The Sims Online Preview
After two years, you'll finally be able to take your sims online. Read our preview of The Sims Online to find out more.
The Sims has seen so much popularity since it first shipped two years ago that Maxis has released three different expansion packs for the game and is currently putting the finishing touches on a fourth. All of these add-ons let you and your sims perform functions that weren't possible in the original game, and most of these new features arose from feedback Maxis received from fans. Ask any Sims fan today what feature is still missing from the core game, and more often than not, he or she will tell you that it's the ability to interact with other sims online. With that in mind, Maxis set out to transform its popular single-player "life simulator" into a multiplayer social game--as if The Sims weren't popular enough--and the end result is (or will be) The Sims Online.
Unlike previous Sims games, The Sims Online isn't an expansion pack; it's an entirely separate game from The Sims, though you probably already knew that. In fact, you can probably take a good guess at a lot of the features that'll be found in the game, because the name "The Sims Online" is as self-explanatory as game titles get--it's The Sims, only online. But the game has many details that you're probably not aware of. How exactly does it play? What can sims do differently online that they couldn't do in the original game? Is the game massively multiplayer or is its online component a secondary feature? We recently dropped by the Maxis offices to get answers to these questions, and after a few hours with The Sims Online, we can say with certainty that fans of the series will be in for a big treat once this game ships.
It's obvious that the designers at Maxis are aiming to make The Sims Online a means by which people can meet and interact with each other within a chat room-like setting. As you'll see, everything in the game revolves around getting players together with other players, but to call The Sims Online a glorified chat room would be woefully inaccurate. The core gameplay elements of The Sims are all intact, and you'll still have to strike a balance between having fun with house decoration and maintaining your sims' many needs and skills, but Maxis is making several tweaks and including some new mechanics to make The Sims' formula play well online. Still, don't expect this to be EverQuest in SimCity. "The average EverQuest or Ultima Online player probably won't be very enthused with The Sims Online because, frankly, it isn't that deep," explains Gordon Walton, vice president of Maxis and the game's executive producer, who, having worked on Origin's Ultima Online and Kesmai's Air Warrior, has intimate knowledge of massively multiplayer games. "This won't be a game that needs to be played 20 hours per week, although players certainly can if they want to." Maxis is keen on allowing players to circumvent the endless treadmill trudge that's associated with leveling up or questing in typical massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Ultimately, The Sims Online will be driven by social mechanics, not gameplay mechanics--the game will be what you make it.
Like most online games, the first thing you'll do when you start The Sims Online is choose your avatar, which, naturally, will be a sim. Every sim that you'll run into in the game will be an actual human player--there are no nonplayer characters in The Sims Online. After that's done, you'll need to decide on a city to live in. Maxis hopes to have about 20 different cities in the game, each of which will have unique geographical features--some might be mountainous, while others will stretch across a sandy coastline. Once you've made your choice, you'll need to decide where to build your house. You can build your lot anywhere...well, almost anywhere. Player-owned homes will appear as white dots on the overhead map of the city, and you obviously won't be able to build your home on those lots.
You'll be able to place your house anywhere on this map, though as you'll see on the next page, you're better off placing it near areas that are highly trafficked.
The Sims Online Quick Links
Summary | Reviews | News | Previews & Features | Images | Videos | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum
Games you may like…
-
The Sims: Hot Date
(PC) -
The Sims: Superstar
(PC) -
There
(PC) -
Second Life
(PC) -
Huxley: The Dystopia
(PC)
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games
1 Comments