Wednesday 20 October 2004

Pic of the day: Yes, in Sims2 you can actually see individual butterflies, in various colors, alight on individual flowers.

Incredibly detailed

On my way to work, I stopped by a computer game store (GameZone) and had a look. There wasn't much of interest, but then again there never is. I pointedly ignored a preview box of Everquest 2, but picked up and looked at a couple train simulators. They were described as "incredibly detailed", and I am sure they were. The problem, I realized, was that I already had more incredibly detailed games than I could possibly play, even if I quit my job and concentrated on playing games for the next few years. In fact, even then I am not sure I could keep up with the new details that are being added to my favorite games.

There is Sims2, of course. It is incredibly detailed, with small electronic humans living their incredibly detailed electronic lives and having incredibly complex relationships and conflicting desires in their incredibly detailed little homes. And if this game is anything like its predecessor, there will be a new expansion pack once or twice a year, adding new incredible detail. And even if not (which is highly unlikely), fans around the world are already creating new incredibly detailed clothes and makeup and useful stuff which we can download if only we find it.

Somewhat less successful, but still a cult hit a couple years ago, there is Morrowind. Incredibly detailed humans, elves and furries and monsters live and fight and die in an incredibly detailed fantasy world. There were two incredibly detailed expansion packs, Tribunal and BloodMoon, which I have also dutifully bought even though I never fully explored the original game world. And over the couple years that have passed since, lots of user-made content has been released. There is even a project Tamriel Rebuilt which aims to re-create the whole continent in incredible detail. This is not likely to ever happen, but the area that they have made already is on a similar scale as one expansion pack. And I've also downloaded quite a few other smaller add-ons, adding new details to the game.

Then there are the two online games. Actually I almost exclusively play City of Heroes, where incredibly detailed heroes and villains fight in an incredibly detailed imaginary city. And every other month there comes a new "issue" which is basically a free expansion, with new areas or features or villains. Again, this is faster then I can try it all out. Add the fact that I am still subscribing to Dark Age of Camelot, even though I definitely don't play its enough to try out all the new features they introduce as part of the subscription. More and more detail that I never get to see.

Oh, and I almost forgot Civilization III. Actually it is so incredibly detailed, I've never played one of the games through to the end as far as I can remember. I'm currently playing with the second expansion pack, Conquests. New civilizations, new features. And of course there is a lot of downloadable content on the Net again, made by fans. I got one really big expansion for the game, called Double the Pleasure, with twice as many natural resources, wonders of the world and stuff like that. Incredibly detailed. In fact, due to all the extra stuff it was also double the pain, so I did not play it all that long. But it sure was impressive. Incredibly detailed.

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Of course, the real world is incredibly detailed too. And as the saying goes: "Despite the high cost of living, the option remains popular." I am convinced that even if I could live for millions of years, I would not get fed up. This is not likely to happen in the current version of Real Life, I am sad to acknowledge. But I have been told that the final release will contain the long sought-after "restore saved character" option. In fact, just today I met one of Jehovah's Witnesses who seemed convinced of that. But that's a story in itself, I guess. Real life is not a game, although some of us pretty much act like it.