The Sims Online is an online version of the hit off-line game The Sims, made by Electronic Arts/Maxis.
This game is the gamble of The Sim empire that stretches from SimCity all the way down to The Sims. Many of these games from the fertile mind of game designer Wil Wright revolutionized gaming. The original SimCity was a game without end, leaving to the player a set of conditions for game satisfaction in city design. This concept of 'open-ended' game play permeated many of the other games and, most importantly, the #1 hit game of all time, The Sims. In The Sims the player built up families, homes and lives for simulated people allowing the player to do everything from micromanaging everyone in a family to just getting it started and letting it run. The Sims online builds on this premise with the single exception of giving an individual only one sim to run at a time.
This game thus crosses over into the genre of interactive chat via 3D avatars (or at least 3D rendered into 2D). At the very start of the game the player is left to choose a city to play in and gets to design an avatar for that city. Because this game is based on The Sims, the player has a relatively large selection of 'skins' and 'heads' to choose from: male, female, animal, alien, and insect. Once the avatar is set and chosen the player is then launched into an overview of that city. The menus are displayed as icons, but with mouse over text bubbles to help distinguish them. As a starting sim you have no skills, no property and a starting amount of cash (known as Simoleons). You now enter into the world of game play philosophy of The Sims Online (TSO) and must start making decisions for your sim. The first big decision is 'what to do?'.
Like The Sims, TSO is based on a money economy of acquisition of skills, goods and property. How one decides to play will influence all future decisions one makes for that sim. Popping into some of the popular welcome or friendship sites will allow the player to get their bearings on the total TSO experience. The first impression is that of playing The Sims, except that each and every avatar listed in the box in the lower right of the screen is run by a human being. Once one arrives one of the most common things to have happen is getting IMs from people wanting you to be a roomie at their site. This is before you have built up any skills or made your major decisions on your sims life, and so you must start making the hard decisions for your sim.
The major mode of game play is being either a property owner or a roommate at a site on the TSO city you have chosen. Property owners get to do the major theme setting for a site and invite people to live at that site as a roommate. Just like there are in the real world, there are unscrupulous sims out there trying to scam your sim by getting you to be a roomie, but requiring that you pay a 'fee' for doing so. As a new sim it is suggested that you turn down all requests of that sort until you learn more about the game mechanics, skill decisions and general tone and tenor of the sites in the city. There will ALWAYS be time to lobby to get into sites you like as a roomie later, or become a property owner and start your own theme site. Or you may choose to remain homeless, making money and bestowing gifts of cash to your friends.
Once into the game the player comes to the realization that making money can be easy, but making enough money to properly build a site or add to one requires a high skill level. There are 6 skills to choose from, just like in the traditional Sims game: Mechanic, Cooking, Logic, Charisma, Body, Creativity. Each of these skill areas require working out on devices that give skill for that area. Thus working on Body can be done on workout machines or dance cages. Doing a skill alone is slow, tedious work and takes well nigh forever to do. Working in groups allows for faster skill increase, thus reducing time to accumulate skills to something reasonable. Reasonable being, in this case, on the order of 15 hours of playing time.
Choosing a skill to work on depends highly upon what you would like to do with your sim, the type of crowds you want to hang out with and how much tedium you are willing to put up with. Choosing Body will allow one to use the pinata post to get money as a solo skill object, and will also allow one to get higher returns on two multi-player games that pay out money: pizza and code. Also, as one gains skill points, new interactions become available, thus allowing one to interact in more and fun ways with other sims. Getting a high Body score requires long hours of work out on weight machines or dance cages, but working in groups of either or both of these devices with other sims allows for a faster rate of increase. Sims, it seems, are social animals that do better in groups.
Next up is taking care of your sims needs, which decrease over time and need attention. A bladder score that is going from green to red needs attention in the bathroom via toilets. Hygiene scores require either a shower, washing of hands or brushing of teeth. Low Energy scores require either a nap on a sofa or some time in bed. All of the standard objects one is used to in The Sims off-line game are in TSO for use and anyone who has played off-line will quickly get the idea of what can be used for which need. Pointing and clicking on objects brings up menu selections for interactions with that object, so even a true neophyte can understand what can be done with objects in the game.
Now for a bit of overview of sites and gameplay... Sites in a city are broken down into categories of what is being offered. Skill sites offer skill building and some limited amount of solo skill objects. Money sites offer good paying devices. Romance sites offer fare from simple romance to x-rated chat and lovebeds. Hmmmm... time to expand upon that for a bit...
EA/Maxis markets this game as being of 'Teen' nature with 'Mature Sexual Content'. Parents, please be advised that you should read the Terms of Service for TSO before signing a child onto this game! Most of the players in this game are NOT teens, but adults, and just like online chat and instant messaging services, one gets all sorts of input from individuals. Using parental controls to block these inputs, however, removes chat, IM and interaction with individuals from the player. Thus one is moving around in a world of funny acting sims, but with no way to easily get social interaction which is the whole point of TSO. So if your child is net and chat room savvy, and you use the IGNORE feature for sims you don’t like, then you should have a good time of things... as long as it is remembered that every sim is run by a real, living human being!
Simulated sex is, as in the original game, humorous and, well, simulated. You don’t get to see what is going on, but get some fun sounds and animations, especially in the love beds. Remember that this is taking place between two consenting individuals on a site that has spent a lot of their cash buying this equipment. If you do not want to be at such a site, be kind and courteous and go elsewhere.
In fact I would make that a major point for the entire TSO game: being kind and courteous will allow a player to have a much more fun time than being rude, crude and obnoxious. Site owners and roomies can kick and ban players from their site that they find objectionable. Further, those who move beyond the TSO terms of service can be immediately reported to EA/Maxis, which logs all chat and IM activity for a period of time. Please DO read the terms of service!
Sorry for the digression... back to sites... basically these sites are run to meet the various needs of your sim, although some categories have not been fully implemented as of this writing. Deciding to start a new site requires the purchase of land and the building up of a place on that site and the purchase of equipment. Asked for a rough estimate of what is needed to start a half way decent, non-residence site I have responded with answers ranging from a minimum of 60K Simoleons to over 100K. Building that up alone takes a long, long time, measured in weeks of game play. Splitting this amongst roommates shares the burden as the roomies buy equipment at their own cost, thus helping the site get up faster.
The downside to roomies is that it can be very dull sitting at a new site waiting for people to arrive to do things. Even established sites have this problem and roomie turnover rates are alarmingly high. Also there is the problem of property owners being dictatorial in their ideas of what can be done at a property, thus limiting the creativity of the individual roomies. These social problems are resolved in one of three ways: 1) the roomie leaves by buying a piece of property or joining another site, 2) the roomie is kicked out by the owner, or 3) the owner leaves the site and the first roomie in line inherits it. In nearly two months of play I have personally seen all of these happen multiple times and have heard the process called 'roomie roulette'.
As a player you project a personality through your avatar by what you do, what you say and how you act, either in the site itself or through IMs and in-game email. What you know about others is also transmitted by the same means. By establishing a consistent personality and understanding that of others in the game friendships can and do evolve. This sort of thing strikes very deeply to many players who are limited in their social activities in real life (IRL) or who choose chat/IM/TSO as a better means of social interaction in lieu of IRL interaction. Thus coming to understand a bit about the sim and the player behind that sim (or at least projected personality) is absolutely, positively critical in sustaining long term relationships. And becoming a roommate of a TSO friend requires the ability to understand other players, adjust your own personal game play to their needs and letting others know of your own needs and wishes.
As one may have gathered by now: this is NOT a simple game! Real hurt to real people can come because of the over-identification with one's sim as it being your own personal avatar taking the place of the player. Likewise real intense emotions of joy and fun can also come from this identification. So before you invest time and money into this game, also identify exactly what it is you are expecting from it for yourself. A tall order for a game, but TSO is more than just a mere 'game' as it synthesizes many aspects of previously made massive multiplayer on-line role-playing games into a context that is approachable to the masses and is not determined by an individual setting.
As new items/objects/interactions/infrastructure are added to the TSO world it will grow, change and morph into something all of its own. How one comes to terms with these changes is left up to the player, and not mandated via the company running the game nor a set social milieu. You determine who you want to be, who you want to interact with and what sort of things interest you.
Now a final word on bugs. As a play tester I can assure you the game is buggy as all get out! Crashing to the desktop is still a common occurrence in the game. TSO does not manage its memory well and older machines will choke on this game. My personal system is one with 2 GB of DDR DRAM, massive amounts of disk space, and, it is to be admitted, many programs. It is possible to run the game for hours on end without problems, just as it is likely to crash multiple times in a row before becoming stable again. Also, like every other massive online game there is in-game lag when thousands of people are in a city. High traffic sites during these times are susceptible to disconnection. You have been warned! TSO is a work in progress for at least another year or so...
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