The Sims, Second Life, etc - what's best?

[Temis the Vorta]

Hi, I'm looking for fun games for my new iPad, particularly the life sim games. The Sims is cool so far; wanted to try Second Life, but there's no iPad version?

I've heard of other games in this category, such as IMVU...anyone familiar with these games and know what's fun? Any chance Second Life will ever be available for iPad? Thx!

[Crazy Eddie]

Metaverse-style games. I dig. Haven't used any of these in a long time, though, so my info might be a bit out of date:

Second Life is the archetype for the genre, but it runs like molasses on anything but an ultra high-end PC. Not sure if an iPad version would even be worth the effort of developing it.

IMVU, as far as I know, is just a glorified chat client. The concept is pretty good, but apart from customizing your avatar with various gizmos it's a pretty limited app.

Try Utherverse. Everything you've ever wanted in a Metaverse sim: drugs, parties, hookers and gambling. The only thing you can't do there is kill people.

[Owain Taggart]

I wouldn't necessarily call them games, but rather 3D chat rooms. Think of them as IRC, but with a 3D layer to it. They usually have very little in terms of game to them. There was one I had used way back, but which was one of the first and had one of the rooms called the Metaverse, based on Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. It's called Activeworlds.

[Temis the Vorta]

Thanks for the replies.

IMVU's aesthetics are pretty scary, like the Bratz dolls mated with My Little Pony. Think I will avoid that one.

I think The Sims has game like add ons - something to do with vampires and werewolves - though that might just be new ways to dress up your characters. I dabbled in starting a town with the free play version, and have to admit, my first thought was, "what we need now is a zombie attack."

[Cutter John]

Well, my five year old pc isn't exactly high end, but I run Second Life just fine at about 3/4 of maximum settings. But Owain is right, it is pretty much a 3D chatroom. Though dance clubs can be fun if you like music. One does have to invest money in it though if you want to do much in the way of building or buying accessories for your avatar. I pretty much combine all of these, since I DJ regularly at a virtual club and use my tips to pay for in world items.

[Gryffindorian]

I tried Second Life and couldn't really get interested enough, and I figured my first life was more fun.

I hear there are going to be a couple of new Sims 3 expansions, one of them called Supernatural. I played the original Sims and Sims 2 (my favorite of the three), and I also have Sims 3 and various add-ons and expansions. Perhaps one of the reasons I didn't play Second Life too long was the fact that the free clothing, supplies, and furnishings were very limited, and I had to either buy or get more credits to have them. With Sims 3, I can at least use cheat codes to get free items and modify my sims' aspirations and careers. There are also plenty of cool on-line contents that can be downloaded for free.

[Temis the Vorta]

I'm having fun with the Sims freeplay on iPad, but I also checked out the PC version of Sims 3 and was surprised to see how different it was. Sims freeplay is really more Sims 3 combined with SimCity, which I kinda like. Also it's simplified, you don't have all the Sims building options of the PC version, which is a shame.

The major drawback that I see looming is the lack of add ons which is odd since with a free version, they're going to have to make their money from add ons, and I would expect a lot more options. perhaps it will just take them longer to port Supernatural etc to the iPad.

When I start to get bored I guess I'll start looking around for cheats to liven things up.

[Cutter John]

Well if it helps, you can find freebie items if you search the online Marketplace. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/ Or if you have some artistic talent, create your own. I personally prefer being able to buy a piece of land, then proceed to place whatever I like on it. ATM I'm living on a hot springs floatign in the sky with a steam powered airship docked alongside. I've got no problem with The Sims, except that changing your house from Sci-Fi to Victorian would probably involve buying a whole new expansion pack.

I can see your point that SL probably isn't for folks with an active and interesting real life. But its a nice alternative for those of us who don't. Or just want to live out their particular fantasies.

[Temis the Vorta]

I'd love it is Sims freeplay had some way to access the 3D art/animation software to get more control over the Sims' look, behaviors and animations. A bit of nosing around turned up nothing. The regular PC game allows people to create custom hairdos etc, and there's a terrain creation program or at least a plan to release one, but I really prefer the Freeplay art style not to mention the iPad controls.