Characters chase their dreams, get married, have kids, have affairs.
Now, Electronic Arts, the Redwood City, Calif., developer of The Sims and a predecessor game, SimCity, is moving The Sims to the Web. It is planning to launch The Sims Online early next year, in which groups of up to 30 players can interact and role-play with each other, all in real time. But the game's transition from solo fantasy world to a real-time interaction with other players around the world presents definite risks for Electronic Arts. Given the renegade nature of the Web and the relative anonymity of the game's players, the company acknowledges it could run into some inappropriate behavior. For a lot of people, this is the Wild West.