Originally published on my Patreon
When I last chatted with Gizem Mishi Akin a few months ago, she had just launched her new SL-only brand, KiwiCo, and it sure seemed like her days as a cross-platform metaverse entrepreneur were over.
But then she went ahead and created her own mini-metaverse platform:
Behold Simthing (watch the teaser trailer here), a casual life sim soon playable on the messaging app Telegram, and later, on Discord here, where the server is now home to Simthing's official user/developer community.
Gizem developed it with a team of Electronic Arts veterans who recently created the PC-based virtual world Hometopia. Simthing, by contrast, is designed for mobile-based, bite-sized life fun with pets, home customization, and avatar fashion challenges, where you submit a themed look (going on a date, prom night, etc.) which is then rated by other players.
While the first version of Simthing is very much in bare bones, early (but playable) Alpha stage -- "we don’t want to stay in development for a whole year, we want to build with the community and let them experience every feature we are thinking through", as Gizem puts it -- the first stage focuses on raising your pet:
"First things first, you name your pet, mine is called 2barks," she explains. "You level up through building a bond with your pet... play with your pet, you feed your pet, you take your pet on walks. There are a few different ways you can do these activities. As you level up, you unlock game currency, Aura Points, with the Aura points you can get your pet premium pet food, or fun toys." (Doing so also unlocks new spaces for your pet to play and hangout in, while also earning you accessories for your pet.)
So Simthing is very different from, say, Second Life, where you're exploring a whole virtual world. "This is the opposite of what Second Life is supposed to be," as Gizem puts it. "I think it's going to be a complementary experience."
There's another key way it's complementary with SL:
Once Human Update: Yes, You Can (Mostly) Avoid Combat to Play
Good question from reader Elle Couerblanc on Once Human and its cozy virtual world gameplay:
OK, technically Once Human isn't cozy; instead, say cozy-ish, or at least, cozy-able. Gogo, who I interviewed for the post, answers in Comments:
You can play Player vs. Environment or Players vs. Player. This isn't a cozy MMO, it has some combat elements, but on PVE you can pretty much avoid most of the combat and just play however you want. I focus on foraging, farming, hunting, etc. Sometimes I kill some zombies, but I don't love it!
That's gameplay video of Gogo above, toodling around the world and harvesting gold before being rudely interrupted.
In Once Human, you do need to level up to get better items, but that doesn't always require combat. More background from fellow Once Human player Sparkle:
Continue reading "Once Human Update: Yes, You Can (Mostly) Avoid Combat to Play" »
Posted on Monday, October 07, 2024 at 01:38 PM in Comment of the Week, New World Gaming | Permalink | Comments (0)
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