Alter Ego

Alter Ego is a very interesting interactive fiction, and must have been revalatory at the time in the 80s. You essentially play a life of a person as they choose how to be affected and react to various common life experiences, from chidlhood bonding with parents, to the first day at kindergarten or school, to adulthood and old age until death. It has a popular browser version which you have no doubt tried at one point, but playing it today also reveals an awful lot of shortcomings as a result of both its limited and predictable game mechanics, but also its narrow scope at the American white middle-classman as its ideal denizen. Outside of the frequent criticisms that you can't play as a racial minority, as a gay or trans person, or a non-American, the choices you have and can divulge within the game, they are also limited. Career options mostly fall to business, management, medical, labour and art sectors, with no room for military and sports careers, or even becoming an astronaut!

I played the female version and I named my person "Cherie". My goal was to see if I could make Cherie an astronaut, and if I could get there potentially by either entering an atheltic or a sports career, but opportunities to do so have never presented themselves here, and you can't become an astronaut in this game, I'm sorry to say. Instead Cherie's life was one of turbulent agression and distance in her toddler years, and communal pragmatism in her teenage years, manifesting in a wide-eyed curiosity, gentleness and also firmness. I tried to model her personality according to the all-American pride of Buzz Aldrin, and she got stats dominating in the intelligence, gentleness, confidence, socialness departments, but critically she was always flunking physically, despite the fact that there were never any clear opportunities to try to do sports events or try to re-affirm myself physically. (Turns out, you can use an exploit where you can purchase training gear in early adulthood, and the more you do it, the more you boost your physical stats) She was loved by many, from parents, to friends, and she always stood for what was right and helped those people who were at the forefront of being ridiculed or abused.

You get a distinct feeling that the early stages(childhood and teenage years) go and pass very slowly, but once you reach age 20, beware because aging then starts going drastically faster. My Cherie started breezing through her 20s and 30s blazingly fast, and doubly so when I made her go through side events such as college experiences, experiences with her boyfriend and future husband, all of which also take the time and toll off your age. I married a guy named Rock, who was ugly and depressed but also had a strong heart, but I was in my late 30s when I married him, and I finished college(field engineering) in my early 30s. I started working in the law sector, but after noticing that my vocational was not rising, I've seen the game insist that law was probably not my kind of field. I tried then to apply to 'research' or 'engineering' as professions, but in spite of my finished high-level college and intelligence, they would never hire me! In the end I became an entrepeneur, and unleashed my Mark Zuckerberg curse upon the world and became filthy rich, with no way or desire of spending this money at all. With a few lucky breaks and intelligent play, my college debt was almost non-existant.

When I realised there was no way to make Cherie the astronaut I always wanted, or at the very least a space engineer, she was already entering in her late 40s and was shocked by the speed of her aging. If she couldn't pursue her dream career, I wanted Cherie to at least bear a child and experience motherhood before it's too late. But no matter how many tries I tried the "Make a baby" option, it wouldn't work, and by the time I was in my 50s, I decided to adopt one. I raised a son named Vincent, and from the very little I've spent, he came to be a marvelous and intelligent little boy. Cherie continued to age fast.

Cherie died aged 71, on a seemingly innocent day when she wanted to spend some extra free time from house work by going to the city and buy potted flowers for her home. She was excited and cheerful, and went walking there, when suddenly she became woozy, and collapsed while looking at the sky for the very last time, being tired, but also happy and content. It was very tragic and I have to admit her death has affected me deeply, just thinking about her leaving Rock and Vincent behind without saying goodbye, just as it happens in real life. They must have been devastated. In the end I've been really proud with how I've handled Cherie. There were lots of times when she could have gotten easier profits and gains, but she always took the high road in every situation, and because of her wisdom, empathy, strong will and confidence, she was able to be a hero and inspiration to many people. Sadly she never achieved her dream of becoming an astronaut, but she made up in raising a life that wouldn't have had good parents otherwise, and in helping people get out of many crisis situations. Alter Ego can impress you, leave you thinking a lot and even make you have anxieties about life, so fair warning before you go on and play it, but remember to take it as a game, with all the rigid simplicity that it would imply, and don't expect too much.

So apparently, 2010s people complain that the game does not allow them to play as a racial minority. I'd like to remind you that back in 1986, memory was a SERIOUS limitation, and that the game was released in separate male and female versions, which back in those days was already highly progressive. But yeah, most people rather complain than appreciate, that's part of our society's disease, but back to the game. (I could complain that the game doesn't offer the possibility to have abusive parents, but I won't. All the lives lived here will be free of trauma.)

Alter Ego is the first attempt (that I know of) to create a full simulator of human life, and in contrast to stuff like The Sims, it focuses on psychological realism.. Tell me ONE OTHER game like that that has been released in the past. It's been a while I played it, but about ten years ago I spent a few days living very different lives on my DOSBox, and I did not get tired at all, the replay value is very high, despite the memory limitations, it kept surprising me. It was fun to play a total asshole who abused everyone, including himself, and died from a drug overdose in his twenties. It was fun to play the ideal man, who died of old age and with a nice little family and friend. It was fun to play a businessman who died filthy rich at age 50 from a heart failure. This game does let you try our various personalities and really does a great job at it.

People will also complain that they can't see immediate effects of your actions on your stats, but to me, this is the POINT of a realistic life sim, because you don't see stats in real life. (Of course, those obsessed with quantifying everything will run around with smartwatches and whatnot and check their pulse and sleep quality. I choose to feel, but people more similar to machines and not the other way round.)

It's still one of the most ambitious and original and well-made and impressive games that I know of. In the 80s, publishers were ready to take risks; nowadays, I don't think we'll ever see a widely released game like this.