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Real Lives 2007 Real Lives is a game where you play as a person who can be born anywhere, in various socioeconomic or racial situations. In theory this is great, and helps widen your perspectives. In reality, you get born in Namibia and die a horrible death extremely quickly. There is a version of this game from 2010 but it hardly works and I'm not going to install a copy of Windows XP for people's enjoyments. Let's get started.  We were born in Orange, California. According to google this is next to Anaheim, CA, which is near Los Angeles, for you non-American goons. Our name is Isabel Luna. That's a special name. The odds of being born in the US are 1-32, so we're off to a good start.  We sit at the average income line in the United States. We make 86K a year. However, this game, intent on shaming you, shows that you are freaking loaded compared to the rest of the world. For bonus points, we don't speak English, we speak Spanish. We appear to be of Latino origin, and are Roman Catholics. The stats on the side will improve or degrade over time, depending on what happens to us. Let's advance the clock a few years.   A year in, and dad got cured of his peptic ulcer I didn't know he had! Congrats dad! Also my sister has measles  .   There was a big fire this year too, rip a lot of people! Also, we have a brother, Ernesto.  I am 3, and I have measles. God dammit Cristina!   I am now 6! We've begun school!  It's finally decision time thread!  I will stop the game for decisions (unless they are super mundane). This is a test run. A-Increase our study time and make less friends/have less fun OR B-Not change our study time and have more friends and fun Top Hats Monthly fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Apr 12, 2016 |
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Apr 12, 2016 22:46
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| # ? May 26, 2024 04:28 |
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A First Hispanic president here we come.
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Apr 12, 2016 23:53
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B. With an intelligence of 16 we ain't really the book learnin' type.
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Apr 13, 2016 00:00
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A . I don't want to end up as a computer janitor or saleswoman at Sears or whatever. I want to be an astronaut!
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Apr 13, 2016 00:14
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A, I'm sure our hard work will pay off and this will not be a horribly depressing reminder of how much being poor sucks.
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Apr 13, 2016 00:21
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I'll start working the next part at 7. Expect bigger decisions to have way more time in between them.
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Apr 13, 2016 00:24
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A few years pass and we are now 9.  I select "yes" again. Hopefully this will help little Isabela learn a little bit more. In the meanwhile, I just keep selecting "yes" every year to studying more. Half a decade passes, and we meet a boy. Jose Sanchez is apparently very alluring!  For comparison, these are our stats. While we get older, let's give a breakdown on these stats. Most are self explanatory, but I'll explain a few. Appearance is rating your physical appearance. Supposedly, higher appearance can help you land folks out of our league. Isabela is...apparently not the prettiest girl at the ball. Conscience is how we feel. Random events can increase or drop them, and it tends to be intrinsically related to happiness. Wisdom just increases with age, and is linked to conscience. I consider this a minor exchange, since we're only 14, and that's no time to stop the game.  Isabela takes a chance on Jose! How will young love-Oh. Poor Isabela. This happens four more times this year and no guys bite. Isabela is not having a great time.   Not much has happened, Isabela's mom, Elena got diabetes when Isabela turned 17, and Isabela graduated from HS when she was 18. Good for her   Welp. Isabela doesn't have too much in the brains department no matter how hard we tried. This is not good. I didn't cap a screenshot, but Isabela got peer pressured into smoking and drinking shortly after failing to get accepted into college. This is going to be a happy LP.   Wow Isabela, what a catch! Now that we are 18, we have a tough decision to make. I will let quite a few votes go, and I want arguing! Apply for college again. This is an expensive option, but maybe through intensive studying, we can make it into college and change our course. If we repeatedly fail we could bankrupt our family. Belay college and go for vocational school. A cheaper option, and maybe we could learn some good skills for certain jobs if we get accepted in properly. Cop out and enter the job force. Should we do this, we're basically doomed for the rest of the LP, but we are getting our family money that they need. Maybe if we pick this option we could rearm and reload for a college push later in life. Here are our stats at age 18  if you have any questions, feel free to ask
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Apr 13, 2016 00:52
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A one time and then B
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Apr 13, 2016 01:08
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Belay college; Isabel isn't very bright but she's strong and athletic so vocational might get her a decent skilled labor job. Besides, she already smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fish.
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Apr 13, 2016 01:14
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mcclay posted:A one time and then B This.
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Apr 13, 2016 01:20
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Last call. I'll have another post tomorrow.
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Apr 13, 2016 06:17
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B
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Apr 13, 2016 07:36
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B
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Apr 13, 2016 07:42
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B
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Apr 13, 2016 12:28
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B wins. I've set Isabel to study as much as possible. In the mean time we've accepted the highest paying job there is. Manufacturing laborer. We're making 12K a year for our family, which bolsters our income, but eventually we will have to move out.  Our boyfriend Ramiro evidently isn't doing too hot either.  Oh no.  We're 20 years old. Despite his academic probation and his drug use, we still really love him. Accept the marriage Belie and reject the marriage
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Apr 13, 2016 16:21
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B. I don't want to end up as the sad girlfriend in a Spike Lee movie. 
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Apr 13, 2016 16:34
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Literally had so many nights playing this "game" in high school with my stupid friends. I'll never forget the tale of "Ding Dong" which was a real, auto generated name. He was the most handsome man in all of China, became a super model, and then died alone and sad on Madagascar from Malaria after his wife divorced him.
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Apr 13, 2016 16:44
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I'm assuming there were a zillion other fires that you just didn't make mention of, because Southern Californians call Summer "Fire Season" for good reason. And hey! I'm from Riverside, which is right next to Orange County! My favorite thing to do when visiting was just drive by all of the genetically tested on orange groves because I love fruit trees.
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Apr 13, 2016 17:37
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Charlett posted:I'm assuming there were a zillion other fires that you just didn't make mention of, because Southern Californians call Summer "Fire Season" for good reason. Actually there hasn't, the only things I've neglected to copy paste have been the "oh hey this is what its like to live in the US" facts. One time I was born in Bangladesh and had literally 18 floods in 18 years.
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Apr 13, 2016 17:46
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Last call.
Top Hats Monthly fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 18:56
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A, true love cannot be denied
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Apr 13, 2016 19:13
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A, because I'm morbidly curious as to how bad this can get.
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Apr 13, 2016 19:13
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B, as I want all the best for our Isabel.
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Apr 13, 2016 20:12
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B. Never get married.
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Apr 13, 2016 20:19
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A, because I want to feel happy that I at least did not marry a drug user.
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Apr 13, 2016 20:20
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I'm voting A myself just for being polarizing's sake.
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Apr 13, 2016 20:21
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A wins. Well good for us, we're engaged, and now married to Ramiro!    We move out on our own, we live, at best, below the poverty line. If Ramiro can pull through, we might have a chance.  Well that's loving depressing. Poor Ernesto. Our family does not live a great life.  By age 21 we managed to kick our habit after 3 years. We should consider ourselves lucky. We still drink quite a bit though.  We are now qualified enough to work as a sales person. This is a thousand dollars more than we made earlier. Granted, that's not saying much, but any more money can help. Hopefully Ramiro can graduate on time.  Oh my God, Ramiro.  Age 22, and our life gets more depressing. Pull through mama   Yay, same year! Must have been caught early.   We did it, goons! Ramiro is a college grad with a degree in chemistry.  Oh...okay then! Sweet! The game didn't even tell me that Isabel was pregnant! Can I get some warning on this poo poo please? Since this child is of miracle birth, I might as well name him Jesus.   yay! Ramiro did it!  Okay...it was a start! C'mon Ramiro!   Being 27 sucks. Being 27 sucks even more. C'mon mama!  We lost our mom at age 28. She was only 59.  Ernesto couldn't handle his mothers death and committed suicide. Our little brother has died.  The only bright side at 28 was our husband Ramiro making it through grad school. He is now a fully licensed chemist.  At age 30, our house is robbed.  We only had 60,000 dollars to our name. Now we only have 10K. Despite it all, Ramiro's rear end won't get a job. I didn’t cap a screenshot since I went on autopilot, but once again we had a child and it didn’t give me any options. We named him Alejandro.  Following the threads advice, I tried again after Isabel had spent nearly 12 years studying. It has paid off. We’re in college! What degree should we pick?   Pick whatever you want guys. We did it! Top Hats Monthly fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 20:55
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Top Hats Monthly posted:Pick whatever you want guys. We did it! Let's do something useful with our life. Edit: To fit our skillset better: Physics, Engineering, Mathematics. No Gravitas fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 21:13
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Can we get a shot of our stats? It might be helpful for deciding on a field.
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Apr 13, 2016 21:13
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Grizzwold posted:Can we get a shot of our stats? It might be helpful for deciding on a field. 
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Apr 13, 2016 21:42
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You know you don't need to timg the small screenshots, right?
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Apr 13, 2016 21:48
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Cool, thanks. Given that we're not too brainy I'm gonna go with either of Art or Music.
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Apr 13, 2016 21:50
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Accounting
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Apr 13, 2016 22:08
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What's our health currently? Last time you posted it we were only 20 and were already down to 42 health. Now with diabetes, I don't think we're long for this world.
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Apr 13, 2016 22:43
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Religion Also wow that's a rough couple of years.
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Apr 13, 2016 22:50
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she's more artsy than anything so my vote goes to Art
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Apr 13, 2016 23:47
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After supporting Ramiro through his college courses he can support us while we pursuit art!
marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Apr 14, 2016 |
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Apr 14, 2016 00:33
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Cathode Raymond posted:What's our health currently? Last time you posted it we were only 20 and were already down to 42 health. Now with diabetes, I don't think we're long for this world. 67 health. Former smoker is a big drag on health but since we have some money and healthcare we might be alright
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Apr 14, 2016 00:42
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Wow, she's still surprisingly happy despite all the poo poo going down in her life. But maybe because she's very excited about starting her degree in ART!
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Apr 14, 2016 13:20
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I'd say Art too. Pleasantly surprised that Ramiro held it together long enough to graduate AND give up drugs. I knew true love was the key to happiness!
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Apr 14, 2016 13:21
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