New Open for Busioness Video 1/05/05

[flowerchile]

How cool, as we're a day ahead in Oz, I spose we'll get the EP a day earlier than you.  And our local store usually has it the day before release!!!

How AWESOME.

[aussieone]

Now, now Flowerchile....gloating like that is just not cricket!!

[flowerchile]

But it puts such a BIG smile on my face, but honestly, I'm not gloating!!   (HE HE)

It also put us at a big disadvantage, coz right now it's around 10 oçlock here but dinner time at MATY.  So when I log on at night, it's like 5 oçlock in the morning and most people are asleep.  That sux.

[aussieone]

Yeah I know what you mean...I'm usually cruising the boards at work and I notice a marked drop off in posts around 1.00pm our time and then it comes alive again around 4.00pm or so.

Chat's not so bad though...at least there's usually someone there at all hours of the day and night 

[Sagana]

Probably this is posted somewhere else (I looked briefly and didn't see it) but I think it's a pretty interesting article:

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/news/story.php?sid=6142959

I'm way excited about OFB still. I'm one of the people that hated the idea of Uni and still don't like the EP much (bought it tho, didn't I) but think OFB is totally different. Uni takes me away from the game for an extended period of time - to a subgame with limited options. OBF is integral to the regular gamebase, just adds more. And from the sound of it, a LOT more.

Much as I love JMs mods, and hope he continues to make them, I was playing Sims before I'd ever heard of him and am not giving up my favorite addiction just because he kicks the habit and goes on some 12-step program ;)

(Please update for OFB JM - I've been waiting ages for this one)

I'm in the states so boringly not around at night, never go to chat ('least not yet) and haven't pre-ordered. So here I am, gloating fodder! :)

[Paperbladder]

If Pescado doesn't get this expansion, then I won't get it.  It's that simple, I can't play the game without the hacks that make the game run smoother like notownieregen, and others that make it harder like no20khandout.  They're gonna add about 100 more sims in this new expansion, and I believe there's already 380 sims in a neighborhood with just making new areas.  Not to mention that most of these sims that are spawned have similar personalities, and some even look exactly the same.  Besides, I'm not crazy about the idea.

You already get a lot of money by just doing jobs right now, OFB will make this even easier.  The object that you were supposed to save up for would be the car, but they're incredibly cheap.  Sure, there's new features like calling people in other's phonebooks but you actually have to use the damned business function for that.  That's one of the reasons people hate University, because you're forced to do meaningless tasks over and over to get some poor benefits.

What I don't get is that not many people liked Superstar, yet they're going nuts over Open For Business.  It's practically the same exact thing except one makes your sim famous and the other has you running your own business.  Heck, I'm wondering if they'll put that Mastermind like game to try to make the thing a challenge like they did in Superstar.

[flowerchile]

If Pescado doesn't get this expansion, then I won't get it. 


How can you make a judgement like that?  I hope I don't put my foot in my mouth? (I'm typing this) but haven't you pretty well just joined?   If I got it wrong please shoot me now.

[J. M. Pescado]

How can you make a judgement like that?  I hope I don't put my foot in my mouth? (I'm typing this) but haven't you pretty well just joined?   If I got it wrong please shoot me now.

He's been lurking longer than you have. Open mouth, insert foot.

[flowerchile]

As I said, I prefer firing squad; my feet stink.  My apojollees

[Sagana]

It's still cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. :p

If you'll just upgrade for OFB there'll be more things to do with those annoying kids when they stay home from school and get bad grades. They can run lemonade stands. Smack them and have them do something useful for the family rather than wastin' all that time on that useless learnin'

[skandelouslala]

from the gamespot article:

You'll be able to speculate by purchasing barren, fixer-upper lots, adding some furnishings, and selling at a higher price, though the development team at Maxis is taking several steps to prevent horrible abuse of the sales system.

^^What..so your sims can't get ridiculously rich in a short amount of time...sourta like....now? 

I'm still excited about some aspects of this EP...but not the biggest part..sending your sims to work. I'm hoping any objects & interactions added will be worth it, although those alone certainly don't justify the price.  I just still find it ironic that Maxis once talked about never making you follow your sims to work or school b/c it would be boring but enough people bitched and moaned enough that they seemed to say..errr why not?   Just like pets...you know the pets are going to come back b/c people can't whine enough about not having the annoying animated furry pixels that pee in your little pixelated yard. 

There's just some aspects of life that I don't want to stimulate in a game.  School for one.  If it wasn't for the hacks to speed sims through Uni, mine would never go.  I know you're not actually sitting there in sim college courses with them and it's supposed to be about the social aspects, but still beh...so boring.  It's just going to have to be an impressive system that doesn't easily get boring and repetative if the own your own business thing is going to work for me.

[J. M. Pescado]

There's sort of a fine difference between "school" and "work", though. Plenty of fine games have been made covering "work". The ongoing popularity of "tycoon" games is testimony to the fact that work is an interesting subject. The number of games that has actually made school itself an entertaining subject, however, is ZERO. I have never, ever, encountered a game that has made the simulation of being in school interesting! In fact, games about school are more boring than school itself could ever be!

Why? Because school is fundamentally about learning. For some of us, this is actually fascinating. A GAME about school, however, would consist of watching SOMEONE ELSE learn. This is why the game is a fundamental failure: There is nothing INTERESTING about watching this! And you learn absolutely nothing from it, because the actual class is abstracted out. Your sim goes off the lot to his class, presumably absorbs information by osmosis, and that's it. That's the limit of your participation in it. When consider there's nothing else at school except, well, SCHOOL....no wonder it's boring.

Business, on the other hand, has been proven to be a subject of interest. Many popular games cast you in the a similar role, and they do fine and are quite entertaining to play.

[nectere]

I think the point of Uni was not learning, but about college life, parties, making friends etc. Sims gone wild and all that, certainly not anything "useful" Pescado.

[MutantBunny]

Yeah, but Jms right too. Uni may have been aimed at the party side of college life, but they missed and if you want to get thru school with any money, then you have to work or make the grades--which cancels out the party.

With OFB coding, IF maxis went a step further we could follow the sims to class: set up a pay lot of classrooms, the sim would sit and listen, there was an NPC to teach at the podium, and then after x amount of time the class was finished and the sim got a grade. Difrfernt classes you'd get different querstion types (ask about dead frogs) or this could work like the chance cards do depending on what type of classromm one makes it.

All seems possible and not that big of a reach, and could be interesting (ask question--get banished for stupid question, etc) or at least more interesting than it is now. A sim could scan room and sit next to the hotties....lots of possiblities. Maxis just didn't do it.

[syberspunk]

I still contest that Uni can be an enjoyable aspect of the game. At least for me. Yeah, some parts of it can be tedious and repetitious... but isn't the entire game like that. As you play through several households... everything tends to blur and everything becomes essentially the same. Once you've played all the possible careers and aspirations... there really isn't that much variety overall, long term wise. In the old, original Sims, it was very easy to go through all the careers, especially what with how the game itself auto cycled you through them once you reached the top. At least now, you have generations and chance cards.

But anyways, I personally still find Uni enjoyable. It really isn't that hard to power through the studying part so you can get to some of the partying part. As for following sims to class, I think it would be possible to have it as a mini game of sorts. Maybe something similar or along the lines as MB points out here. I'm not sure it's something I'd want if I had to follow my sims to class everyday... now that could be tedious and boring.

I don't know how we could realistically handle this. Maybe if the user was provided a choice. Or maybe it was like a Private/Boarding school mini EP. Where teen and/or possibly children get sent away to a private/boarding school. Sims could attend class in several subjects, and do scenarios such as a asking/answering questions, listening to a lecture and/or taking notes, take exams. Then maybe there could be school teams, such as debate, sports, band, etc. Each of these class scenarios and/or school teams could be focus on different types of skill building too. And there could be social events like attending games, school dances, etc.

But I doubt that this would be implemented. It would probably be too similar to Uni, and apparently many people don't like Uni.

Ste

[nectere]

I think chance cards for the Uni finals or throughout the Uni career would have been cool, for strictly grades and skill though, maybe a few low payouts for a "project" chance card or something but nothing earth shattering.

[MutantBunny]

Oh I still send sims to Uni. I like getting the extra locks and wants. I like the better choice in careers but it IS tedious and boring. I power thru it mostly (love that Power expresso!) I would like it to be more fun, but the fun levle just isn't there.

And I guess debating what maxis could have done is useless. Their history says they aren't going to fix it. They never do. But now and then a modder comes along and does it for them. I can only hope.

[J. M. Pescado]

I think the point of Uni was not learning, but about college life, parties, making friends etc. Sims gone wild and all that, certainly not anything "useful" Pescado.

I always thought that was mythical, and that none of this actually HAPPENED in real life. Not to mention that doesn't last all that long, it's kinda trivially easy to actually make friends.

[radiophonic]

I just want to know what this mysterious busioness is.

[Hook]

I always thought that was mythical, and that none of this actually HAPPENED in real life.

Like the people from Harvard Lampoon said, when asked why people should attend college, "There aren't many other places where you can build beer can pyramids."  And then there's the whole "Animal House" thing. 

Uni was a whole new game, based on the Sims.  Partiers could party, geeks could study, Sims could get an education to get tons of money and meet potential mates.

I finally got tired of Uni, but by then I was already tired of raising Sim kids and climbing career ladders.  Nightlife gave us a few interesting new things to do, and jobs and such became secondary.  With OFB we'll probably never get our Sims jobs again, sort of like how after I got Makin' Magic my Sims made money with the nectar press, and quit working.

Any game gets boring after a while, but at least Sims has given us new things to do every 6 months.

Hook

[nectere]

I always thought that was mythical, and that none of this actually HAPPENED in real life. Not to mention that doesn't last all that long, it's kinda trivially easy to actually make friends.

Well I personally dont really know, I skipped all the pretentious Uni life and did all my time through community colleges, it wasnt like I could afford Uni anyway. But in the sims, my sims are already maxed out on everything so the only real point to Uni is to get those want slots, open careers and meet their mate, then they have all the time in the world to rack up aspiration points etc.

[flowerchile]

I just want to know what this mysterious busioness is.

Ditto

[MutantBunny]

There's a new clip on the offical site.

[syberspunk]

There's a new clip on the offical site.

Interesting video. Well... at least now the business thing is a bit more interesting to me now. I find it kind of intriguing, having to earn badges and star points and whatever. And being able to choose upgrades. It's almost RPGish in a way. I like being able to set prices for the objects. I wonder if this means that you can use the existing Maxis objects. Will all of those objects be buildable? People have said that you could theoretically sell cars. Would you have to build them first? Or do you buy them in build mode, reprice them and sell them? Can you, as a playable sim, visit one of these new shops?

I also like that there are more objects for children. However... are they just gonna "fun" objects for distraction that will eventually become annoying, like all the other toys? It'd be nice if maybe these objects were also practically useful like maybe for skill building as well.

Finally... I wonder if all those shoppers/buyers/workers is a new set/pool of townies separate from the already existing townies/downtownies/etc.

I guess I might not hate it after all. We'll just have to see.

Ste

[BlueSoup]

I also like that there are more objects for children. However... are they just gonna "fun" objects for distraction that will eventually become annoying, like all the other toys? It'd be nice if maybe these objects were also practically useful like maybe for skill building as well.

All objects for children are annoying, because children are annoying.