Sure beats sitting behind a desk. » 1/21/14 11:00pm 1/21/14 11:00pm

I would never have enjoyed playing Don't Die Dateless, Dummy! if I had played it alone. And yet on Saturday, I stopped by the Revision3 offices in San Francisco to help keep them going on their 24-hour Extra Life charity drive. We played the game. And I enjoyed myself quite a bit. » 10/24/12 9:00pm 10/24/12 9:00pm

Some URL sleuthing by the domain-watching site Fusible revealed that the domain familyville.com has changed hands and hosts in a manner similar to URLs for Zynga properties like Cityville. » 6/25/11 1:00pm 6/25/11 1:00pm

You should be keeping tabs on The Sims 3, if only because it'll be cluttering up the PC sales charts for the next five years once it's released this June. » 4/28/09 8:40pm 4/28/09 8:40pm

Two people filed suit in federal court against Electronic Arts back in October, alleging the SecuROM digital rights management installed on their machines by a trial version of Spore Creature Creator, and a full version of the Sims, constitutes unlawful and deceptive business practices. These two suits, reported today… » 11/08/08 5:00pm 11/08/08 5:00pm

The latest issue of the Escapist » 10/26/08 5:30pm 10/26/08 5:30pm deals with god games, most of which are quite grand in scale. John Carr, however, looks at the micro god game — in this case, , Will Wright's first foray into games decidedly small in scale — and declares its inspiration (childhood games of playing god with hapless insect) the…

This hits close to home, because home is a shithole (that's what $1500 rents you in Silicon Valley) and I'll soon be paying IKEA plenty to make it look less so, because it's right around the corner in the East P.A. and I can't afford Ethan Allen. And if you want to trick out your Sims pad with BJARNUM or HENSVIK or… » 6/29/08 11:00am 6/29/08 11:00am

EA's web-based game creation destination SimsCarnival.com has officially entered open beta, and not a moment too soon! The website allows players to use existing game templates to create new flash games or upload their own creations, and right now if you go there and click on Up and Coming you'll see a clear indicator … » 6/17/08 10:40am 6/17/08 10:40am

One of the benefits of teaching on a collegiate level is that "fun" can frequently go out the window (as one of my professors routinely told a class full of students regarding the silent films the class watched, "I don't care if you like the film, that's not the point."); still, most of us don't want to bore the pants off … » 6/14/08 2:30pm 6/14/08 2:30pm

In a somewhat bizarre interview with The Times Online, Nancy Smith (head of the Sims division at EA) said that " in light of the popularity of virtual worlds ... the Sims may soon become a multi-player game." The article fails to mention the failed experiment of The Sims Online, later rebranded to "EA-Land" and scheduled… » 6/07/08 3:30pm 6/07/08 3:30pm

Gamers of my generation may remember Activision's Alter Ego, released in 1986. It was a text-and-graphics, choice-based somewhat-precusor to later games like The Sims or Second Life. The game fascinated me, even as a 13-year-old, with the idea of living another life - and helping to create such a rich narrative - or… » 5/17/08 8:00pm 5/17/08 8:00pm