The Sims Online (also known as EA Land) was a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) variation on Maxis' highly popular computer game The Sims. It was published by Electronic Arts and released on December 17, 2002 for Microsoft Windows. In March 2007, EA announced that the product would be re-branded as EA Land and major enhancements would be made. About a year later, Electronic Arts announced the game would shut down all activity on August 1, 2008.[3] In October 22, 2010 a small team of professional programmers revealed the TSO Restoration Project. They stated that they plan on bringing back the game on a private server with no subscription fees
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Cities
Before the production cities closed, there were thirteen cities in which players resided. These cities included: 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.
Population sizes fluctuated, but for the most part Alphaville and Blazing Falls were the most populated towns with a big city feel. In contrast, cities such as Dan's Grove and Calvin's Creek had a more close-knit small-town feel. Mount Fuji was targeted at the Asian market, but it also had a small contingent of English-speaking citizens as well.
Four cities had special rules: Dragon's Cove was known as the "hardcore city," as there were a number of harder game objectives to consider when playing here. For example, a Sim would lose energy when traveling long distances, and the virtual costs for items were 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. Another was Test Center, where the player could never move out of the city. Test center sims also started with 3 times the start-up money of other cities.
Along with the announcement to rename The Sims Online to EA Land came a city merge. At this point, all of the existing cities were merged into one megacity known as EA Land. Test Center 3 became the city in which new items were tested before going live into EA Land for the greater community.
Population sizes fluctuated, but for the most part Alphaville and Blazing Falls were the most populated towns with a big city feel. In contrast, cities such as Dan's Grove and Calvin's Creek had a more close-knit small-town feel. Mount Fuji was targeted at the Asian market, but it also had a small contingent of English-speaking citizens as well.
Four cities had special rules: Dragon's Cove was known as the "hardcore city," as there were a number of harder game objectives to consider when playing here. For example, a Sim would lose energy when traveling long distances, and the virtual costs for items were 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. Another was Test Center, where the player could never move out of the city. Test center sims also started with 3 times the start-up money of other cities.
Along with the announcement to rename The Sims Online to EA Land came a city merge. At this point, all of the existing cities were merged into one megacity known as EA Land. Test Center 3 became the city in which new items were tested before going live into EA Land for the greater community.
Skills
Skills were an important aspect of gameplay. They were necessary for getting more money from paying objectives, doing well in the offered career tracks, and occasionally were needed for special interactions with other players, such as serenading. Skill could be increased at a faster rate when multiple Sims work on the same skill simultaneously.
The game had six core skills
* Mechanical
* Cooking
* Charisma
* Body
* Creativity
* Logic
A skill level for any of these skills was determined by how many skill "points" a Sim has. These points ranged in number from 0 to 20.99.
The game had six core skills
* Mechanical
* Cooking
* Charisma
* Body
* Creativity
* Logic
A skill level for any of these skills was determined by how many skill "points" a Sim has. These points ranged in number from 0 to 20.99.
In-game employment
There were four official jobs available in The Sims Online:
* Restaurant
* Robot Factory
* DJ
* Dancing
The in-game jobs did not offer a large salary, causing many players to seek out other sources. Popular methods included opening item shops and offering services to users such as food and lodging.
* Restaurant
* Robot Factory
* DJ
* Dancing
The in-game jobs did not offer a large salary, causing many players to seek out other sources. Popular methods included opening item shops and offering services to users such as food and lodging.
Economy
The Sims Online simulated a working economy. It was completely run by players. The largest and most active market in the game was real estate, players would buy, sell, and rent property to other players. However, due to not having a proper deed trade system in place until the start of EA Land, many players faced security issues such as scamming.
There were many categories for player's properties: Welcome, Money, Skills, Services, Entertainment, Romance, Shopping, Games, Offbeat, and Residence. Each of these categories has special items that could only be used in that specific category, for example the service category players could use a workbench to craft items for other players, these items would often then be sold to the Shopping category which would sell these items at a retail price.
In early 2005 The Sims Online faced an exploit, this exploit was discovered and quickly spread throughout the game. A clothing rack that normally players would sell clothes to other players with, would duplicate the profits several times these would then be deposited, this exploit could be repeated as often as they wanted until it was fixed. After a few days of this exploit in game, it was fixed, however the game's economy was completely destroyed, massive amounts of inflation and plenty of land and items lost value. This economic problem was not resolved for three years until late 2007 when EA Land was formed and the game faced a huge wipe.
Once EA Land was in place the economy was fresh and completely player run. Players now could create custom content and sell these items to other players, skills were a higher priority due to in-game jobs and money objects—and the real estate market in the game was revived.
There were many categories for player's properties: Welcome, Money, Skills, Services, Entertainment, Romance, Shopping, Games, Offbeat, and Residence. Each of these categories has special items that could only be used in that specific category, for example the service category players could use a workbench to craft items for other players, these items would often then be sold to the Shopping category which would sell these items at a retail price.
In early 2005 The Sims Online faced an exploit, this exploit was discovered and quickly spread throughout the game. A clothing rack that normally players would sell clothes to other players with, would duplicate the profits several times these would then be deposited, this exploit could be repeated as often as they wanted until it was fixed. After a few days of this exploit in game, it was fixed, however the game's economy was completely destroyed, massive amounts of inflation and plenty of land and items lost value. This economic problem was not resolved for three years until late 2007 when EA Land was formed and the game faced a huge wipe.
Once EA Land was in place the economy was fresh and completely player run. Players now could create custom content and sell these items to other players, skills were a higher priority due to in-game jobs and money objects—and the real estate market in the game was revived.
Custom content
A major update to the game was user custom content. Luc was 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] Custom objects were enabled within TSO in late 2007, allowing players to upload .bmp and .jpg images as well as .iff files. The uploadable furniture was tiled tables, chairs, and single tiled sculptures or decorations, as part of the TSO-E project, led by Luc Barthelet
Name change and closure
When the product was re-branded as EA Land, players were able to purchase properties and submit custom content, similar to Second Life. After stating that it would be rebranded and there would be many changes, it was then announced that it would be shut down weeks later. They referred to this day as the "EA Land Sunset." Maxis stated that the development team would be moving onto other projects.[3][6][7]
Since 2002, EA Land / TSO has attracted a very special group of players and we certainly appreciate your participation in the community. The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena. We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in this online community as a unique experience in the virtual world.
—Electronic Arts, [7]
EA Land was shut down due to an insufficient subscriber base. EA expressed disappointment in sales over the lifetime of the game. One of the main criticisms of the game was the inability to create customized content, such as was achieved by its competitor Second Life. The Sims Online was widely seen as a failed attempt to port the single-player game to an online, multiplayer environment. [3]
EA Land was shutdown suddenly just after its release. The decision to immediately shutdown after re-branding has lead some to put forth that the closure was planned prior to the rebranded release for the purpose of mitigating the damage to the public image of name "The Sims Online".[3]
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 The Sims Online, he assembled a team of seventeen people in order to continue development and updates to The Sims Online. Since the game has shut down, Luc has started his own company, and began developing a new MMO, codenamed TirNua.
Since 2002, EA Land / TSO has attracted a very special group of players and we certainly appreciate your participation in the community. The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena. We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in this online community as a unique experience in the virtual world.
—Electronic Arts, [7]
EA Land was shut down due to an insufficient subscriber base. EA expressed disappointment in sales over the lifetime of the game. One of the main criticisms of the game was the inability to create customized content, such as was achieved by its competitor Second Life. The Sims Online was widely seen as a failed attempt to port the single-player game to an online, multiplayer environment. [3]
EA Land was shutdown suddenly just after its release. The decision to immediately shutdown after re-branding has lead some to put forth that the closure was planned prior to the rebranded release for the purpose of mitigating the damage to the public image of name "The Sims Online".[3]
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 The Sims Online, he assembled a team of seventeen people in order to continue development and updates to The Sims Online. Since the game has shut down, Luc has started his own company, and began developing a new MMO, codenamed TirNua.
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