I personally think three things have happened with regard to people being disappointed with Virtual Families.

1. The previews page was up wayyyy too long, getting people more and more excited day by day. Yes I know this is probably intentional to drive business, but still - months of hype and build up must be rewarded.

I think people built up this game in their minds to be bigger than it actually is. In fact NO game could have lived up to the hype this game got before its release! Maybe some more strategic releasing of information would be better, to stop people getting carried away with their own thoughts on what the game might be.

2. Because of the success of Villagers, there is a big fan base who have a certain level of expectations. We’ve already played, loved (and most importantly) grown accustomed to three brilliant games for at least three or four years.

Therefore sometimes great success Isn’t always an asset, as you are already on a high so need to live up to and surpass it with each new invention – this is hard to do...

3. With a quote like “Our past successes have allowed us to really cut loose and make the game we always wanted to make” (i.e. it sounds pretty epic!!) the game must deliver something just as epic as the sound bite!

It seems the general consensus (just a feeling from the forums) is that Virtual Families is pretty much just a construed version of Villagers and the Tycoons, except actually with some bits missing!! (time management for one).


The way I personally have dealt with VF is to play multiple games, and to play them all differently (I’m actually trying my hand at a single person family - to see what happens), and also I’ve started some fan fiction and fan art – for example contriving wedding photos! This is time consuming and interesting, and you can do it while the Families are doing mundane tasks.

I like the game, but given the choice I’d always choose Villagers over Families. I can see that after the novelty value have finally subsided, Families won’t be played much on my computer.