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The Sims Online

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The Sims Online
"The Sims Online" cover art
Developer(s)Maxis
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
Platform(s)PC (Windows)
ReleaseDecember 17, 2002 (NA)
Genre(s)MMOG
Mode(s)Multiplayer

The Sims Online (TSO) is a massively multiplayer online game variation on Maxis' highly popular computer game The Sims. It was published by Electronic Arts and released on December 17 2002 for Microsoft Windows.

Overview

As is typical of games of its type, it is nonlinear, and there are no ultimate objectives. However, there are still side-objectives in addition to normal gameplay. There is a 14-day free trial available for players to try out The Sims Online. After this trial period, you must subscribe to continue playing. The first month of subscription is free, and every subsequent month costs $9.99.

Within the game, there are different categories in which players can create a house. Players may attempt to be the most popular Sim, or try to have their houses earn the most visitor hours in their category.

Although TSO has been online for over four years, the game's future is still uncertain. In March 2007, an Electronic Arts employee, Luc Barthelet, stopped by the official forums after years of ignoring the game. Luc left the production team for The Sims Online not long after the game went live, and since, he hasn't contributed to the game environment until March. After returning to development of Sims Online, he created a team of nine people in order to continue development and updates to The Sims Online. Most noticeably a new City that's been created, called "Test Center 3", which acts as a testing ground for the new updates that are soon to come. A major and well anticipated update to the game is user custom content. Luc is also interested in any user-submitted ideas on how they could maintain a stable economy to negate the gains players made illegitimately through exploits. [1]

TSO-E Prototype

TSO-E is a development process and experiment with The Sims Online, through a new city (server) to be published in a later time. [2]

Luc Barthelet created a team composed of nine developers to publish "TSO-E". The city will be very different from current production city gameplay.

The two main projects within TSO-E include a fix to the economy (which is currently inflated),and player custom content. The city is expected to go live at the end of the summer 2007. [3] [4]

In preparation for TSO-E, the team released a city, Test Center 3, to be used as a testing ground for updates that will be included in the unreleased city.

Cities

There are thirteen cities in which players reside. They are Mount Fuji, Calvin's Creek, Interhogan, East Jerome, Fancy Fields, Test Center, Blazing Falls, Alphaville, Dan's Grove, Jolly Pines, Dragon's Cove, Betaville, and Test Center 3. Population sizes fluctuate, but for the most part Alphaville and Blazing Falls are the largest towns with a big city feel, whereas Dan's Grove has a more close-knit small-town feel. Mount Fuji was targeted at the Asian market, but it also has a small contingent of English-speaking citizens as well.

Two cities have special rules: Dragon's Cove is known as the "hardcore city," as there are a number of harder game objectives to consider when playing here, such as the fact that Sims will lose energy when traveling long distances, and that virtual costs for items are doubled. Betaville is a city that was created for the purpose of testing new features. A few of these features were the ability to create a family of up to four adult Sims, with adjustable free will levels; bills and a repo man; fires and firemen.

Test Center 3 is the most recently opened city, released June 28th, 2007.[5]

Skills

Skills are an important aspect of The Sims Online gameplay. They are necessary for getting more money from paying objectives, doing well in the offered career tracks, and occasionally are needed for special interactions with other players, such as serenading. Skill can be increased at a faster rate when multiple Sims work on the same skill simultaneously.

The game has six core skills

  • Mechanical
    • To increase: Read books on mechanics
  • Cooking
    • To increase: Read books on cooking
  • Charisma
    • To increase: Practice speaking in a mirror
  • Body
    • To increase: Dance, or otherwise exercise.
  • Creativity
    • To increase: Paint, or play music on piano or guitar.
  • Logic
    • To increase: Play chess, use a telescope, or research on a computer

A skill level for any of these skills is determined by how many skill "points" a Sim has. These points range in number from 0 to 20.99.

In-game employment

There are four official jobs available in The Sims Online:

  • Restaurant
    • High charisma and cooking skills
  • Robot Factory
    • Requires: High mechanic and logic skills
  • DJ (Nightclub)
    • High creativity skills
  • Dancing (Nightclub)
    • High body skills

In-game jobs do not enjoy popularity, partly because some found them boring [citation needed], and players have found that grouping assets has greater potential than the salaries provided by the restaurant, robot factory, and nightclub jobs. These group money objects include a "Pizza" machine, in which four players share ingredients and cooperate to bake pizzas and sell them for cash, a "Code" Machine, in which three players work to decipher a code in order to win a certain amount of money. A "Band" object, in which four players must follow musical note patterns correctly in order to receive a payout. Of the group money objects mentioned, the Pizza Machine is the object that has garnered the highest amount of use, with one or more in use at almost every single house in the Money category. This is mostly due to the fact that it offers the highest payout in the shortest amount of time.

While most Sims rely on group money objects for a living, there are still others who use non-interactive solo money objects. At many money houses in The Sims Online, owners of houses in the Money Category will offer an additional bonus paid by the owner or a roommate of the house for any player who completes a certain amount of these solo money objects. This bonus is offered as a way of deriving even more profit for players, as well as attracting good business for Money category houses.

Awards

References

  1. ^ [1] Luc Barthelet message board post
  2. ^ [2] TSO-E About blog page
  3. ^ [3] Info for release dates and TSO-E fixes
  4. ^ [4] Luc Barthelet message board post
  5. ^ http://tso-e.com/blog/?p=201
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