First impressions

[TigerQuoll]

#5652

So… what does everybody think of this game so far?
I had heard of this game when I was a kid – I’m sure I saw some ads in magazines for it. The name definitely rang a bell. But before this month I had zero idea what it was about.
And now I’ve watched (most of) the demo and played a quick game and I can definitely say it’s not for me. This is largely for the same reason I’ve never liked the Sims.
It’s a very superficial reason, I know, but I just can’t handle games about mundane real life. I play games to get away from that.
The mechanics are fine, and fairy unique. If they had just reskinned it to something more interesting I might have stuck with it a bit longer. I could imagine this being repurposed to a space game, where you have to get jobs hauling cargo or whatever to upgrade your starship.
But the way it turns every aspect of life (even leisure time!) into a repetitive grind for numbers is just depressing. I get that it’s probably a deliberate piece of social commentary, but it does not make me want to play it.

[Pix]

#5653

I wasn’t aware of JITFL until I started seriously collecting Sierra games back around the end of the 90’s. I bought it some time back then but can’t say I ever spent a lot of time with it. I like a lot of things about it – the presentation is well done, the game zips along quite quickly, the quirky humour helps to keep a bit of interest. As a board game it’s reasonably well designed but I’m not convinced how much fun it is as a single player DOS game. I had a couple of goes at the start of the month which I quite enjoyed it but nothing makes me want to go back. It quickly becomes a repetitive grind as you say and soon boils down to earning money and studying with everything else being an occasional distraction. It’s fun enough for the odd game so I can enjoy it for what it is. An entire month on the other hand is a bit much, odds are I’m not going back to it. We should have done a board game month if you ask me. We could have added in games like Fooblitzky, Trivial Pursuit etc…

[firefyte]

#5654

I played this long ago, so I am biased, but it can be a lot of fun with friends, and that’s pretty much how it should be played.

Ask me randomly on IRC if you are up for a game (via steam).

[Mr Creosote]

#5656

1990s Yuppie – The Game!

[PeteyGee]

#5661

I’ve loved this as a party game when i was an early teen in the early 90s along with my cousins and friends of the same age.

However, i have been able to keep playing this game on a regular basis (a minimum of once or twice per month) as a single player game by trying to see how fast in terms of in-game weeks I could complete a 400-pt game. (28 weeks is my best, see screenshot i sent to DGC twitter)

Keep an eye on the strategy page, i’ll probably post a full FAQ at some point this weekend.

[Tijn]

#5662

I played this as a kid with my sister and had lots of fun with it then, so it’s kind of hard to see it separately from that.

Nowadays I mostly love it for how unique it is. Even though it’s sort of about mundane life, it’s also quite rare to see it presented in such a format.

I really think there’s something to virtual board games and I’d love to see it explored more!

[PeteyGee]

#5664

May I recommend ‘No Time To Relax’? I won’t say it’s a rip-off of Jones in the Fast Lane. The devs however OBVIOUSLY love JITFL as much as I did though.

https://www.notimetorelax.com/

[Dave]

#5700

Firstly hi, first post – I thought I’d join in and give this game a go, I’m a little too young to remember it from the first time round so completely new to me. One positive, this sort of game works quite well with Magic DosBox on Android so I can play with it on my lunch break..

I’ve not found myself particularly compelled to return though, but I can maybe see how some of you have nostalgia for the multiplayer. I’ll try to give it another chance over the weekend

[jeffrey]

#5736

I hadn’t heard of this game till I saw it was this month’s game. I started playing it on ScummVM, and I think as a kid with the art style and everything I would’ve loved to have this game. I think it requires a lot of imagination, but it’s a little too mundane for me.

I did get a chuckle being jokingly upset in real life about how Jones got a better job than me and only seemed to just work and eat french fries all day.

I also think the avatars are funny enough to use one for myself on the forum. Haha!