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This takes the gameplay from The Sims and brings it into a consistent online universe, where all the Sims are controlled by real people. Taking place completely online, it ran 24/7. Upon installation, you could create up to a maximum of three Sims, dress them however you like, name them whatever, and enter a region, where you could build a house or become a roommate with someone. Skills in TSO were more important than the off-line versions, as the better skill you have, the more money you'd make when taking part in group objects. For example, if you had a high charisma rating, you'd be able to sell more items using the telemarketing phone, which in turn brought in more money. Having a high Cooking rating would allow you to make bigger and better pizza's, bringing in more money. Most money making objects required a group. The pizza maker, for example, required four people; one to take the order, one to select the proper dough, one to select the proper ingredients, and one to finish off the toppings. Communicating would result in a good pizza, while not communicating would result in a charred mess, equaling nothing in money. You could choose to live anywhere there was a free spot and build up a house all your own, or you could move in with someone, sharing the house and buying objects together. Most of the objects from all the expansions were in the game, including some that are specific to TSO, such as the aforementioned Pizza Maker, mathematics board, telemarketing machine, lawn bowling game, and over one hundred more objects. The 2003 version included some new features: Jobs, Pets, Service characters, Clothing racks, Death, Secure trading. The game's last server was shut down in February 2008, officially ending the game, but all the cities were merged into a larger realm based on an improved version of the game, living on as EA-Land until Aug/2008. On January 6, 2017, a fan-made relaunch created by Rhys Simpson, FreeSO was released in an "open beta" phase. As of May 1, 2017, the majority of the original The Sims Online functions were re-implemented to include 3D functions with continual updates promised. Some of the existing changes have included category functions. |
