With three household members playing and all five game slots used. I have noticed that when I load the game to play, it Defaults to loading the last players family. This isn't necessarily a problem ,however has caused a scare (loaded VF in the A.M. before my first cup of coffee to find all my children gone and no husband...lol)a few times before realizing I needed to exit that players family by going back to the menu screen and selecting my game. Based on this experience my suggestion is that when the game loads, it loads by default to the Main menu screen, thereby forcing you to pick your own family for play.

I don't know if I'm doing this right or not, but here goes. I think some of us may have been a bit critical of this game at first, but it gets better as the game progresses. However, I'd still like to see either a VF 2 or an update to this the first Virtual Families. I think some interaction between the fam. members would take Virtual Families from being a good game to a great one. That's really the only thing lacking...Oh yes, there's also that issue of the cat. I sure wish it could be selected, named, and moved and that the peeps could recognize it's existence. I think too, that the kids ought to have to feed and water it as one of their chores. In fact, thinking on that, I think it would be nice if the game allowed for chores to be assigned to each kid and that they had to be trained in them like the parents do on their jobs. I'm aware that they can collect things, sell collectibles on line, and do various jobs around the house such as cleaning a dirty spot on the floor and picking things up, but it would be really nice to be able to assign chores to them. These things would really put this game over the top.
Thanks for listening to my ideas,
Lewanda

Sorry! I forgot to tell you how much I love the cute things the kids do and especially their giggles and sqeals of delight. I notice they do this most when playing in dirt or marking on the walls. LOL! I also love the way the pass away in this game. It's so much nicer than the decomposing skeleton's in the other games. I'm truly enjoying training my virtual family.

Also there's one more thing I'd like in the game is if they could choose between several houses, since most people, like myself :), have several families going on at one time. This might would make the game too large...I don't know. I am a programmer but don't write games.

Big hugs!

That's a great suggestion. I've had the same thought!

I think it would be helpful to see the characters Status in the Details page. Also would like to see how much longer till the mother is done nursing.

Example: Loaded game this morning to check on my two seperate households in the game. However My son was the last one to play , so when it loaded , his game opened without giving me opportunity to load mine. Immediately a notification pops up in game announcing someone had gotten a promotion, followed by a notification he was being fined x amount of dollars per weed for x number of weeds. Once those things were done being announced it was then and only then I was able to click on menu, so that i could load one of my families. My son thus has missed the fact his person got a promotion , thus is also unaware of the "weed" penalty. Furthermore when I'm done playing and I exit the game , Whomever loads it next to play will then get notifications on my families events, before they are able to load their own family. So those announcements won't be seen by me!

I would also like to see the nursing time displayed.

I would also like to see the family be able to buy land so one of their children could build a house and live in the same game. They could perhaps have a farm or a store (there is already a farming mechanism). There could be so much potential for more "stuff" for all the peeps to do. There is also a building skill so the child could build his/her own house....or maybe add an addition to the original one. That would be excellent!!

Deb

My greatest wish for Virtual Villagers 4:
Please don't make the peeps as slow as they are in the other villager games. I tried playing VV2 again after playing VF, and the peeps were so very slow that I had to close out the game.

~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~
WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE IN Virtual Families 2:
-Please fix the 'hang up' on exit problem so many of us are experiencing.

-Please don't have the peeps walk and act as though they're 80-90 yrs old at 50-65. People are just not that decrepid at that age. I'd like to be able to enjoy the elderly peeps. Most people say they can't wait for them to die after the kids all leave, and that just isn't right.

-Several houses to choose from would make having more than one game going so much nicer. It would even be nicer if you could have several families in one game (Your adoptee and a couple of neighboring peeps that you also teach and look out for.)

-A flower or veggie garden that the peeps plant and care for themselves would be really nice, and/or something like an animated backyard pond.

-The last version made it really difficult to make babies, and multiples are almost impossible. I reinstalled version .04 and had triplets on the first try. Please make VF 2 so it's not so difficult to have a family. The kids are what makes the game fun.

-Have the kids play more games where they laugh such as the tag game in VV2. As a fact I'd love it if you brought that back in the next VF.

-Recognition of other family members when they pass them...Right now they walk right through each other, and have no idea that they're not the only one in the game other than on certain occasions: when making baby, tickling, giggle party, etc.

-Make it to where there is somehow some kind of real contact between family members that have left with real recognition of who the person is they're emailing/phoning. We'd like to see something more than the emails calling mom and dad by their first names.

-Make it so that a kid can move back in after the parents have been left alone and are aged, and please make it so that the parents can stay with the new family and help with kids and household chores (Though they should be allowed to retire from their careers). It's not right that the parents have to die before we can start a new generation. We also want our peeps to live longer, more productive lives after retirement.

-A beauty parlor where the ladies can get a new hairdo would be great.

-Let them keep their old clothes in their bedroom closet and be able to wear them again. That way they could buy all the clothes that they really like and change out more often.

I agree 100 percent Lewanda. the game definatly needs more possibilities

I agree too.

But with the beauty parlor and neighbors it seems to me that Virtual Neighborhood or Virtual Town would be better. So then you can care for a small town with multiple families.

Or like how some people want to be able to connect the VVs with the internet so it could be multiplayer, with trading. These small towns/neighborhoods could be an actully multiplayer game, we connect to the internet and we all get a family to take care of and have our family interact with the other players' families.

Alot of these suggestions are great. I love Lewanda's suggestions, and the suggestion of the nursing timer being displayed. But some of the suggestions are SO 'Sims'ish. I wont play the sims. i dont care for the game. the way VF is right now (like Lewanda said) its a very good game. But there are a few things that could bring it over the top. The peeps NEED to interact with one another. Its just unnatural to me. How can a nursing mother carry around a baby for 2 years and then have no interaction with it after that...Just weird! Anyway. It is a GOOD game. and i love playing. There are just a few more things i would like added!