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The Sims Online

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EA-Land
File:EA Land Logo.gif
Developer(s)Maxis[1][2]
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
SeriesThe Sims
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
ReleaseThe Sims Online
EA-Land
Genre(s)MMOG
Mode(s)Multiplayer

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

Originally called The Sims Online until February 27 2008, when the original servers were shutdown, EA-Land is a new online world, as well a free of charge online game.[3]

The game is scheduled to be shut down on August 1st, 2008.

As of the 1st of May 2008, the community started a campaign to keep the game alive. Ideas being considered range from quadrupling the Sim population to making an offer to purchase the game from Electronic Arts and having a user owned world. Other possibilities are a users own platform or private servers. [4]

Overview

The game is nonlinear and there are no ultimate objectives. The play is free, although there is a paid subscription for $9.99, and £7.99/€10.99 in Europe.

Although the game has been online for over five years, its future is uncertain. In March 2007, an Electronic Arts employee Luc Barthelet stopped by the official forums after years of ignoring the game. Luc had left the Sims Online production team after the game went live and hadn't contributed to the game environment until March 2007. After returning to development of Sims Online, he assembled a team of seventeen people in order to continue development and updates to The Sims Online.

One new idea has been the creation of a new city called "Test Center 3" which acts as a testing ground for the updates to come. A major update to the game will be 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.[5]

File:The Sims Online Coverart.png
The old The Sims Online boxart

The Sims Online was shutdown on February 27 2008 and replaced with a free online world called EA-Land. Subscribers can migrate the old accounts to the new service and get advantages like simoleons. [6]

It was announced on April 29 2008 that EA-Land would close August 1 2008. Electronic Arts is offering one of two "tokens of appreciation" if a player subscribed before April 29th.[7]

TSO-E Prototype

TSO-E was a development process and experiment with The Sims Online, through a new city (server) to be published at a later time.[8]

Luc Barthelet created a team composed of thirteen developers to publish "TSO-E". The city was going to 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 went live at the end of the summer 2007.[9].[10]

Cities

File:EA-Landview.jpg
The global view for EA-Land and Test Center 3.

Before the production cities closed, there were thirteen cities in which players resided. They were Mount Fuji, Calvin's Creek, Interhogan, East Jerome, Fancy Fields, Test Center, Blazing Falls, Alphaville, Dan's Grove, Jolly Pines, Dragon's Cove, Betaville, EA-Land and Test Center 3 (EA-Land and Test Center 3 are now the only open cities). Population sizes fluctuate, but for the most part Alphaville and Blazing Falls were the most populated towns with a big city feel, whereas Dan's Grove had 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.

Four 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 was 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 test city for EA-Land; all updates go there first before EA-Land. EA-Land is the megacity into which all the production cities are being merged.

Skills

Skills are an important aspect of 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
  • Cooking
  • Charisma
  • Body
  • Creativity
  • Logic

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
  • Robot Factory
  • DJ (Nightclub)
  • Dancing (Nightclub)

In-game jobs do not enjoy popularity, and players must 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 because 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.

Custom Content

Recently, custom objects have been enabled within TSO, allowing players to upload .bmp and .jpg images as well as .iff files. The uploadable furniture is tiled tables, chairs, and single tiled sculptures or decorations. This is part of the TSO-E project, lead by Luc Barthelet.

Awards

See also

References

  1. ^ http://pc.ign.com/objects/015/015970.html
  2. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/simsonline/index.html
  3. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/news/6186790.html
  4. ^ http://www.playercampaigns.com
  5. ^ [1] Luc Barthelet message board post
  6. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/news/6186790.html
  7. ^ [2] EA-Land Blog post stating EA-Land's closure.
  8. ^ [3] TSO-E About blog page
  9. ^ [4] Info for release dates and TSO-E fixes
  10. ^ [5] Luc Barthelet message board post The game has now been launched and is very different from the old game "The Sims Online". Although the user interface is the same, the game itself is very different with new features, custom content and a new economy.
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