The Sims Online: New and Improved

• Platform: IBM PC Compatible
• Release Date: October 28, 2003
• Genre: Role-Playing
• Style: Persistent World Online RPG
• Similar Games: The Sims Online (IBM PC Compatible), The Sims: Deluxe Edition (IBM PC Compatible), The Sims Online: Charter Edition (IBM PC Compatible)

Game Description

The Sims Online combines the life development simulation of Maxis' hugely popular Sims games with the virtual community interaction of persistent world multiplayer gaming. Groups of players from across the country can join together in large, online Sim neighborhoods for all manner of character development and social relations.

Though this game's graphics and interface will be familiar to Sims veterans, Sims Online players take a much more direct role in guiding their characters actions, acting more as a puppeteer than a parent. Instead of watching over the interactions of a family or neighborhood, players take the role of a single Sim character, to interact in a community of thousands.

Many objects and activities introduced in the single-player Sims games are present in this online version, but they are now more effective when multiple players are using them. Characters can still play chess to improve their logic skill, for example, but they'll improve much more quickly if there are several other Sims in the room playing chess at the same time.

Some new objects and activities allow Sims to earn money, and certain mini-games offer especially big returns for coordinated group play. Simoleans usually go to support and improve a character's house, where residents control who can visit and what goes on. Home owners receive a small payment for each visitor that drops in, so many players choose to join together as roommates, allowing them to pool their resources and develop bigger, better, more attractive houses.

This December 2003 "New and Improved" Sims Online offers players new animations and social interactions, lots of new clothing and appearance options, and more multiplayer mini-game employment opportunities.

Review: Overall

At the time of its release, The Sims Online is likely the most socially minded game yet produced for any platform. The original single-player Sims design has been gently twisted in nearly every conceivable way to promote dialogue and group activity. Whether they are out for wealth, skills, or popularity, only the players who learn to work with others will succeed. Assuming that the biggest particular draw of online gaming must be player interaction, and considering the way this game so promisingly promotes it, one would think that Maxis should have another hit on its hands. Yet some longtime Sims fans may feel as if something is missing in this multiplayer version. The magic of the original game is too often displaced by the exhilaration and trepidation of being in a room full of virtual strangers.

While the original Sims turns players into invisible guardian angels (or mischievous imps, in some cases), Online has participants becoming puppeteers. Essentially every action and interaction the Online character makes is controlled directly by the player. Furthermore, as everyone is using the same basic model of marionette, it's often too easy to see the strings. Great deeds are accomplished neither through whetted reflexes nor WASD mastery, but through menu-item mouse-clicks and good chat room skills. When an especially powerful player character enters an area, there is a similar sense of awe among the other players as in games like EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot, but in this case the others know the player's heroic status was achieved by solving maze puzzles with an online friend and watching the accomplished character read lots of books.

Perhaps an important factor in other successful multiplayer role-playing games is that individual character goals are made part of a bigger story. Persistent-world standards such as EverQuest or Asheron's Call feature quests, and plenty of random monsters for random slaying. Even Diablo II is broken roughly into missions, such that defeating a boss makes one feel as if that new unique item it drops was truly earned. In these games, the reward of character improvement is a motivation, but not the primary concern in the heat of play. Even if the abstract goal in a traditional online gaming session is to level up all the characters in the group, the players are seldom thinking of this while facing off with an angry Fire Drake or an evil Horror Mage. In the Sims Online however, that extra layer of gameplay is removed. The actions of improving the character become the methods of play. There are weights to lift and guitars to practice, and the player feels more like a bystander than a participant.

Of course, fans would point out that the original single-player Sims does not have much in the way of overarching missions or storyline action either. Yet the original game does have something that this massively multiplayer version does not. An undeniable factor in the success of the original game is its innocent, innocuous allowance to voyeurism. Part of the charm of keeping a neighborhood full of Sims comes in secretly watching their ordinary, familiar, and sometimes unpredictable behaviors. Whether they're real or fictional, it's inherently amusing to see what people do when they don't realize that anyone else is looking. It's not that the subjects need to do anything unpleasant or embarrassing; it's simply interesting for people to watch other people, and The Sims realizes this in an enjoyable way. In The Sims Online however, players have no such hidden perch. Instead of looking in from above, unseen, they suddenly find that the spotlight is on them. They are no longer the watchers -- they are the watched.

The original Sims is an outstanding game and this Online translation is appropriate to the motif, even if it's not worthy of the magnificence. The Sims Online is a fine game actually, but only for those who will thrive under its unambiguously social style of play. If the original Sims offered players a virtual dollhouse, this game gives them the chance to virtually play "house," with a friend or a stranger. Only those interested in meeting other Sims players and interacting with them will find the true fun in this title. The rest of the series' fans may find that the "Online" too often outshines the "Sims." Sartre once noted "Hell is other people." The Sims Online is strictly for those who would disagree.

Review: Enjoyment

Plays like a stripped-down version of The Sims used as the interface for a general-interest chat room. Some Sims fans may find themselves out of their element and some chat room veterans may grow impatient with all the character maintenance activities.

Review: Graphics

Graphics are nearly identical to those of the single-player game and its many expansion packs, though there is greater diversity in the character-designing options. The familiar interface gets a refined look.

Review: Sound

Music is good, in the soft, catchy style of the single-player games. Few of the character noises or Simlish phrases seem new.

Review: Replay Value

A friendly and welcoming player community, a novel opportunity for personal expression, and continuing updates from the developer suggest that those who get into {*The Sims Online} will enjoy it for a long time to come.

Review: Documentation

Gameplay is explained in a tone that emphasizes general themes over specifics. Vague phrasing and awkward grammar occasionally mar an otherwise professional presentation.

Production Credits