"It's What You Make Of It"

In 2003 I was offered an opportunity to be a beta tester for EA's new Sims game called The Sims Online or TSO for short. I wasn't sure what to expect but went in with much anticipation and excitement and found literally thousands of other people who were given the same opportunity. We got to test out all kinds of features like pizza machines, code machines, we got to skill in groups where we could interact with one another while we skilled, we learned how to make money for our Sims like make potions or paintings, similar to the offline version. Out of this we made up some games of our own like "make potions 'till you drop" or held little trivia games to pass the time. You could have called it a chat room with a pulse. The beta testers had a ball. We could play as long as we wanted for free in several cities, some so overpopulated that at times you couldn't get on. They even had a city called "Test Center" that gave you the opportunity to test out and work the bugs out of such new gadgets like slot machines, music machines, and other neat items.

Then it happened. The test was over and it was time to go public. At first it was a hit. The $10 per month price still isn't all that bad and those of us who kept our accounts were rewarded with "Founder" status and were given little lawn ornament-type trophies called Simmies. Things were great for a while but for some reason the game got boring. Alot of beta testers became frustrated at the promises of new items to try only to have EA tell us that the item had either been scrapped or it's introduction was on hold. In a sense, we became bored. Couple this with the ever spreading degeneracy of gamers who used TSO as a way to pick up a significant other or, worse yet, to have online sex. Yes, I said online sex. To this day there are TSO brothels so some things never change.

Myself and my wife after only a couple of months lost interest in TSO so we sold our accounts off and wished the game good luck. Fast forward to 2006 and we decided to give the game another try. What we found was that the population went from in the thousands to the hundreds. Some cities were almost completely barren. One city I visited had a grand total of 10 gamers on but we found a city to our liking and set up shop, literally. Now you see stores, crafting of items, skill lots among other things but what's still missing is the excitement. Skilling for hours is all together boring as you can literally set your sim up to skill and walk away from the computer or do other things. Same with a store and what drives me crazy about store lots are that people will buy from one store only to sell the item at their store. Also, with the advent of "Fruit Trees", trees where if you eat the fruit you gain a skill point, skilling is almost obsolete. And simoleans(sim money)? You can buy them on eBay for about $30 for $10 million simoleans. That's right, you can spend real money for fake money. Now some use TSO to make the fake money and sell it for real money almost like buying stock I guess. So, in closing TSO is what you make of it. I'm hoping it will get better but also hope it will fade into our memories.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 08/23/06