This game occupied me for much longer than it should have, especially at such a late point in the semester. Generally, these life simulations, anything from Kudos, to The Sims to a 15 minute demo of New York Nights, always seem to have this effect on me.

I guess I’m just fascinated by the idea of modelling life on a bunch of numbers, even though it’s way more fine-grained than that. Still, Alter Ego’s intrinsic traits seem to work really well (though whether you could max out intellect in your teenage years is to question). That it’s still relevant 30 years later is an obvious indicator of its accuracy.

I really do look at talented people in terms of Gladwell’s hours of deliberate practice and relationships in terms of Covey’s trust bank, but I dunno… is it really right to base things like love and friendships in any sort of numerical form?

But that’s me being evasive and thinking about game systems, avoiding writing about my actual life. And the overall feeling about life that I get from Alter Ego is regret…

My next post will be better.