Real Lives 2004 - Living Other People's Normal Lives?

Thanks to USA Today for its article discussing an educational videogame which allows players to live the life of another person. The piece explains: "Real Lives 2004 starts by automatically generating a life based on current population and birth rate statistics", before explaining possible outcomes: "Our teen-testers were able to experience many different lives in just a few hours. One was a boy born into a poor family in Zhangzhou, China, who did not attend college or vocational school. As a mail clerk, our teen-tester faced decisions about gambling, alcohol and drinking... He found romance but had no children and he died at age 84 from cancer."

Awesome!

[SuperMo0]

I could live out the life of a /. troller without all of the associated social stigmas!

Re:Awesome!

[shadowcabbit]

Real Lives 2004 Patch History

Version 1.1, May 16, 2004-- Major bugfix to grpahics display options. "/. Troll" command no longer shows sexually explicit ASCII 'art'.

1.15, May 18, 2004-- "/. Troll" command now filters obscenity.

1.2, May 19, 2004-- "/. Troll" command now includes disclaimer. Disclaimer reads as follows:
"WARNING: Do not try this at home. Trolling can be hazardous to your karma. --CmdrTaco, Slashdot.org (please visit my site though)"

1.3 May 23, 2004-- "/. Troll" command reduced in power; trolling now provides 3 Happiness instead of 30.

1.5 May 26, 2004-- Fixed bug in "/. Troll" command that didn't penalize trolling. Trolling now provides 3 Happiness and -10 Social.

1.7 May 29, 2004-- Reports of real-life suicides has prompted us to remove the "/. Troll" command from Real Lives 2004. This command will not be reinstated in any further patch.

Ahh the memories

[hookedup]

I remember playing something similar, although really archaic. It was a game in grade school in the late 80's on UNISYS machines called "A Day In The Life Of".

I cant really remember much about it other than going to the mall and hanging out, what a blast... Ahh i miss those days of the giant trackball..

Re:Ahh the memories

[SuiteSisterMary]

Ah, the UNISYS Icon machines! I remember ratting some guy out cuz I saw him shooting up; turns out he was diabetic.

Interesting game, it was. At the time, at least.

My go

[beders]

I got to be Commander Tacho andpost duplicate stories!

Man that was awesome...

I think Michael Zorek said it best with...

[Anonymous Coward]

"I wanted to meet stimulating and interesting people of an ancient culture, and kill them."

Cool

[Vokbain]

Too bad they don't have a native Mac version. =(

Older 'life simulators'

[MacBrave]

I used to have a game for my C-64 called 'Alter Ego' that allowed you to live out the life of another person. Different events would occur based on the choices you made. A pretty neat game for the time.....

Re:Older 'life simulators'

[krazykong]

Actually, someone has actually recreated that game in a web based format. It can be played here. [theblackforge.net].

Real life? WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is, real life is boring for a lot of people. That's the whole reason they turn to games in the first place.

Re:Real life? WTF?

[Snowmit]

It's an educational product. It's for educating people about what it's like to try to live in different places in the world. I can't believe you got modded +5 Inightful.

So how long until they get bought?

[kabocox]

What until Maxis buys these folks. We'll have even more releastic sims!

Like...

[Talith]

... my life isn't depressing enough...

Don't slashdot The Underdogs, but...

[FooAtWFU]

URLs not linked for nicety purposes, but designed by Dr. Peter Favaro and published by Activision in 1983 we find:
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Alter+E go%3A+Male
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Alter+E go%3A+Female

Alter Ego is one of the rare games that's not only outstanding in every respect, but, like Fool's Errand, is so original in concept that it's hard to categorize. You play your own alter ego in this game, going through life stages while making decisions that impact several characteristics, such as calmness, trustworthiness, etc., that in turn affect the number of choices you have in future situation. You might learn a surprising thing or two about yourself while playing this life simulation. Overall, an outstanding game in every respect, and much more realistic than Maxis' recent blockbuster The Sims years later. Two thumbs up!

Form free link

[Fizzl]

Here [educationa...ations.com]

Mmmm.. Karma whoring.

Re:Form free link

[jmpoast]

Why is it that every time I see someone admitting to be karma whoring they are at +5?

<karma whore>Well lets give it a try shall we?</karma whore>

Ah yes, art imitating life.

[Incoherent07]

So... we go from playing games as an escape from real life to playing games ABOUT real life. Funny how that works.

Then again, given The Sims, this isn't exactly a new development.

Upload our lives.

[subzerorz]

Can you upload your own life and let it run a simulation to see how you will end up in life? This would be interesting to see when your 40, 60, or 80 years old.

Re:Upload our lives.

[orthogonal]

Can you upload your own life and let it run a simulation to see how you will end up in life? This would be interesting to see when your 40, 60, or 80 years old.

Age 40:
You move out of your mother's basement.

Pursue a relationship with Heidi?

Heidi rejects you, complaining posting to Slashdot is not a social life.

Age 42:
You move back in with your Mom.

Age 50:
Pursue a relationship with Jennifer?

Jennifer rejects you, complaining posting to Slashdot is not a social life.

Age 58:
You die o

Re:Upload our lives.

[jmpoast]

You die of heart disease brought about by too much TV watching and excessive consumption of Doritos and Mountain Dew.

But what a way to go!

Just Like GRIOT In Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut

[Doug Dante]

In Hocus Pocus [amazon.com] by Kurt Vonnegut, the program GRIOT was used to:

• Statistically predict future events for people based on a series of questions ("Are you married?", "Do you drink every day?" ... )
• Randomly generate backgrounds for people in the Witness Protection Program or for people using other fake identites

One character claimed to have been on the Phil Donohue Show, but the main character figured that he may have been qouting from his randomly generated GRIOT background. Statistically, every once in a while, GRIOT would have to say that a person had been on a TV show.

Just by pressing "Age one year"

[gasaraki]

about 40 times and seeing the results, I've developed a strange bond with my family. The makers of this game are definitely onto something.

Play it online

[Jmstuckman]

I found a fun online game (based on an 80's PC game) which lets you play the same kind of simulation.

Alter Ego [theblackforge.net]

The game is very well made -- try it out!

Fascinating

[Lord_Dweomer]

This is one of the most fascinating types of games I've ever fantasized about. And now they've made it. I wish it had video.

One of the things I'm REALLY looking forward to is once people become "gargoyles" and start wearing small video cams almost 100% of the time to record their lives.

Then you will have a much better way to live someone elses life. In fact, I think it could offer up a whole new genre.

It could be quite cool to have enough video footage to be able to live someone elses life with the video acting out your choices in a much more advanced way than is possible today.

If you like this sort of thing.

[AzraelKans]

You may want to check graal online http://www.graalonline.com is basically zelda online in the style of an mmorpg of sorts is cool and to certain extent is free.
A comment about the game, Im sorry but I really cant vouche for nintendo on their decision to require 4 gbas to play a 4 player game, it sounds more like a scare tactic than a product feature. And come on? 4 friends with 4 gba'S? I have 2 brothers a neighbor and between all of us we have 4 friends one gba and one gamecube. In which alternate reality every brother in the same household and every neighbor friend has a gba?

Errors

[Lando]

There are a number of errors with this program, most of which I think have to do with it rather than wine.

It's interesting that the 4 times I set myself up as a gifted student in america 3 out of 4 times I was pulled from school and ended dying of starvation... Doesn't really seem to fit the statistics.

The one time I actually made it through graduating with a phd in medicine the best job I could find was as a pottery maker.... Sigh

If it's that inaccurate for the united states my assumption that the oth

Re:Errors

[orthogonal]

It's interesting that the 4 times I set myself up as a gifted student in america 3 out of 4 times I was pulled from school and ended dying of starvation... Doesn't really seem to fit the statistics.

The one time I actually made it through graduating with a phd in medicine the best job I could find was as a pottery maker.... Sigh

Oh, sorry, our fault. The version you downloaded was compiled with
-D OUTSOURCING_CONTINUES_AT_2004_PACE
and
-D GW_BUSH_RELECTED

This leads to the AMERICA_BECOMES_FEUDAL_THEOC

Thank Goodness!

[BlindMellon]

Finally! A game to make me "feel empathy for people in other parts of the world." Its about time! I was starting to believe that video games were for entertainment. From now on, I'm only buying titles from my new favorite publishers: United Nations, the World Health Organization, Amnesty International.

Oh, but "photos and graphics would make this simulation more intriguing."

Along with a couple bitchin guns.

Okay?

[j.bellone]

Who would want to play a game like this? Aren't the whole purpose of games for people to "enjoy" playing? (to some level or degree?).

I don't know, I don't think that people would want to play this game... looks to me more like something you'll watch in a presentation hall.

Interesting comment from Serious Games Summit @GDC

[Pvt_Waldo]

There was an interesting comment made at the recent Game Developers Conference [gdconf.com] in the Serious Games Summit [seriousgames.org]. Someone was asked what would be the equivalent of the DARPA Grand Challenge as it related to game technology? The answer described a scenario that went something like this...

"You and your team walk into the DARPA director's office with a globe. You give it a spin and ask him to randomly choose a place - some country/location. You go back to your office and get working. A week later, you give him a 'game'. He runs it and finds himself 'in' that location he picked. He hears the language, sees the sites, hears the sounds, etc. He plays this for a week. Then he actually goes to that place. When he gets there, he 'knows' it already because you've really taught him."

Neat challenge idea.

Disappointing

[__aamkky7574]

I took the tour of the game on the website, showing a series of screenshots; the game comes across as a cross between Yahoo! Weather and Microsoft Excel.

Some bits struck me as pointless; for example, a map of your continent by night showing you how urban centers are scattered; most people in the world don't instinctively have this knowledge and I'm not sure why they feel they should show it.

It'd be far more interesting for such a game to be immersive, preferably first-person, where you can see through the