Add your own reasons
I guess everyone has got a few reasons the world has to end. This is a living list, and we can all contribute as we find or think of more things to add. These are not in order of importance, of course, but as they come up.
So here’s the recap so far:
3. DVD players in vehicles. Specifically ostentatious displays in seats where no one is actually watching the move. Whatever happened to road trip car games?
4. Strange legal warning labels on packaging. Or instructions. How to eat a pretzel. Open bag. Eat snack. Hopefully don’t stick it up your nose. Or throw it at a fellow passenger. Or because they’re not all that good to eat, throw it at your flight attendant and demand some peanuts.
5. Hummer or SUV limos. Huge waste of gas. Don’t get me started. Come out with a hybrid limo and we can talk. Yeah, I didn’t think so.
6. Reality TV. Shameless spawning of show after show. Take one semi-original idea and take it so far through every single network. Don’t spend a lot of money on reality TV. Certainly don’t have to pay the actors. Nah. Just get a bunch of piranhas willing to sell themselves, sell each other out, all for money and to be on TV. Give them the promise of some paltry prize money or other reward at the end, which frankly isn’t enough to salvage the dignity you might’ve had before you whored yourself. Put in a grudging vote for Pilgrim’s Cheaters, because it has some watching-a-car-wreck appeal, much like Cops. Affirms that no matter what, your life is not as fucked up as that. I hope.
7. Unscripted television. When you’re so far from reality you don’t even call it reality tv any more. Actually a step in the right direction. My guilty pleasure includes home decorating shows, but when you can’t tell them apart any more, they need to stop. Now.
8. Recorded telemarketing. Not even trying. Because they know they’re wasting their time by putting a demoralized real person on the phone who has been hung up on a hundred times already. Hope to dupe one person who really believes that the call really is important and isn’t a telemarketing or sales call.
Mail-in Rebates!!! — Why should I spend $0.37 on a $0.50 mail-in rebate when these companies can just give me a $0.50 coupon!?!?!
Well, we mentioned reality TV. How about reality role-playing games? Now, I LOVE the Sims. I do. But I use these little guys to burn down houses and beat each other up. And then you could be a rock star or a movie star or a witch. Ya know, stuff I WOULD NOT and COULD NOT do in real life? And the Sims were great when they first came out. But now, you can get Sims University and basically your Sim goes to classes and takes tests and dates and (hopefully) graduates and so on. Now, why the hell would you want to go through all that again in a game? Isn’t once enough?
I think mail-in rebates are a crock, anyway. Why not just offer that incentive to the retailer, and let the retailer sell it at a lower price? You don’t get that money back for six to eight weeks, which is another indicator that you’re being taken for a ride. Any time you have to wait for your money, that means it’s being used to someone else’s advantage.
Not to mention having your information for further marketing purposes.
And as to reality role playing games, yes. I love the Sims (though I can’t play the Sims2 at the moment due to an aggravating computer problem). It does occur to me that I could get a life outside of the Sims, but there’s a certain pleasure of building a house you can’t in real life (for most of us, anyway) and get all sorts of neat stuff for your house. Build up your character… Yeah, I don’t know why we play this. But at least you get a different career.
But the Sims University, yeah, I completely agree. I didn’t have a lot of fun in college the first time, and it would irritate me to pretend to be in college again. If only because I didn’t have fun in college, and it’d bring up the old resentment of people who went away to school and were part of a larger college culture where I was not. Bah!
I posted at your “More Reasons” post before I realized you already had the Sims covered. I like the Sims, but find it a bit tedious, much like real life. Working out to build your physical points, painting pictures to build your creative points, boring, endless conversations via symbols in order to build your relationships… After I’ve spent my initial allotment of cash, I usually give up and just sit around eating potato chips, watching TV. House becomes a stinking sewer, friends go away, I lose my job. Oh well. Just start another game.
I agree the Sims: University does sound kinda silly. Personally, I think there are too many add-on packs for this game, and they are released too frequently. I can’t keep up with them. I am interested in trying that Sims in the City game, however. But what I’m really waiting for is the truly adult version of the Sims, though. You know it’s only a matter of time before an R-rated version is released. I think it’s a shame you can’t hit on the maid, either. She’s pretty hot. She won’t even speak to me.
Oh, and Mel: buy a Mac and your aggravating computer problem will go away. And you’ll still be able to play the Sims.
Hmph. If I bought a Mac, I wouldn’t be able to fix any of the aggravating problems.
And that last bit about the maid, is freakin’ hilarious.
That’s another thing. Most people at that level in real life would not be able to hire a maid. End of story. It’s just a way for you not to get so frustrated with your Sim because he/she won’t clean.
I always make my Sims really depressed. Not on purpose of course. Now how can I explain to a Sim that the way I live my life makes me happy, and that it shouldn’t make them depressed? Geeze!
I think that should be like a really challenging extra feature of the game. If you can persuade the maid to marry you, you get a million dollars towards your dream home. Or something.
I mean, marrying the maid would be like hitting the jackpot for most men anyway. You get a beautiful blonde, and a maid. Excellent deal. Problem is, there is no equivalent for female players. Who are they going to marry and win a million dollars? The Hispanic gardener? The grubby-looking repairman? The pizza boy?
Maybe in one of the add-on packs, there is a male stripper or something that could be a great catch for a female player.
You misunderstand: if you buy a Mac, you won’t need the computer that is giving you fits. You can chuck it in the garbage. If you buy one of the Mac Minis, you can even keep your PC monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Check out the Apple “Switch” site for more details.
Good God, I’ve become one a them Mac Evangelists!
That’s a great idea for a little side game in the Sims. You should pitch that to EA Games. Hey, who knows. They might even have it as an easter egg or cheat somewhere.
One of the first things one of my friends always does is get the cheat that allows your Sim to be naked instead of pixelated. Then my brother points out that it’s no more titillating than looking at a Barbie or Ken doll. Ah well. The naughty things we do.
I have a game, Morrowind, for the computer, where there is a plug-in someone built that allows your character to have a better body (because the original graphics are from 1997.) Of course, the real goal is to have them so they can be naked! There’s different versions of it, too. The one version just makes better bodies, but keeps their painted on underwear on. The second version allows men and women to be naked, if they take off their clothes. Or as occasionally happens, you’ll run into a barbarian who has had his clothes stolen, needs your help, and can only talk about how cold it is. Tee hee. Or there’s also a whorehouse where there are nude dancers, and even the barmaid goes topless. (And in the unaltered game, would be wearing a bikini top, and the dancers, underwear.)
Anyway, there’s a third option, called the peanut gallery option or something like that. For immature males who don’t want to see other males naked, so the men wear underwear still. And the women have no pubic hair.
Anyway, I found the add on to be hilarious. Even if it’s not particularly risque.
One of my friends likes to run around naked. Can’t say it’s very good in the protection area, but what the hell.
And as for the Mac evangelism, it’s very funny that the small contingent of Mac users is so very vocal, and so intent on changing the rest of us over. If only because you won’t be so lonely.
I am not interested in buying a Mac at this point for a number of reasons.
1) my computer is only two years old. we’ll ignore the continuous DVD-Rom problem for a moment, and say that it is otherwise in good working order. Is fast. Does what I want.
2) All my software is PC-based. This is a lot of conversion. I could keep the rest of my hardware, but it’d just be an annoyance.
3) Just as you are a diehard Mac user, I’m pretty much set with my PC. There’s actually nothing wrong with Macs, other than I like the kind of control I can get over my PC. I’m not sure I know how to do sneaky things on Macs.
And yes, I have used Macs. I used Macs for about six years continuously in one of my jobs. Most recently in spurts at my last job. I admit that I liked the newest OS, once I got used to it.
But…I’m not switching at this time.
And the best thing… iPods are compatible with PCs. So when/if I buy one, I can still have one.
I have the “nude patch” for the Sims, too. However, I didn’t want to admit it because you folks probably already think I’m a perv. It isn’t tittilating to look at computer-animated nudity—that’s not why I downloaded the patch. It’s just I don’t care to be treated like a child. The pixellation when the character is showering or changing clothes or whatever is very annoying.
And Mac Evangelism has nothing to do with us being lonely. We are part of a very caring, supportive community, thank you. We Evangelize because we can’t stand to see people operating grossly inferior, ugly machines that only cause headaches
Might I mention Windows PCs are also unsafe. A Windows user who connects to the Internet without anti-virus software had better believe in God, because God is the only thing standing between him or her and a virus.
See, now we can all own up to naked computer characters. You’re right… there’s no reason to pixelate.
PC Windows can be unsafe, but I also have protection. I don’t think I’m totally safe, but no one is.
So you’re trying to tell me that your Mac is immune?
Macs are not immune, but there have been no viral outbreaks the way there have been for Windows. In the five years that Macs have been running the new OS, no hard drives have been erased due to viruses or Trojans. Not once has there been a documented case of a virus damaging a Mac computer.
It’s not because Macs are so insignificant that virus-writers aren’t creating viruses for Macs. The reason viruses are not as big a problem is that Macs run a version of the UNIX OS, just like Linux, and just like the majority of servers in the world. UNIX is inherently more secure than Windows.
Most Mac users don’t use anti-virus software at all. They don’t have to. Nor do they need anti-spyware software. There is no spyware for the Mac, period.
Also, if you’ve committed a crime using your Mac, police detectives will have a hard time incriminating
you. I read an article not long ago in “Wired” to the effect that police departments and the FBI are so clueless as to how Macs work, if you want to commit a technological crime, use a Mac.
All good to know. If I ever need to commit a crime, I know what to do. Use your Mac.