Peter Griffin: Surfers find sim games have life, almost as we know it

COMMENT

It started out as an online game built by Australian novelist Max Barry to promote his wacky novel Jennifer Government.

But nationstates.org has developed a life of its own, one where the book, however good the reviews were overseas, barely gets a mention.

It's a sort of lo-fi mix of The Sims Online and Syd Meiers' masterpiece Civilization. An escapist corner of the web where megalomaniacs can play dictator or free-lovin' hippy leaders spread their light-handed gospel.

In there is a little nation, the Federation of Ferris, populated by Maurice Gee's half-men, probably.

The Ferris motto is: "Better to live on your knees than die on your feet".

According to the randomly generated description based on a political survey I answered when joining the game, Ferris is "a small, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its strong anti-business politics. Its hard-nosed population of 18 million are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively".

A swell place to live, then.

What goes on in nationstates.org is pure fantasy, a collection of randomly generated scenarios, populated by virtual nations set up by web surfers with clear agendas.

Thousands of people are playing the game, voting on international issues, forming economic and military alliances, pushing their own causes in the virtual United Nations.

It's the type of game where you can pop in from time to time to join the tongue-in-cheek debate or vote on an issue.

The prospecting company Nukes4U has uncovered a large uranium deposit in Ferris's south-west, my minister tells me.

Do I send them packing or ask for a cut of the profits?

It's in the message forums that things get really interesting, and the debate over farcical international issues starts to have a worryingly realistic ring.

Everything from anti-trust cases and drug policies to sexuality issues and the setting up of a World Blood Bank are discussed.

The foreshore and seabed issue hasn't come up on nationstates.org yet, but if I tabled it at the UN as an issue, the debate would no doubt be fierce. As we weigh up our own political philosophies before this year's election, nationstates.org is a pretty good place to float ideas or generate your own sim versions of Don Brash or Helen Clark. God forbid it.

Last month, Barry blocked the site from being used by TelstraClear internet customers because some little toe-rag was posting dodgy porn picture links to the forums. Now they're open to all Kiwis again.

The good thing about nationstates is that it's free, easy to use and won't consume your life. Less can be said for The Sims Online, the web version of the smash hit computer game The Sims and probably the most popular online game there is.

The Sims Online costs you US$10 ($15.80) to play a month and is a whole different game, where people walk around, interact, buy things to fill their houses, go to parties and vote.

Yep, it's a virtual democracy and last month Mr President's bid for re-election was successful - the real-life player's character received 469 votes or 53 per cent. Even in the online world, voter turn-out is dismal. And The Sims Online has its share of scandal. There was talk on the web of a campaign by the game's creators to silence the Alphaville Herald, an online newspaper providing news for Alphaville dwellers.

You see, it wouldn't do for Alphaville - the biggest metropolis in Sim land, the New York of the game - to descend into the moral squalor of real life.

"I can agree to do something lewd, and I can even promise to pay you some Simoleans. But when our charactors [sic] meet in the room, they can't do anything more lewd than shake hands, hug, slow-dance and lay on a bed next to one another," Electronic Arts communications chief Jeff Brown told the Alphaville Herald. In other words, no sim sex.

Informal communities have sprouted on the web to serve Sim subcultures:

"The Theatre des Vampire (formerly the Gothic Quarter) is the place in the Sims Online for Vampires and Goths of all ilk in the city of Alphaville. Join us nightly for dark entertainment, skill building, or a lucrative vocation."

On eBay you can even buy Simoleans, the currency of the Sims Online. Yesterday a million Simoleans were on offer from a Singaporean member for US$31.

But The Sims was only the beginning and hasn't set the world alight for Electronic Arts, its creator.

Check out www.there.com, which also comes with a monthly fee but has a 14-day free trial for you to get a taste of virtual reality.

This is possibly the most sophisticated online game yet. It's got the look of a Counter Strike type role-player as far as graphics go but is just like The Sims Online, in that people just wander around and live their lives.

Then there is Second Life, where you can "create beautiful scripted 3D objects in a totally live online environment - from weapons to clothing lines to motorcycles".

They're all over the web, facilitated by the growing number of people logging on via broadband connections.

No longer is gaming restricted to thrashing the same PC game or PlayStation shoot-em-up. Games are living and breathing things that have you opening your wallet as long as you keep playing. Just make sure you have the time to drop in regularly. You don't want your online life going down the tube even if your real life one is ...

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