Idea Info Name: Sim Old Folks Home Index: Primary Category: Simulation Submitted: 7/7/2003 5:30:27 PM Written By: BebopDaBebop

Storyline: Uhm, well there really isn’t one.  Although, you may hear many crazy stories from the residents staying at your nursing home and it’s up to you to decide whether they are true or not. 

Game Start:  At the very beginning you are allowed to choose several different locations for your nursing home.  The Scenic Location is a great spot for just staring out the window.  Residents adore this type of nursing home because it has such a beautiful view and feels delightful to stay at.  The Scenic Location is a perfect choice for beginners, as the residents are easier to please with such beautiful surroundings.  However, more advanced players might get bored as the number of residents is usually low in such a location.  More advance players would want to switch to a different location such as The Suburbs, which is a good mix of scenery and people, perfect for mediocre gamers, and The City, which has terrible scenery but plenty people, a perfect surrounding for advanced players.  After you pick your location construction workers begin to build your nursing home while you choose the name of your nursing home.  Remember not to use offensive words otherwise residents will get offended and won’t want to stay in your home!

Objective:  There are several different objectives to Sim Old Folks Home.  Most simulation/business games, such as rollercoaster or theme park games are always based entirely on gaining money.  In Sim Old Folks Home that is a concern, but there are many other concerns as well.  Many of the concerns are health, safety, therapy, entertainment, luxury, and the amount of residents living in your home.  The idea behind Sim Old Folks Home is to be the greatest nursing home in America and max your stats in every category so that every person’s dream will be to retire in your nursing home!

Your Employees:  Your employees are quite possibly the single most important aspect of your nursing home.  As the head manager, you are not trained to handle certain things so you have to hire other employees to do so.  Employees range from Physical Therapists, Nurses, Janitors, Handy Men, Nurses’ Aids, Chefs, Receptionists, and Managers.

Physical Therapists:  Many of the residents that come to your establishment will need special therapy from Physical Therapists.  These people do special exercises with the elderly to keep them as physically fit as possible.  The main focus of physical therapy is to keep residents’ health level as high as possible.

Nurses:  Nurses are certainly a must for Nursing Homes… that’s why they call them Nursing Homes!!!  Nurses take care of all the necessities such as medications, helping residents with everyday tasks, and aiding illnesses.  Nurses are probably the most common employee you have in your establishment.  Nurses are usually underpaid, and they know this.  Sometimes when they feel their work is not appreciated they might lay down their syringes and have a strike!  This will be very bad for the residents.

Janitors: Sometimes (ahem…) residents leave… erhm… little messes that other employees are not too fond of cleaning up.  This is where the janitors come in!  Janitors are not only responsible for cleaning up immediate messes, but also for messes that eventually accumulate over time (such as garbage).  Janitors are one of the lowest paid jobs in the entire Nursing Home but they rarely complain.  Janitors are also detrimental when accidents happen as they are usually the first to react.  A good janitor will immediately find the first fire extinguisher and blast out the fire before the firemen can even get there.

Handy Men: Usually only a few Handy Men are required in a nursing home.  They take care of all the technical problems that happen around the nursing home and they sometimes help residents move furniture and other things when they don’t have anything else to do.  Because they don’t work here 24/7 and generally only come when something is broken, they often get easily distracted by residents.  So therefore you must watch so that when something gets broken the handymen don’t just sit around chatting with the residents!

Nurses Aids:  Nurses Aids are people who are either in training to become a nurse, or just aids for a nurse to take care of the smaller jobs.  Nurses Aids are not mandatory, but they are suggested if your nurses start to become unhappy at all the work they have to do.  Nurses Aids cost much less to hire and keep around than nurses.  So if possible it is suggested to hire them.  But they cannot take care of the more important jobs so they can never replace nurses. 

Chefs:  Residents will become very upset with you if they don’t have anything to eat!  This is where the Chefs come in.  Chefs are hired to bake and make food for the residents.  One of the quickest ways to please a resident is to simply whip up a delicacy for them to savor.  Chefs are definitely mandatory, because residents have to eat somehow!  But they are also handy to keep residents happier.

Receptionists:  Generally there will only be a few receptionists working for your establishment.  Receptionists take care of some of the paper work that comes around and they are also a basic form of security to make sure that bad people are not coming into your nursing home.  They are necessary for each entry you have in your nursing home.  And the more entries/receptionists you have the happier visitors will be as they don’t have to park out of their way to see their family.

Managers:  It is not always necessary to hire your own managers, but it certainly makes life a whole lot easier.  Buying more supplies for employees is annoying and time consuming, so why not just hire a manager to take care of it?  It’s a good idea, but managers cost a lot of money to hire and keep around.  They are great to make your life easier but you may find your money supply draining if you hire too many.

The Residents:  The best part about Sim Old Folks Home is the residents that live in your establishment.  This is due to their variety and (laugh) humor value.  Their ages range from 70 to 100+ years!  And sometimes, after losing all those years to life, the elderly become a little disoriented to the world around them.  Many people call this becoming senile.  Some senile residents may end up talking for hours about strange stories and past experiences.  You can actually stick around and listen to them if you wish.  And other residents may become confused and take supplies and stash them in their room.  Other times residents actually become irritated with each other and get into fights, this is when you have to separate them and put them in different rooms.  Other times residents become upset with your Nursing Home and attempt to escape.  This is why it is best to keep them as happy as possible so they don’t try and escape.  If a resident escapes and gets killed by a car its gonna be your ass!  So you had better be careful and keep your residents happy!

Final Words:  If anyone takes this idea too seriously I will personally pimp slap them!  This idea was meant to be a joke, so don’t think too much on it.  I actually think it would make a pretty funny game if created, though.  The thought of taking all the responsibilities of a nursing home certainly doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.  But if done right it could be really entertaining and rather humorous.