Recursivity: SimSlice is a game your Sims characters can play, a program-within-a-program. Richard Powers once told me that he was hoping to see computer program characters coding; we're on the way. Put another way, we can subsume urban design under the family and interior decorating.
"Basically, I wanted to create a game within a game, where a Sim could remain unemployed and make a living 'farming' a mini city that is complete with buildings, houses, offices, parks and even little citizens scurrying around," says Simslice designer Steve Alvey. "There had to be consequences not only for a Sim's actions but also their inactions."
Shades of Greg Egan.
I gather that in Leisure Suit Larry II, Keneewauwau (tribal chief of the natives on the island of Nontoonyt) demands that you write a program in assembly language as a ''test of manhood.''
Having never actually seen this myself, I cannot speak for how much actual coding took place in-game.
Posted by: Jonathan Korman | March 03, 2004 at 00:53
Excellent - a historical sense to that game, too.
Posted by: Bryan | March 03, 2004 at 15:24
i like the sims
Posted by: chris | March 10, 2004 at 20:37
cool game! i love it!
Posted by: Ann | May 20, 2005 at 20:31