Comments on: TSO: High School Redux?

By: Candace

Candace — Sun, 09 Nov 2003 21:04:49 +0000

“10 years out from high school you can really start to look like shit” — that says it all; guess I know what I’ll have printed on my next birthday cake now. Uri, Uri, Uri…….

By: urizenus

urizenus — Sun, 09 Nov 2003 14:37:55 +0000

Well Shallow Hal, I wondered if that might not happen: a kind of revenge of the nerds phenomenon in which certain people break out of their social position in high school and engineer roles as cool kidz on TSO. I think that is great if it is happening. I would caution against making this assessment on the basis of realsims pics, and I guess I’ve been more than a little surprised by how non-nerdy some of these sims actually appear to be. Also, 10 years out from high school you can really start to look like shit, so just because someone looks like shit now, we can’t make assumptions about what they looked like in their prime. The other element to consider is that, if you go back to your high school yearbook, you may discover that in hindsight the elite kids actually weren’t all that attractive.

By: Shallow Hal

Shallow Hal — Sun, 09 Nov 2003 13:50:46 +0000

Uri..you know who I am but that is all I am going to say about myself. I may seem totally Shallow saying this but what the heck. I totally agree that there are categories, social status, ect. like in High School and much like you I was one that didn’t fit in any one group I floated between them. I have noticed one thing in Alphaville..lol here it goes, most people that run in the popular “jock” category are totally UNATTACTIVE! I have seen the pics on http://www.realsimsonline.com and let me tell you there is no way those people were popular. Maybe they feel the need to run in the “in crowd” in game to make up for the lack of popularity from their r/l high school experience. I am not sure what the deal is with all of that but most of them have very low self-esteem and feel the need to prove something. I guess I because I didn’t have a bad high school experience I don’t feel the need to be catty, and involved in all the drama. I grew up.

By: Candace

Candace — Sat, 08 Nov 2003 13:43:43 +0000

“High School Redux”— is there anything worse? Oyyyyy. Your insight is thoughtful. I don’t know what to add to it, but it is striking. I agree that it seems that TSO follows this pattern. Why this particular pattern? One suggestion is that a large group of the players are young— I’ve met a number of purported high school students playing this game and maybe they bring the only mentality they know into the game. Then again, (even though we’re assured that it will) do things *really* change when we grow up? Perhaps we learn to care less what people think of us. Yet whenever you get a number of people together, doesn’t it seem natural that a caste system of sorts will come into being. As adults we have still have the “geeks”- professionals, academics….we have the “loners”- drifters and quiet types….we have the “jocks” or “cool” kids…people: beautiful and seeming superstars. I think it’s an interesting sociological observation. Why we feel compelled to classify one another, I can’t really answer. I suppose stereotypes help us to function in terms of interaction. If I can label you, I know how to expect our social interaction to go. The unfortunate aspect of labeling people, that by doing so we reduce each other to something less than fully human, with diverse histories, opinions and philosophies has been well noted. In this way, maybe we never truly grow up—-”High School Redux.” I like how you’ve coined the term for this particular aspect of gaming.