Any Sims Online veterans?

[Charlemagne Allen]

I tried the Free Sims Online briefly and it was interesting. How did it compare to SL?

[Prokofy Neva]

17 minutes ago, Charlemagne Allen said:

I tried the Free Sims Online briefly and it was interesting. How did it compare to SL?

The developers and some volunteer residents have done well ringing every possible chime on the very limited number of sprites or thingies in that game that are fixed and unchangeable to make new content. But basically, they don't have a way to permit user content to be uploaded for free or for a charge. that's because they don't have an asset server with that flexibility I suppose, I don't know. When TSO itself started allowing some user content, they faced all kinds of problems, and it was one of the reasons why the big GAME OVER sign went up over the artificial sun. I was there to see it *wipes away a tear*.

You have "motives" or lines to constantly "keep green" and this gets to be not fun, but a chore. When your avatar's hunger, etc. motives are all in the red, he falls over and temporarily dies, it takes awhile to revive him. There is no revival kit as there are with some SL breedables.

You need to "skill up" and keep your skills topped off to earn simoleons, the game currency. This is fun for a lot of people. It's also very social. But it gets a bit wearisome. People who put in artificial scripts to do this are banned and rightly so as it upsets the game's ecology and economy.

There is no adult content except what you yourself type in chat, and what you yourself make of the few cuddling or "love bed" or "hot tub" items available. Of course, back in the day, people were incredibly inventive with these few props. My impression of FSO is that the demographics for FSO just doesn't need to bother.

People are nicer -- a LOT nicer. That's because often they are middle-aged moms with partly grown or fully grown children; or even retired couples; or even married couples who enjoy this form of socialization. The demographics are such that you get an older, married, more conservative population who mainly want to socialize in a nice way with people, like you do at church or the bowling alley.

To be sure, there are the usual Lonely Millenials and teenage boys wanting to grief and play war games. But the scope for griefing is limited there. It is nerfed from what it once was in Will Wright's day when an entire mafia called the Sim Shadow Government was able to form and thrive and take over all the skill and money lots like a RL mafia.

I like making lots in the category that has a name like "Fun" or "Wacky" or whatever, and that's where I started Flamingo Court/Motel of Last Resort in 1999 in the beta for the Sims Online. Yes, it is the oldest motel in the Metaverse. I have it in SL; I put it in FSO as well altho I rarely go to FSO now.

I go to FSO usually when SL becomes so unworkable for me, that I can't do anything in it. I can't move or create things. I may be able to take care of customers -- but barely.

SL has gotten like that for me on one of my computers -- and for many of my tenants. It just doesn't work. PBR killed SL for them. No amount of new viewers fixes it. I was fortunate I got my other computer fixed (it won't last) and I can now see and move again despite PBR. I can see an end state to this proposition and will go back to FSO just because I like the tools, the people, etc. and it even has a 3D version now (I don't use it, and prefer 2D).

After you skill up, then go to a money lot, then socialize and talk to people about politics or your RL pets or whatever, then what? You can build out your lot, which is fun, but the joy doesn't last long. You are not in a contiguous world. People see you only if they find you, and for that you have to keep trying to get into the view on the top lots. It's a small enough world that some people will just drop in because they see your build from the world map or they are just adventurous.

An open sim type of world might be more satisfying for those who like to build and who want really realistic adult activity or the kind of socializing that involves real live music, clubs with lots of animations, etc.

A man in TSO once started a radio you could listen to while playing TSO, aimed at TSO sims, as the residents (not the regions) are called. His name was Mister NoCal. He took requests inworld to play on his essentially Internet-radio station/shoutcast server set-up to be heard in TSO.

I then took the URL to his radio station and pasted it into my SL property so that TSO refugees could hear our beloved Mister NoCal, who was quite popular on the skill lots for his funny stories.

My request to Mister NoCal was Rober Palmer's "Which of Us is the Fool?"

 

Edited September 25 by Prokofy Neva

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

I'm one too, I started SL with Toast Bard and Barnesworth Anubis in 2004. We met in the sims online and they went on to be pretty prolific creators in sl. I still hope that someday the sims franchise will get back to being an online multiplayer game. The Sims is kind of weird and quirky and always appeals to me. I still build houses in sims4. 

@Prokofy Neva how would you feel about a new version of TSO? 

 

i think I lived in Jolly Pines

[Blush Bravin]

I was Becca Sanders in Jolly Pines. I owned a pretty popular "store" for awhile. Sold it for a nice big profit too. I loved TSO. Still play Sims4 fairly often. I love playing rags to riches! When the writing was on the wall that TSO was pretty much done for, I moved on to SWG. Loved that game too. 

Edited September 26 by Blush Bravin

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

10 minutes ago, Blush Bravin said:

I was Becca Sanders in Jolly Pines.

wow! we were neighbours in TSO and in SL when I had land in the city sims!

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Me: Sims 2 offline.

Loved it at first and was really good at it.

But, I hated it towards the end as the limited quota of house objects decreased and ran out, which caused me frustration, which then remarkably coincided with "accidental" pool drownings and Sims trapped inside "random" windowless, doorless smaller rooms which "magically" appeared somehow (!) in my filthy disease-ridden houses. 

😎

Edited September 26 by SarahKB7 Koskinen