The Sims Online

The Sims Online, or TSO, was a massively multiplayer online game. It was based on The Sims, and offered online play with other gamers via PC. It was published by Electronic Arts and released on December 17, 2002 for Windows. After the popularity of the game waned, the name was changed to EA Land; the change failed, and EA Land was permanently shut down by EA on August 1, 2008.http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/ea-land-the-sims-online-joins-the-deadpool This shutdown is commonly referred to as the "EA Land Sunset".
In 2011, a new online based game known as The Sims Social was announced as a Facebook application and it is considered by some to be a new version of The Sims Online. In 2013, The Sims Social was shut down by EA due to lack of popularity.
==Official description==
Be Somebody. Else.™
The Sims Online is a massive online world built by thousands of players. Create your very own Sim and play as yourself or your alternate Sim persona. Be rich, powerful, popular, or famous. Explore neighborhoods, make friends, host events, or run a business. How you play is limited only by your imagination. 
==Overview==
There were twelve cities for a Sim to choose. Players needed to train skills (mechanical, cooking, charisma, body, creativity, and logic) to unlock new interactions and careers. A player increased skills usually by visiting Skill category properties, as skill could be increased at a faster rate when multiple Sims worked on the same skill concurrently. These Skill properties, or "Skill Houses" as they were commonly referred to in the game, usually specialized in only one or two skills, as was often mentioned in the property's name.
Players have a 30 day free subscription of the game (90 days for Charter Edition), after that there is a monthly fee of USD 9.99. The monthly pricing remains the same after the change to EA Land.
==Charter Edition==
In addition to the standard edition, a limited edition of The Sims Online was released known as The Sims Online Charter Edition. The Charter Edition include:
*90-Day Free Subscription
*Soundtrack CD
*Autographed Manual
*Sims Key Chain
*Be a Sim Magnet
*Charter Member Certificate
==Controversy==
There was some controversy in The Sims Online concerning some players who were setting up virtual brothels in the game, exchanging virtual WooHoo for Simoleons.
==EA Land==
After The Sims Online had been somewhat of a failure, EA changed the name from The Sims Online to EA Land in March 2007. They also implemented some other changes:
* All cities were merged into one megacity known as EA Land, with the exception of Test Center 3, which remained as a testing ground for new features.
* Existing users could buy land in EA Land.
* Users could create and upload custom content, and purchase custom content from other users, subject to approval from EA.
Further disappointment and lack of any new content to keep the users staying caused many users to quit. Eventually an official message was posted, ending EA Land permanently on August 1, 2008.
==Revival==
In October 2010, a small team of professional programmers revealed the TSO Restoration Project(dead link). They stated that they will be bringing back TSO free of charge through a private server.http://www.tsorestoration.com However the project was officially cancelled on September 21, 2011 due to a cease and desist letter from EA.The Sims Online Restoration Threatened to the Ground | iSims The team has since forked into FreeSO, and Niotso, which are ongoing attempts to revive the game with new and completely separate engines from the original.
FreeSO has since incorporated most of the original game's features (like skills and jobs) while also introducing new content. Most notably, FreeSO introduced a true 3D mode that uses the game's existing objects to automatically generate textures and meshes. As of December 9th, 2024, The FreeSO Server completely shut down, although "The Archive Client" (a self-hosted offline version of FreeSO) is currently under development.
== Trivia ==
*The Sims Online, along with The Sims Social and The Sims 3: Katy Perry's Sweet Treats, are the digital games of The Sims series that are no longer available, because EA has actually removed them from their servers, not allowing their purchase and/or use.
==External links==
es:Los Sims Online
fr:Les Sims Online
pt:The Sims Online
ru:The Sims Online
nl:The Sims Online
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