Not Getting It

OK, so I didn't intend to turn this blog into a huge advert for Lego Star Wars The Game, but Jamie Fristrom over at GameDevBlog has just heard about it and, sat in front of his computer and thinking about it for a couple of minutes, doesn't get it. Apparently it violates a rule he came up with:

"Don't simulate a simulation," I say. In fact, lego games in general are suspect if you're trying to hit the mass market, as legos are a simulation in themselves, so why make a second order simulation by trying to turn them into a game?

This is from a man who readily admits "[w]e weren't just a *Spider-Man* game, we were *Spider-Man: The Movie: The Game*" and then goes on to chastise Lego for wanting to make making money.

Apparently he's unaware that Lego have been making Star Wars models for quite some time now, which seems to suggest that, though he goes on about games, he hasn't been in a toy store recently.

"Don't simulate a simulation" also seems, well, just a little silly. Over the years haven't some of the best games done just this? Wasn't Civilization based on a board game, as well as every RPG? Aren't real-time strategy games more about bring your toy soldiers to life than any real war-time activity?

With insight like that, it's good that his other posts built on more solid ideas.