Signed, Clueless

[ksmith]

Admitting gross ignorance, I'm sure, but...what are SIMS?

Comments

[mcurry.livejournal.com]

I assume it's a reference to the characters in the game The Sims:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Ah.

I can understand the comments on another LJ concerning addiction.

I confess that the section in the Wikipedia definition that discussed care and feeding and possible consequences of sim abuse squicked me just a little. Especially the part that read that you could test various methods of abuse (or poor treatment, or whatever you want to call it) on a sim, but the results wouldn't be permanent as long as you didn't save the scenario.

Then I wondered how abusing a sim compared with abusing a written character.

Have sims ever risen in revolt? Has a sim ever stopped in the middle of a self-torturing act, turned to the person on the far side of the monitor who compelled this act, and said, "Fuck you."

Have they ever considered unionizing?

Kaygo, whose characters have turned to her and said Fuck You on several occasions.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

>Kaygo, whose characters have turned to her
>and said Fuck You on several occasions.

BTDT

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Gotta t-shirt?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Several, but most of the printed ones say "Maine Audubon Society Volunteer" and aren't really relevant to chastising uppity characters.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'd like one that has an image of random letters of the alphabet and the caption "I took you out of that mess, and I can put you right back in it."

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'd like one that has an image of random letters of the alphabet and the caption "I took you out of that mess, and I can put you right back in it."

Instant song refrain spooling through my brain...

"Don't you know it's me who put you where you are now, and I can put you back there, too."

Love that song. Have often thought I need to write a story based on that song...

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Teen aged girls have been known to set up entire small societies, with music clubs, etc. for their characters to interact with...Is this Barbies for the new century?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Human League--Don't You Want Me? Love that song. Bought an entire CD just for that song.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It seems very labor-intensive. I've reached the point where I try to avoid labor-intensive unless 1) I can make money at it, or 2) it will improve my property value (which in a way is a variation of 1).

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Several years ago, HP ran what I thought was a great promotion. They offered a virtual pet, a fish that you could interact with. I'm betting it was a sim--it responded to treatment, granted with a limited number of responses.

I tried to be as gentle with mine as possible, but it would still occasionally go wiggy and dart back and forth before cowering behind its plant. That was the trick--HP monitored how many pages you printed on your HP printer, and you earned a certain number of points per page. Once you had enough points, you could exchange them for fish toys, plants, an aerator, and other stuff. Since I was printing out multiple copies of a manuscript at the time, I furnished Fidget's bowl in nothing flat.

He was like a real pet. I had to interact with him regularly, and feed him. Unfortunately, there was no off switch--I went out of town for Worldcon, and when I came home, I fired up the PC to find Fidget floating along the top of his bowl.

That sucked.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I know that point. Other than 3) I get sheer pleasure from it, that's where I am, too--

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Uggh.

A "Vacation" switch would have been good. I wonder how many parents had to explain the dead fish to small children...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yes, the sheer pleasure part--I kinda treated that as a given, despite what I posted earlier about scene-wrestling. Learned the hard way that if I don't like it, I have a very hard time doing it.

But when it comes to making up worlds and characters, let there be some $$ at the bottom of the timesink. Even if I have to dig it out of the sink trap.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

But when it comes to making up worlds and characters, let there be some $$ at the bottom of the timesink. Even if I have to dig it out of the sink trap.

Yes, I'm with you all the way. I love making up stories, and part of the reason I want to get back to it is simply the love of storytelling. But I'd rather make a living at that than anything else I know of--so getting it back, and figuring out what I can write that will be popular and pay the bills, is in the back of my mind.

GIP

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

Re: GIP

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

MINE!!!!!!

(thanks!)

Re: GIP

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

If someone gets really extremely recalcitrant, one could use an animated .GIF to do that exact action, but that would be a chunk of work I wouldn't want to do if I wasn't intensely procrastinating...



Ummm. Well, now the template work is done. More would be easy.

Re: GIP

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

You had to get that llama in there, didn't you, Robert?

Re: GIP

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

Yup.