The Sims Online (also known as
EA-Land) was the first
massively multiplayer online variation on
Maxis's highly popular
computer game The Sims, the second being the Online Weekend mode for The Sims Bustin Out, and third being The Sims Social. It was published by
Electronic Arts and released on December 17, 2002 for
Microsoft Windows. In March 2007, EA announced that the product would be re-branded as
EA-Land
and major enhancements would be made. About a year later, EA announced
that the game would shut down all activity on August 1, 2008.
[3] The next online games in the series are
MySims (PC version only) followed by
The Sims Social for
Facebook.
Gameplay
Four cities had special rules: Dragon's Cove was known as the
"hardcore city", as there were a number of harder game objectives to
consider when playing here. For example, a Sim would lose energy when
traveling long distances, and the virtual costs for items were doubled.
Betaville was a city created for the purpose of testing new features. A
few examples of these features were the ability to create a family of up
to four adult Sims, with adjustable free will levels; bills and a
repo man;
and fires and firemen. Another was Test Center, where the player could
never move out of the city. Test Center Sims also started with three
times the start-up money