I always thought that playing the Sims online with other people would be fun, but didn’t want to pay a monthly fee for something I could play offline for free (after paying for the PC game). Now that EA has launched a free version of The Sims Online, I wanted to give it a try. My first impression is that it’s just a chat room with a bunch of actions and gestures your Sim can perform. It seems that you can’t enter certain types of lots with the free service, but you can go to a job and make simoleans. I think only paid subscriptions can own land/lots, and therefore sell items and provide free services (such as exercise machines and food). By going to lots you can build your skills up (although it takes a MUCH longer time to build up a skill online than in the PC game). And you can build up relationships with other Sims online, but this seems to take a long time too. You can get promoted at your job the same as the PC game – building skills and making friends. I guess it’s possible to buy items, but I don’t think they’d be useful unless you had your own land. It’s nice to chat to other Sims, but I don’t see a purpose to the other things available to the free players. I guess they need to entice the free members to upgrade to the pay service. If the monthly fee isn’t too high, I might think about it. But I don’t think I’ll become addicted with the free service.
Here’s an article I read that introduces it: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/25/ea-turns-the-sims-online-into-free-ea-land-second-life-competitor/
Even though EA Land has the same look and feel as The Sims 1 for PC, one advantage to that over Sims 2 is that the lots load very quickly!
Heya –
Free accounts in EA-Land can choose to place avatars in either EA-Land, the city, or in the game city of Test Center 3. Test Center 3 offers unrestricted play to free accounts … but it also is the city that is used for testing the builds to EA-Land.
I hope you give the free account another shot.
Free players can own lots in EA Land, only a size 1 lot. You can live in a store, restaurant, service lots, clubs, games lots, residential lots …..
In Test Center 3 (another city in EA Land), free players have unrestricted gameplay.
There is also custom content and almost weekly improvements and updates…
this game is very much worth trying !!! it is so much fun!
a reminder – the game is in beta.
were do you get the download?