The Simpson episode was a classic case of "epic fail" on the show's part. There was no attempt whatsoever to make the video game universe look like anything other than the standard Simpson universe, as if the writer/directors of the show are deathly afraid of doing something outside of the visual look of the series. So all we got were the residents of Springfield walking around as knights, elves, creatures and whatnot. What was great about American Dad and South Park was how the various characters adopted personas that were nothing like them in real life and that was a big part of the joke. Every Simpsons character looked and acted like they did in real life. Burns was Burns. Moe was Moe. And on and on.
And I find it hard to swallow that every single person in town - even those who would obviously have no interest in playing a computer game - was seated at their computers playing the same game at the same time.
Again, epic fail.