Les Jones

A&E > Why I Don't Play Role Playing Games

jwz:

Someone brought over the PS2 version of The Sims once, and it was even more SimKafka than the others! Ok, what can I do here... "Let's have a party! Start making phone calls. Oh no, now I'm hungry. Oh wait, the cat shit on the floor. Oh, now I'm tired. Now I'm poor. The toilet is starting to smell. My friends say I'm neglecting them." What the FUCK? People do this for fun? I think actual SimKafka would be more entertaining than this: "you wake up. You are a giant insect." Turn over. "You cannot turn over." Call for help. "You have no mouth and you must scream."

A long time ago I saw a movie biography of physicist Stephen Hawking. One of the relatives who knew him as a child said that Hawking was always inventing games. The games were absurdly complex and became "a substitute for living." That's how I think of role playing games.