I didn't know wheter I should put this thread in the "Nerd Culture" Forums or in the "Human Science" one, so I put it here anyways...

I was looking at the site of the new game of the endless (but probably finished:bugeye: ) The Sims' expansion. They've made a whole virtual world where you can do and be whatever you want, with apparently no limits! You can read about at this site:
http://www.ea.com/eagames/official/thesimsonline/home/index.jsp?

Now... this creates a lot of problems and new implications, listed below (and you are welcome to continue the list...):

Substituing one "reality" for another:
With the first "The Sims" I used to spend at least 4 hours a day playing it in the holidays. IN normal days, I would play it for 3 hours. After some of the expansion packs, I got to play even for 7 hours, sometimes. With this new one, where everything is limitless, I would probably be spending more than 10 hours playing it! That's create a little problem... In which "reality" I'm living?

Amount of money won by Maxis (or whoever gets it) and amount of money spent with it:
With the first internet games, you would only spend money with the internet connection, which is not that bad. However, now many games (including the Sims) make you pay money so that you can play it. The problem with that is how much money is spent by people and how much is gain by those guys! You always have to pay 9.99 dollars every month to play the game. This is the best selling game I've ever seen (probably of all times). You get both together and you might see the amount of money involved... Is that ethical - to make people pay every month to play a game? :confused:

Psychological implications:
This I ask to people that study psychology. What are the psychological implications of a game that recreates the world into the computer? How can that affect people's minds and lifes? Is that healthy? Do you think the makers of the game ever though about that?

Let's make an experiment! :D
Imagine that everyone in the game is given a gun or a machine gun, at the choice of the user. How many people do you think would last after 2 years of the game (given that those people actually carry relationships with each other and that each day passes in less than 2 minutes...). And remember that there is no law in the game and the possible personalities are endless...

From: http://gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/simsonline/4.html

"The fact that these online games connect individuals may be part of their appeal, but it also can be a risk. In games like EverQuest, the most popular massively multiplayer game, players spend an average of 22 hours a week playing it. That's time clearly taken away from other leisure activities, some of them likely socially oriented. So the question has fairly been asked as to whether the social relationships built in these games are appropriate to replace (or diminish) real-world relationships. Search the Internet and you can quickly come across sites for groups like the EverQuest-Widows club, a gathering of wives who have practically lost their husbands to the game.

Being the socially responsible game designer that he is, Will Wright has thought long and hard about these issues during the past two years. It's part of what scares him about bringing out a game like The Sims Online. "We're building something that could potentially be a very powerful experience for a lot of people," he says. "So it's an opportunity as well as a danger. Realistically, I think this game is going to be a tremendous help for a lot of people and tremendously bad for a lot of people. I just wonder what the net is going to be."

Substituing one "reality" for another:

Well, even just reading and posting on these forums you are engaging in a virtual world of sorts. Of course it is mostly a world of words and ideas, but then so are books.

Because your experience of your thoughts is is real to you as your experience of your perceptions, any "world" you interact with, be it physical or virtual, is "real" to you.

Amount of money won by Maxis (or whoever gets it) and amount of money spent with it:

I see nothing unethical about this. First off, you have to consider the fact that the money is being used to pay ongoing expenses for servers, bandwidth, software updates and customer support.

Secondly, if they created a product that you enjoy so much that you want to spend 3-7 hours per day using it, don't they deserve the big bucks? You probably spend 30 bucks or more per month on cable but don't even watch as much TV as you play the sims.

TaoDervish,

Well, even just reading and posting on these forums you are engaging in a virtual world of sorts. Of course it is mostly a world of words and ideas, but then so are books.

Because your experience of your thoughts is is real to you as your experience of your perceptions, any "world" you interact with, be it physical or virtual, is "real" to you.

What I meant was the amount of time spent on the computer... it is not that healthy... :eek:

Can you build an army and conquer the world?

I don't think so...:eek: :m: