I repeat that, IF TSO Fails.

I love this realm, and the people in it, and i won’t leave it until Maxis shuts down the server around me

It is funny, there is one other who has said this as well, it is odd to think of He and I being the last ones standing in Alphaville. (Cheeky smile)

The Interview with Don Hopkins posted elsewhere is a very telling indictment of EA and it’s attitudes from an Insider.

As i said elsewhere, Failure is a Group Effort,, EA–GO TEAM!!

Maria.

As for the assertion that the only thing to do is create, that’s false. Recently I hosted a road race across a sizable part of the world, and I know that at least half of the people involved purchased the vehicles they used, rather than making them.

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This statement is no longer true.

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This statement is no longer true.

This seems to punch a big hole in the main theory of the anonymous reporter who claims that the powers that be want TSO to fail, and have some kind of abhorence to online gaming.

While it IS true that the problems with TSO do not reside with the “techies” — I assume the reporter meant the programmers when using this term — I just don’t buy his or her reasoning regarding the WHY of the failure. It does not ring true at all to me.

I think that what has happened is that “The Sims” (the original, offline version) was “ported” over to an online environment, and that this has severely limited its design. It is older technology, and my guess is the database design is flawed in such a way as to also severely limit any real expansion possibilities, such as custom content.

And I remember reading something from (Gordon or Will?) on the old boards that was in response to the request regarding being able to “walk” through neighborhoods or to a friend’s house. Basically, he admitted that due to a fundamental design choice, this would never be possible with TSO (as it is currently implemented).

Blackjack and Poker? I think it’s likely that the way those were to be implemented left room for massive “exploiting.” After the experience with Maze, which was the way I made my fun and fortune (and I did not cheat), management has decided not to release them.

I played TSO since early Beta — late September of ’02 — and loved it for a looong time. I still have my account there, but have visited only a couple of times in the last several months. I play SWG now — which is deeper and wider and richer than TSO in many ways. It is a true 3D environment, you can view it in first person OR watch yourself, you can customize your avatar to an incredible extent, you can create things yourself that you can use in-game. Combat (woohoo! danger!), chat, socializing, missions, the war, theme parks, rewards… The two things that TSO offers over all of this are the ability to actually design, build and easily decorate a house, and the sense of touch while interacting with another avatar. The latter it IS something I really do miss in SWG. Hugging there is “just passing through” each other’s avatars, looks silly and leaves one feeling a little cold. TSO is warm. Too bad you can’t combine the two worlds…

Well. I have rattled on long enough. I think TSO is having trouble for many reasons, not the least of which is a lack of sustainable game play. The goals are reached far too quickly, there are not enough tools in TSO to continuously “make your own fun,” and the interactions, while warm, have hardly been augmented since the game’s inception. It is primarily a social “game” and to ignore this aspect (the interactions) is, in my opinion, foolish.

LM

is There..its an amazing game so beautiful

- RB