Line #7 VideoGame/TheSimsOnline


1	''VideoGame/TheSims1'' was a juggernaut hit. As with many video game successes, several spinoffs began development afterwards. In December of 2001, ''The Sims'' series took its first steps into the newly budding world of [=MMORPGs=].
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3	''The Sims Online'' was the first ''[[VideoGame/TheSims Sims]]'' game that could be played online with people across the world. Despite looking and playing much like the first ''Sims'' title, ''The Sims Online'' wasn't just an online port of the game.
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5	Your Sim could live in any of twelve cities. You started off with four available careers that would help your Sim get off their feet. Your Sim must then enhance their six skills in order to go up the career ladder and gain more money from their job. Like most ''Sims'' titles and [=MMOs=], ''The Sims Online'' was open-ended. You could do, more-or-less, whatever you want no matter the intended story of the game.
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7	In 2007, EA rebranded ''The Sims Online'' as ''EA Land'' with new enhancements to come. Despite this, a few months later the team disassembled and it was revealed that the game was to be shut down. On August 21, 2008 ''The Sims Online'' [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames closed]]. Attempts by fans have been made to remake the game, with varying success. In 2011, a Facebook SpiritualSuccessor called ''The Sims Social'' came out, but it too was short-lived due to popularity issues and was closed in 2013.
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9	[[SubvertedTrope However]] on January 6, 2017 there is now a fan-made game called ''[=FreeSO=]'' that aims to revive the game as "Open-source" and aims to improve on the TSO formula and as well as add some events (such as Halloween). By May 1 2017, the game engine was adjusted to accomodate 3D functions, and as of 2024 the game is going strong.
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12	!!''The Sims Online/[=FreeSO=]'' contains examples of:
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14	* AndShowItToYou: One of the "Rip out heart" interaction involves ripping out a target Sim's heart, display it to them, and then stomp on it (though strangely enough this doesn't kill them). This is jarringly more graphic compared to the relatively tame "Pile Driver" interaction.
15	* DemBones: Some Halloween events has a skeleton NPC who will run around and cause mischief towards other sims.
16	* LevelGrinding: During its heyday, it wasn't uncommon to see people grinding their skills so that they could make more money.
17	* NoStatAtrophy: Averted. Your underused stats decrease the more you increase other stats.
18	* {{Retool}}: Two of them.
19	** There was a short-lived one to ''EA Land'' shortly before the game became defunct. This change caused all the cities to merge into one big city.
20	** After ''EA Land'' became defunct there was a group of dedicated fans who resurrected the game now known as ''[=FreeSO=]'' as an open-source online simulation game.
21	* SimulationGame: A life sim to be more exact. You, however, can't raise kids or get married so ''The Sims Online'' is more limited than the main series.
22	* SyntheticVoiceActor: ''[=FreeSO=]'' has an option for chatrooms to enable text-to-speech Microsoft voice that is gender dependent.
23	* WimpFight: Like in the base game, sims can engage in this. However the name "Slap Fight" is now shortened to simply "Slap".

Context VideoGame / TheSimsOnline