HCI Perversion.
[ Posted by Dan on December 17, 2002 | 0 Comments ]

I might be inclined to buy The Sims Online, as I really enjoy online games and The Sims is a fun little diversion. If you stop and think about it, this game is a serious twist on human-computer interaction...

Players can explore the neighborhoods around them and meet scores of other Sims along the way. Players get to know other Sims through live text chat and secret instant messages. As players type, their messages appear in speech bubbles above their Sims' heads. Sims can also express themselves through hundreds of animations. A polka, pile drive, or a passionate kiss are just a few of the gestures available for Sims to use to convey exactly what's on their mind.

That's the hype in the press release, but it's all pretty much true. The abstraction of human-computer-human-computer-human interaction is really weird.

 

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