mystergee

Evolution of a Sim Connor James sent a spam with a link to a post on the TSO message board which turned out to be very interesting reading. Here's a copy of his post: EVOLUTION OF A SIM 06/24/03, 06:44 PM PDT Posted by: Johnson@Alphaville In my final passing and note on the boards, I decided to write something to everyone...in every city. I feel that this either applies to you RIGHT now or will apply to you in the future. Hope this gives you a few laughs or makes you realize that there are important things out there. Never forget, the single most important thing--I am so HAPPY to have met so many awesome people and those that I cherish and keep close to me--I'll see ya in Yahoo or AIM. THE 10 PHASES OF SIM EVOLUTION PHASE I It starts out innocent. You buy the game, you register your copy, and then you log on for the first time as a new identity! For me, it was Connor James in Alphaville. You meet a few friends, learn the basics, and then you log off after playing for a little while. PHASE II A few days/weeks have gone by and you've made a circle of friends. You are beginning to enjoy their company and you are getting to know them through the PM system. ;) You LOVE this private method of communication because it helps you bond with them. At work or school, you begin to wonder how much time you'll have to play tonight. You can't wait to log on. PHASE III At least a month has passed. You know own a home or are a roommate in a nice home. You have all the interactions needed since you have more than 10 incoming friendship links. You might even have a random enemy link in your web, but you don't care. You're beginning to get frustrated by private messages filling up and the beeping noise associated with those trying to get through to you. You start waking up earlier than normal just to log on to see if you have messages. PHASE IV You've experienced one or two MAJOR dramatic events in the game. You try to log off to avoid it, but only find yourself coming back fifteen minutes later to see if anything has changed. You've missed at least one or two days of work or full days of class. Not a big deal, you can handle it. You're now dreaming of TSO and you find your heart racing when a particular SIM logs on. PHASE V You start logging into the game JUST to see if that SIM is there. If they're not, you get frustrated and log off. Fifteen minutes later, after finding some aimless thing to do around the house, you log back on again. You repeat this cycle. PHASE VI You lose interest in some of your real life relationships. You stop responding to email. At least one or two family members/friends have commented on your time at the computer. Not a big deal--its a game and you're having fun!!! :D Certainly not a big deal that some people start calling you by your SIM name and not your RL name--why not, you answer almost immediately to it. PHASE VII You decide one night, while you're either inebriated or in a funk, to delete your SIM and recreate to have a new personality. You're excited about the fresh look on life! At the same time in real life, you catch yourself saying "I'm greening" to someone while eating lunch with co-workers. PHASE VIII You miss your old SIM and the people involved with it. You decide to tell everyone that you're back. A few days later, you realize recreation isn't everything its made up to be. Your spouse or significant other is mad because you seem to want to spend more time with your SIM significant other. PHASE IX At this point, you begin to wonder--what have I done to myself? I've made more out of this game than I ever imagined. I spent more time online than I did in-line at the movies, at the bars, at class, or just plain anywhere in real life. You broadcast to friends in the game that you're leaving...yet, you can't click the retire button and call up EA to cancel. They do that on purpose...no automatic cancellation, need to call and wait a while on the phone. PHASE X You sit home, alone, because you've alienated friends and family over the past few months. You've neglected those that meant something to you would now be SHOCKED to get a phone call from you. You wonder if anyone else has been through this evolution. You know now that the phone call you need to make is going to change everything. No longer interested in being somebody else, you become more interesting in just being you.