Where Little Computer People had players interact explicitly with the characters and The Sims made them some kind of unseen force ordering the characters to talk with each other, watch television or burn their house down, the character in Alter Ego is controlled directly in a choose-your-own-adventure fashion. Instead of daily routine, it focused on memorable events and emotional responses toward them. Instead of animations depicting a character waling around the house, Alter Ego went for minimal (even for a Commodore 64 game from 1986) graphics and a lot of text. A year later Activision would release a very different take on the life simulation genre: Alter Ego. This style of gameplay with no defined victory conditions, focus on daily activities and the player giving tasks to the characters who may or may not actually go through with them can be traced back to a Commodore 64 game known as Little Computer People released in 1985 by Activision. The life simulation genre has gained a decent following in the West (especially among casual gamers) with the hit series The Sims and its imitators.

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