The Sims Online

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, this game looks so badass it's not even funny. I don't even know that I'd really consider it a game though, it's basically going to be the closest thing we've had so far to a virtual world. Jobs, spouses, roomates, money, communities, etc... are all part of this... experience I guess we'll call it.

The game is due out in December, just in time for Christmas (what a coincidence!), but luckily they are doing a free play test, so they can test out the strain on their servers. Just goto the sims page to see all the info about it. You can either download it or they'll send you a CD and you don't even have pay for shipping!

Bad news... gets this, hopefully your eyes won't pop out. If you choose to dl it, the install file is... 1.2 GB!!! LOL. Good news about downloding it... the servers are very fast so if you are on cable, I got it at 100k/s, and it only took 3 hours. Bad news (again) is that the dl servers are from fileplanet.com and you have to wait in line if you aren't paying the $6 a month premium subscription. at 5 PM the line was 90 minutes. What I would highly suggest doing is get in line on all 4 servers and when it is ready to send to you on one of the servers, start downloading and when the other 3 servers are ready to send, just let the accept box sit there just in case anything goes wrong with the first download because I had 2 hours into it and for whatever reason it screwed up and I had to start all over again and wait in line for another hour and a half.

Once you dl it, it'll extract the install files, then it will install the game while you set up your account so that's pretty nice. So leave open about 5 GB on your hard drive before you start downloading cause you are going to need it.

You have to give them your credit card for whatever reason, but the beta test is free, so don't worry. Although the game will be $10 a month. Handy thing is you won't have to have a credit card subscription like most things online because they know they're target audience is about 15 years old and they don't have CC's, so you can go to say... target and buy a month card, kind of like a calling card. Really good idea, and pretty much essential for the success of this game.

Once it's installed and you are ready to play, you aren't yet cause it has to download a 1 mb patch. Now your ready? Nope, it has to download a 500k patch. Now? Nope, it has to download a 90 MB patch!

After that I don't know, cause I'm still waiting for the update. Luckily the servers are really fast and this 90 MB patch is only taking about 10-15 min.

So when I've actually played this game, from the looks of it might not be until next week, I'll let you know how it is.

 

I am truely blown away by that game. Holy crap. This is probably going to revolutionize the gaming industry the same way Wolfenstien 3D did years ago. If it was a 10 MB download, I'd say everyone go grab this now and try it out. But since it's such a massive download, i'll just say, if it's within your capacity, download this cause it'll rock your world!

When you are looking above the city, seeing literally thousands of homes in this thriving community, each one custom made by a sim, it's really an eye-opener as to what Simcity has evolved into. It just blows me away that 15 years ago we were sitting there playing mayor in a city, then we were god, and maybe a queen ant as well. We've made islands, golf courses, drove and flown around our cities, then we were actually able to play one of the sims we've governed for all these years. Now... we are represented as one of those sims. It's simply amazing.

At $10 a month, Maxis is going to be rich as hell. Not sure what the production costs were and will be on this game, but I'm sure they'll more than cover it. After playing for about 2 minutes I knew I was going to get this game when it came out.

The Sims has already sold almost 7 million copies. It's not like they are going to come out with The Sims Online 2, they are just going to continue updating this game constantly. Years from now I'm sure a massive overhaul or a new concept will emerge, but this is it for a few years. Years from now it's not impossible (tough, but not impossible) to think this game could have 15 million people paying $10 per month to play. 15 mill x $50 to buy the game = $750,000,000 initially. That on top of $150 million more per month! Start buying your Electronic Arts stock now.

For those of you who are actually going to start playing the beta, you'll find me in... I think the city is Rising Falls. I bought myself a nice little plot of land on the beach and built myself a hut with a bed, toilet, shower, sink, trashcan, and a bail of hay to sit on at my cardboard box if I want to, well... just sit at my cardboard box since I don't have any money to buy anymore stuff yet. None of my neighbors were home, but I did meet some cool people who gave me tips as to how to make money and such. Pammy was really cool, she taught me the ropes. So I chilled at her house for a little bit, read up on some mechanics and she cooked dinner for me. Her house was nice as hell. That could be because she has 7 roomates and they all pool their money together to buy some nice ass stuff!

Then I went to the Adult Playground where somebody designed their house as basically a party palace equipped with a playboy bunny shaped pool that you can see from the sky.

Haven't gotten married yet, but when I do, I'll be sure to invite you guys.

 

Still being a bit confused as to how you make money and run buisnesses and such, I looked up some stuff and came across these ideas...


Open a thrift shop.
Buy used objects from other players and then sell them at a markdown. Will you specialize in antiques or paintings? Western gear or glitz? Tap into the decorating desires of other Sims and fortune might just follow.


Become an architect and make money for your creativity. Build luxurious properties and then sell them to other players at a markup.


Offer your services.
If your cooking skill is high, become a cook. Frantic property owners may pay you for extra help, whether it's for cooking, cleaning, repair or entertainment.


Run a dating service.
Help make matches and then charge for romantic success -- or set up a kissing booth with the most smoochable Sims.

These are just a few possibilities. Remember that the other Sims are real people. Getting them to pay you money means figuring out what makes them tick -- just like in real life.


Run a casino.
Will you set the slot machine odds in your favor or the player's? Determine what sets you apart from the casino next door. Will the theme of your casino be popular, or will your exciting line-up of entertainment draw crowds? What does your staff wear? Do you have hotel rooms? Will you serve free drinks or charge people to go to the bathroom?

Be a traveling comedian.
Is your Sim funny? Make others laugh and you might just make some extra cash. Put your tip jar down and see who will toss you some money for your antics.


I just came across another idea, make a Sims internet radio statio and charge money for advertisements. The advertisements being for people trying to sell their products online.

The beta has only been out for a few weeks, and already we have incidents of Sim Prostitues. You goto their house, pay them, and they'll have cyber sex with you! LOL

This game is just unbelievable.

 

Re: Lucid

Well since you can't have sex in the game, even with the person you are married to, it's just the traditional cybersex cause you can talk to whoever you want really easily in the game.

 

Actually, I just heard of plans to have 'Fun Beds' in the final release. Should be pretty cool.

 

Well I started playing the play test about a month ago and at first I was just amazed at how cool it was. It really is a fabulous game and it's going to revolutionize a lot of games the same way Wolfenstien and Doom did. Problem that I found with it after playing it for a little less that a week was that it got very redundant after a while. You do the same stuff over and over. The only thing that's different is meeting different people, which is definately fun, but i dunno, once i stopped playing it for a few days I kinda realized it wasn't the absolute greatest game ever made like I originally thought. The good thing is that Maxis is constantly evolving that game. You need to download a patch nearly every time you get on (it's really quick, maybe 10 second download then the occasional 15 meg patch which will take a little longer). Two years from now the game will look drastically different from now because so many tings will have changed.

I think I'll give it a couple months and let them get everything worked out and I'll probably jump in for some fun.

And about Everquest.... I'm scared of that game. I've seen what it's done to people (I lived in the dorms a few years ago) and for that reason I will never play that game. It sounds really really cool, but my god, I don't think any game has destroyed more lives than that one. A friend of mine watched a video in one of his classes that talked about a kid who met his girlfriend on Everquest. The kid locked himself in his room and would rarely come out for any reason. The mom was really worried. Later on the girl stopped playing the game and this kid killed himself. True story.

 

Just noticed it... halfway down the page is my old thread by the same name as this one. Check it out if you are still curious about the game. Kinda funny seeing my attitude about the game completely shift between now and then.