases, though. I'm a fat white guy with a very sloppy apartment, but you can't tell that by reading most of what I type. And I judge other /. posters by their ideas, grammar and spelling. Back in the BBS days I met a shy girl at a BBS party who was deaf. You'd never know it online, but she was very shy in person because of her being deaf. I think she liked that the BBS made her identically functional to everyone else there.

        On the other hand, with instant messaging today, slow typers might be judged poorly when they're slow to respond and/or mispell things (too slow to correct everything) or use poor capitalization or grammar (again because they're trying not to be too slow).

      • An insightful post, but with a notable flaw:

        But for those of us who are not yet [married with children], there is no reason why we should bind ourselves to this dying and decrepit world.

        Although virtual worlds exist that allow us to escape the mundanity of this "dying and decrepit world" for a time, those who choose to value escapism more than this existence will ultimately find themselves with access to neither anyways. And nobody ever left this world regretting that they hadn't spent more time playi

  • The guy gave it a rating of 9.6 'superb'. I guess we can rule out depression...

    • I hear once you get a certain amount of money, you get to spend your life on vacations while occassionally logging into a website and writing editorials like this.

  • Yeah? On what planet does this game take place? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by release7 ( 545012 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:14PM (#6431813) Homepage Journal
    The only problem is you're relegated to playing as a human character, though the game does randomly choose one of several different races for you (which have little bearing on gameplay and mostly just affect appearances and your standing with certain factions).

    Sounds like this game reviewer hasn't explored this game enough.

    • Re:Yeah? On what planet does this game take place? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by HeghmoH ( 13204 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:55PM (#6431994) Homepage Journal
      and mostly just affect appearances and your standing with certain factions

      Obviously the reviewer knows of the negative social effects of race, that's what "standing with certain factions" refers to.

      By gameplay, he means the game mechanics; how the game works excluding social interactions. And race has little bearing on those. Differences are there, but most of the time they aren't very noticeable.

  • addicted? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Xzzy ( 111297 ) <setherNO@SPAMtru7h.org> on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:15PM (#6431815) Homepage
    Does that make those who committ suicide the real heros, because they beat the addiction and quit playing? ;)
  • I spent all my education skill points on computer programming, and now I cant seem to use the damn skills because someone nerfed the ability to gain money with them like before. I wanted to be a god damned power user, now I am trying to get a skillset in another area that looks good, and that will probably be nerfed too!

  • Forgot the most rewarding feature: Sex! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:22PM (#6431852)
    Sex is fun. Reproduction is rewarding. Of course, most gamers know little/nothing about either, so it doesn't surprise me that they skipped it.

    Seriously, as a maried parent (yes, I still game occasionally), I like this part of 'real life' the best. My five year old son just wandered in and asked me what 'random' meant. I'll make a gamer out of him yet... But at any rate, it does have chores associated with it. Time to stop posting AC on slashdot and go read the kids a story...

  • It just ruined it... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Sayten241 ( 592677 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:29PM (#6431883)
    It just ruined the game when people started selling their items on Ebay.

  • I've been building a business... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by vudufixit ( 581911 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:30PM (#6431890)
    And the weird part is how much I feel like I'm living in a business simulation. I invest in some things (equipment, advertising), make some profits, which I can allocate to whatever I want, including more adversiting, equipment, etc.
    Abstracting life like a game can actually be helpful, since trying to distill the "rules" and come up with ways to cheat them, circumvent them or efficiently obey them can be a fun and rewarding challenge.
  • Anyone read the next article [gamespot.com]? I had to cringe every time the word "steal" came up. Hey, dork, it's "copy". Apparently some people haven't mastered the fundamental physics of real life--you can't own information...sorry! And that's something the players can never change.

  • truth in avatars (Score:3, Funny)

    by gad_zuki! ( 70830 ) * on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:32PM (#6431897)
    It was also found that in the real life MMOG women rarely wear sexy armor, don't say "Mi'Lord", don't have a supermodel's figure, and most importantly do not have a penis.

  • Additional servers are waiting for us! (Score:3, Funny)

    by jesser ( 77961 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:33PM (#6431901) Homepage Journal
    This further discourages players from engaging in PVP combat, but it does help real life's rapidly growing player population from getting too out of hand (though eventually there will be a need for additional servers).

    Some players [marssociety.org] insist that additional servers already exist, and that it is the players' responsibility to explore and "settle" them in order to guard against catastrophe and ensure that there are sufficient resources for new players. Skeptics point to extreme lag between the existing server and the suggested new host: ping times are measured in minutes, and player transfer could take months.
  • ..this story would be about a MMORPG featuring the characters from here [reallifecomics.com]? I was really hoping for stats on the Shirt Ninja. -grungebox
  • is that you can't buy and sell characters on eBay.

    -a

  • Patch? (Score:3, Funny)

    by beamstar ( 449330 ) on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:38PM (#6431923) Homepage
    I've been running Real Life for a while now, and occasionally get frame drops and skips, especially in the "Alcohol Consumption" sub-games.

    I quite enjoy these sub-games - is this a legitimate memory issue that will be addressed in a patch, or should I be upgrading my system?

    • Re:Patch? (Score:2, Funny)

      by cyroth ( 103888 )
      We are aware of the problems with the "Alcohol Consumption" sub-game. We are developing a patch but in the mean time there are several fixes you may want to try.
      1 - Have your character consume "Coffee", many have reported the effects of the alcohol game to be less severe
      2 - Play the game more often. Yes this may sound silly at first, but the routine for processing the alcohol seems to be more efficient when your character improves at colume consumption.

  • cheats (Score:2, Funny)

    by August_zero ( 654282 )
    Hey! anybody got cheat codes for the new 1.98 patch?

  • Too Much Like The Sims (Score:4, Funny)

    by gmhowell ( 26755 ) <gmhowell@gmail.com> on Sunday July 13, 2003 @11:50PM (#6431967) Homepage Journal
    It's too much like the Sims. Pointless tasks to get simoleans to impress people with house and stuff in it. WAY too much micromanagement. I have to figure out when to go to the bathroom, sleep, eat, etc?

    Still, I'm somewhat addicted to the game, and not looking to stop any time soon.
  • The framerates are awesome!
  • Back to playing sed pong [sourceforge.net] for me...

  • Reminds me of a few lines from the movie Existenz (Score:4, Funny)

    by KenR ( 41927 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @12:08AM (#6432039)
    Ted: "I don't like it here. I don't know what's going on. We're both stumbling around together in this unformed world whose rules and objectives are largely unknown, seemingly indecipherable or even possibly nonexistent, always on the verge of being killed by forces that we don't understand."

    Allegra: "That sounds like my game all right."

    Ted: "That sounds like a game that's not going to be easy to market"

    Allegra: "But it's a game everybody's already playing."

  • America mod only (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    review seems geared towards the "America" mod for Real Life. in other mods, the opportunities for advancement, certification, or satisfaction are not as great - and can be nearly absent altogether! for a real handicap, try the "Africa" mod next time. otherwise, a good review.

  • Yeah, I've played that game... (Score:3, Funny)

    by tunabomber ( 259585 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @12:29AM (#6432112) Homepage
    It's way too violent and fills my mind with all kinds of impure thoughts that make me want to go on killing sprees, unfortunately.

  • Quick release (Score:4, Funny)

    by transient ( 232842 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @12:31AM (#6432122)
    The truly amazing thing about Real Life is that the development process only took six days, although that all depends on who you ask.
    • The truly amazing thing about Real Life is that the development process only took six days, although that all depends on who you ask.

      Exactly - it was rushed and that's why there's so many bugs. Unfortunately, fixing the bugs would break compatibility with the current version of real life. The last time the creator tried it, he got an overflow error, lost all his work and had to start over from scratch.

  • Think Different (Score:5, Funny)

    by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @12:43AM (#6432163) Homepage
    I was creating a world on the PC and all the sudden it was like "bleep beep beep beep beep" and I was like, "Wah?".

    It devoured my world.

    It was a really good world.

    Then I had to create it again and I had to do it fast and it wasn't as good.

    It was kinda, a bummer.

    I'm God and I'm a deity.

  • Character Creation (Score:5, Funny)

    by po8 ( 187055 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @12:52AM (#6432194)

    ...for some reason you have no choice in determining your character's initial starting location, appearance, or gender, which are chosen for you seemingly at random.

    This was generally a good review. Unfortunately, the reviewer completely failed to explain the finer points of character creation.

    A unique feature of real life is that, while players cannot choose their own character attributes, new players can enter the game only when their characters have been created by players already online. The mechanic is that two players of opposite gender and appropriate age and alignment combine their attributes randomly to create a new PC. This mechanic makes the gender attribute more than superficially significant: much of game play, including many socials, are gender-specific.

    The newly-created avatar actually encumbers the female "mother" character for 9 months, after which it typically spends time as essentially an item in the mother's inventory. Character creation is normally part of the "parenting" system referred to in the review, although it is not uncommon for characters other than the creators to parent the newbies.

    Many players of real life find character creation among the most enjoyable aspects of the game. There is a practice-only option for character creation: in fact, practice character creation is itself one of the most popular activities in real life, and is discussed endlessly in-game.

    Some character classes in real life, for example, the "nerd" class, are usually nominally male, but essentially genderless from the gaming POV. Perhaps the reviewer's character is a nerd: if so, I'd encourage use of the in-game training and character mods to develop some character creation skills. I think the reviewer might be surprised by how much fun they can be.

    • after which it typically spends time as essentially an item in the mother's inventory

      It's worth noting that the admins get upset if you drop this item. Also, although its worth is very high, the admins will visit if you try to sell it.

  • Nethack (Score:5, Funny)

    by cliffy2000 ( 185461 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @01:52AM (#6432340) Journal
    And yet, real life STILL doesn't have as many features as Nethack.

  • Please tell me you're kidding. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tidal Flame ( 658452 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @02:32AM (#6432446) Homepage
    I've always hated Gamespot for their biased reviews, but this is just... beyond words. Transcendant, almost. Someone give me a good, hard kick if I ever visit that site again.

  • not balanced (Score:4, Funny)

    by klaasvakie ( 608359 ) on Monday July 14, 2003 @04:36AM (#6432748)
    I find that Real Life is not fair to chaotic characters. Lawful characters have it much easier. I mean, just look at the artifact weapons: Lawful characters have the Thermonuclear Bomb which does 4d10 shock damage, 3d8 fire damage, and 2d6 radiation damage for 100 turns afterward.
    Chaotic characters only have the SCUD Missile which has a -1 to hit and only 3d6 damage.
    Lawful characters can enchant the Thermonuclear Bomb up to +6 when it becomes a Hydrogen Bomb which does 8d10 shock damage but less radiation damage. SCUD Missiles cannot be enchanted but instead lose -1 to hit for every year left in the desert.

    Not fair i'm telling you.

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