Whats her chances of her throwing you off the "your" computer so she can play the Sims, considering the decent/girly game ratio, I think it unlikely


P.S. don't let it be said that I ever would be in a position to say if "The Sims" was or was not a "decent" game. I'm far too much a "Bloke" for that.

The truth.




That other guy:


To threadstarter: Did you ask the devs of that wrestlinggame why womencharacters in cages were disabled? Perhaps it is like someone else here said, to not get protests.

I believe that gamedevs/publishers definetly know that women are an untapped market. But they've already found the game that all women like: The Sims! I mean, what real man plays such a game where you simulate real life..? That's boring!
Men want to play as superheroes and robots that can destroy entire armies, emperors that rule galaxies in complex 4x games like GalCiv2 and Age of Wonders. Fastpaced RTS games where you annihilate your opposition in superb coolness like in Warhammer 40.000 Dawn of War and fastpaced FPS games like Quake and Unreal Tournament where you frag and frag and frag and delight in the feeling as THE fragger! Middleaged people who can't handle action plays Raibow 6 or something like that.

I know you've tried it (we played it when I was there in September), but the two of you have tired of Lego Star Wars II, then? My sons can't get enough of it, so much so that I rented the first installment for them at one point.

Other than that, I've got nuthin'. Sorry.

You know, I have to agree that there simply aren't many games that are made to appeal to couples and there are very few games that take any extra effort to appeal to the female market in general. Now personally, my GF and I play both Co-op and competitively with no problems but finding games (particularly for consoles) can be difficult. Personally I only really played Starcraft, Diablo 2, WoW and GW with my girlfriend (who unfortuneately hates GW and loves WoW while I'm just the opposite... and I'll be honest I leveled very fast in WoW while she didn't... many fights did this cause.)

Mind you we still have fun with other games but it's mostly one of us playing while the other watched and comments and switching off every once and a while... not that fun after a while.

As for the problem with games not appealing to women, yeah it's an un-tapped market but they have to break a stereotype about gamers and generally it's difficult. Meanwhile in same games (fable, although it's been corrected for Fable 2 I've read) it would just add that much more developement time and work that the game companies couldn't be bothered. The only games I find that really make the effort are MMOs and RPGs simply because your character can be customized that much (GW has a very strong character creation sytem in my opinion and my GF agreed). Oblivion is another great example of a game made for either sex, but as it's been mentioned isn't exactly Co-op or made for couples.

Now, I agree that with many games it is an annoyance that there isn't much effort made to have female characters (Gears of War for instance, think having a girl like Vasquez from Aliens) and it is a damn shame that the devs don't make the effort. But, I'd rather it was done right rather than game companies just slapping it on (like samurai Warriors obviously did). So it's just my opinion and I could be totally off but I'd rather game companies didn't make any effort rather than doing sub par efforts. If you're going to add female avatars they have to not only be up to par but they have to be up to par in every way... until the devs step up and do that I'd rather not see the content.


Oh, and hey, Campaigner I'd consider myself a "Real man" and I play the Sims, you know my mate in the Marines who plays the sims... I don't think there's any doubt that he's a "real man". While I still play and deeply enjoy things like Dawn of War (Nothing for my money beats WH40K done right!) The sims is still a great and fun game and while it doesn't have me waging war on some xenogen scum in the name of the Emperor I still play it just as much as DoW, Gears, Halo, or any other game you care to name. There's the satisfaction of wiping out an enemy with chainsword and bolter, and there's the satisfaction of building something cool and watching it grow and evolve, I and most of my mates enjoy both. And shit as for not handling the action, that's not even worth a response, that's not only rude but just dumb.

- Malus

No kidding. Every time I go to the mall, I go to EB and try to look for Xbox games we can play together. She doesn't go for aliens and killing. I couldn't find one single game. I tried Texas Hold 'em, but--stupid me--you can't play together on the same console. You'd see each other's cards all the time. Duh. We plan on trying Dance Dance Revolution together sometime.

hehe, that might just work. Now I'm thinking back on it and I can't remember very many (alright ANY) games for the 360 that are Co-op and anywhere near non-violent. I've been reading OXM for a while and I've read most of the reviews and... I'm dumb struck as to what games would be there for ya. Looking through the latest issue here's what I'd suggest looking into.

Catan; it's based off of the Boardgame settlers of Catan, slow paced and looks pretty fun to me. Not sure if it's split screen compatible and definately not for everyone. (Methinks I'll buy it though.

...

Yeah that's about it... I'm stumped. But hey, I'm gonna ask around on another forum I frequent and see if they can think of anything. Best of luck to ya mate!

Hey, a slight update on the Co-op front, I started a topic about it here and it's turning into a decent discussion. Check it out, only a few ideas and thoughts but hey, it's still going and it's more than I would have thought of.

I know it was immature, but once in a while it's fun to mess with people on the internet
Every other time I get stuck in discussions on the internet it's with enemies which I couldn't stand IRL so I want some variation

No, I haven't tried the Sims and I wont install it but I know it's a girley game. I mean, how in the nine hells do all those Sims games make it to the top of the charts when 95% of people on gamingforums say it's miserable??

The nine hells of Bator have nothing to do with it, the sims has a few things going for it, more than a few really. I hate to obey rule 25, it's rude as hell, but I'll do it for just this post.

1. The sims is easy to pick up and play, it's not like DoW or Gears, the learning curve is shallow with just enough complexity to keep you involved and somewhat challenged.
2. The setting is understandable, you don't have to wrap your mind around the Emperor, the Horus Heresy, and Chaos. There's no fluff, no backstory, and nothing to keep you from enjoying and understanding the game. The story is what you make up and nothing more, most people like that.
3. Maxis has made sure that they game is for everyone: shallow learning curve, simple controls (although again, with deceptive depth), and nothing hardcore. I could let me 10 year old niece play it and probably wouldn't get bitched at by her parents. It's not that it's child friendly, it's that it's just plain friendly. Sure there's sex but it's low key.
3. The concept is appealing, it doesn't matter if you like it or not, a lot of people find the concept VERY appealing. Who wouldn't? Running the lives of some little folks you made up, making the story of their family, and watching them become successful. (Or watching them suffer if that's your boat. Burning houses, drownings, all of that happens) Everyone understands the sims, I don't need to take 20 minutes to explain why the Space Marines hate the Tau when someone looks over my shoulder.
4. Maxis found something that worked and stopped screwing with it. The only difference between The Sims and The Sims 2: Character Depth and Creation Detail. Now my character has fears, asperations, and looks a lot more like a human rather than a doll. That's it. Gameplay has barely changed, you still have sims, they still have houses, they still interact, and you still run their lives. With limited exceptions the expansion packs just added gameplay and didn't screw with it too much, and they added basic things that you would think should have been there from the start, like a family dog or going on vacation.
5. Name recognition and Positioning. Expert marketing at its best. Maxis made it so that they are the original, if I were to tell someone about say, Second Life, I'd say "It's kinda like The Sims." There is no other game that can challenge the sims for the market because they were there first and have made sure that when you think Little humans living out their lives just like me you're thinking of "The Sims" and you know it. You've never played the sims Campaigner but you know all about the game, that's GOOD marketing at work. Until maxis really drops the ball no game will replace the Sims, no game that's similar will have any success, and they will make a tonne of money. It's like Coke... when you say "Gimme a coke" you don't necessarily mean a Coca Cola, you mean a cola beverage (probably). They actual brand has become the name of the general product. Simple positioning means it's the same with them.
6. User created items and input. Want your sims to wear Godsmack teeshirts or have a Hellsing poster on thier bedroom wall, odds are someone has made that and you can put it in your game, and if they haven't it's not hard to do. The community for the sims is god damn incredible, the mods they've made are simply amazing. The customization you have means that creating a virtual you or maybe a virtual ideal you, is only easier in Second Life (Not really, it's actually fairly hard to do there.) Maxis also releases free content to the community, christmas stuff around christmas, a goddamn turkey around thanks giving. The last time I remember a company making new units for me to kommand was in Total Annihilation.
7. That support extends to bugs and because you're not competeing directly there are no balance issues. As I'm sure you're aware Dark Crusade fucked up DOW by making the Necrons too powerful, unbalancing multiplayer... I loved seeing nothing by necron vs necron matches when DC first came out. I still played CSM and SM then and I still do despite the bullshit. The only game I can think of that is as good for support is Guild Wars.

There's more but I really can't be arsed. As to your gaming forums...

Yeah, a lot of hardcore gamers don't play or like it... they're still pissed that you can't treat the virtual world like Vice City and send your neighbors to hell with extreme Prejudice. But hardcore gamers are probably 5 per cent of the market and if they are very vocal on the forums, it just doesn't make up for the 80-95 per cent of casual gamers.

Becuase I don't want this to end up like any of the arguements in /B/ I'm going to ignore the "girly" thing. Seriously, if that's the best you can do then you need to shut up and get out. If you haven't and refuse to play it then I'm sorry to say but you really can't say anything about the game because I'm wasting my effort even talking to you right now. You are convinced, you take it was FACT that the game isn't for "real men" (who are you kidding anyway?). NOTHING I say will change that. The sum of your arguement is that "real men" don't play games like the sims and it's reserved solely for chicks... The sum of your arguement makes you look like some dumb punk teenager.

Now, let's stop hijacking what is an otherwise decent thread. If you want to keep talking about the sims, start a thread about it. It's rude to the OP and to everyone else that said something on topic.

- Malus

If anything I said offended you or you think I crossed the line, I'm sorry. I'm not out to offend anyone.

The Sims is gay.   

You got to have a laugh mate, not everything is worth having a pole up your ass about.



Cause girls fecking love it for some god knows reason. Sorry Malus but it's definitely a girly game. My ex used to play it and I ended up buying her a puter of her own cause you couldn't petrol bomb the bitch off once she'd started a game.

MalusPlaguewind: Yeah I know that it's easy to learn and simple to play and all that. Average Joe and Juliette would never play it otherwise. But I just couldn't imagine that the Sims can be so successful when gamingforums make it a symbol of the bad. I thought we were the ones who set the order of the day. What gets bought and played and what doesn't. But I can imagine why it sells so good: word of mouth and no piracy. Average Joe and Juliette isn't into piracy so they have to buy all their games.
And it seems like casual gamers got a mind of their own after all....seems like word of mouth really is very powerful....
I thought that the SimCity era has passed, never to return....

Ofcourse I know about the Necrons. But some people say that the devs make new races more powerful on purpose so people would try them out and that they will make them balanced in a patch. It's the same with the Witchking expansion to BfME II. The Witchking side is ultrapowerful.

HC gamers 5 lousy percent?! Is it really that bad?!?

And my comment about real men isn't that untrue. When I was around 15, my friends sisters boyfriend saw we were playing Bomberman 64 and said: "Why you're playing kids games?"
But the little part of it was a bait

I love rule #25 and how true it is. Campaigner or anyone else, if you want to start a topic about the sims, game balance, DoW, anything, do it. Let's stop cluttering this thread.