RIP Sims Online

http://www.ea-land.ea.com/blog/

"It is with mixed emotions that today we are announcing the EA-Land experiment will soon draw to a close. Since 2002, EA-Land / TSO has attracted a very special group of players (of which you are one) and we certainly appreciate your participation in the EA-Land community. The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena. We’d like to thank everyone who has taken part in this online community as a unique experience in the virtual world."

I know many people here came from TSO... I guess we can get ready for another influx?

As a beta tester for TSO this is sad news.

So much fun was had there in the early days. I am surprised with the new EA Land launch that they are throwing it all out right after.

TSO was my first online game and I found SL through it. There are some long term players that are going to be very sad indeed.

It's EA... liminate (A)ll

If it''s not a sports game they can polish and repackage every year with a new dataset, they don't keep it.

Many from my in-world family came out of TSO, too, so I heard many stories of makin' gnomes an stuff. One less virtual world, I s'pose.

I never got into TSO. And I LOVE the Sims. Everytime I logged into TSO I was usually the only person around. Still sad though.

EA: We put the FU in FUN!

Awwwww. I woulda gave you a friendship balloon.

Wow.

I'd sure love to know the backstory on all this.

My heart goes out to the TSO people.

I started in the sims, was beta tester for TSO for over 18 months it seemed even played for a while but I left early in beginning of the public part of game in 2003 because I knew this was it.
And they basically didn't do anything for last 4 years, made attempt to attract more people few months ago it seems but you know I even tried to come back but I couldn't even get past the login screen or find out the information I need so I gave up.
EA got so many things going on, they really don't seem to care very much about what their
more creative clients want.
It all about pushing new products that people will buy.
I was so annoyed after buying many Sims and EA products I quit.
I haven't bought or knowingly bought a EA product since 2003 because they pissed me off to many times.
Just hope Linden Lab's can learn from mistake of other similar companies before it's too late.

I think they heard the collective yawns / farts in their general direction and decided to save the money. Didn't we all laugh at it here? A second-rate SL with candy colored logo.

Yep FD, this is pretty much the way it went for me too. I LOVED it in beta days. It was tons of fun in beta days (the bugs helped make it hillarious). Lots of great friends, new content, etc.

I was surprised it lasted as long as it did to be honest. When they rolled out the free accounts lately and the ability to cash out simoleons for RL money for premium accounts I thought it was going to see a second wind. It didn't last long at all though.

I made my beta test character again when they made the free accounts possible. I logged in, found a skill house and set down to start raising my cooking. It was so boring after an hour that I logged off and that was the last time I went in.

True, but for a lot of us that was our first virtual world. I doubt I would have tried places like There and SL if it hadn't been around.

I think if it wasn't them, it would have been someone else.

No doubt. But they did come out pretty early. They handled the beta test program really smart too.

Dagon Grimm my first alt was born January 23, 2003 shortly after I left TSO but I really didn't play until 2006 when I created this guy TSO really sucked my desire to beta test dry.
I refuse to pay for being some big company to be beta tester again.
I am just glad TSO didn't charge for beta testing.
I paid 75 dollars for when TSO went public. I thought though 25 usd a month was just too
high and that was one of my other reasons for leaving.
Yet I realized there were other games that could nickel and dime you for a whole.
Yet in beta There.com and Second Life did and I thought it was weird for many years.
Second Life I don't know if they charged right away like there did but it was so complex and confusing I found Second Life at first not user friendly nor very helpful for many years to me.
It was only until this last year I could even try to play and create.
Truthfully with all the research and experience in visiting virtual worlds of the last 10 years I have had if I was multi-millionaire I bet with right talent I could make even better world because I can see the mistakes the other companies didn't see.

When I first tried SL it was free. It was in 03. My wife and I logged in, ran around a bit and couldn't get used to the character looks. We were beta testing There at the same time. LL sent an email to inform when they would start charging by the month and offered a lifetime fee deal. There also offered a lifetime fee. I really expected There to be the dominant Virtual World because it had so many people and was extremely active with events, etc. We bought the lifetime There packages and chuckled at what we figured was arrogance on LL's part to charge so much. If ONLY I had that to do over lol.

Just made me quiver to think what I would feel like if we woke up to a blog post similar to this.

Could always happen.

I feel terrible for those people that have worked so hard amassing fortune, land, possesions, friendships etc in TSO. This is pulling the rug out from under them.

I couldn't really figure out There or Second Life very well back in 2003.
Dagon came around 12 times he did he got some freebie land and house but he was very confused newbie for long time, still is....
He sort of vanished when they were charging a prim tax and he got tired of being lonely avatar.

NVM read the article I saw wrong. Carry on.

I started TSO in 2003, and it was my first online game. I made a lot of friends there, and have a lot of great memories. I doubt I would have found SL if not for TSO.

The Sims is how I got into creating content...it did help me a whole be creative.
I just wish sometimes things here were little better and user friendly for all people to use.

Hmm it's a bit sad, I never tried it because the 2 times I tried using the free trial it failed miserably atcreating an account, so I gave up.

Same here.

Any idea how much they are pulling down yearly in tier fees? It's a lot (probably between 42 million and 64 million a year according to one person whose math is better than mine).

SL will be here for a while.