Posted on: Wednesday, December 18, 2002
'The Sims' build online neighborhood
By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Best-selling video game "The Sims" now connects players via the Internet. The game involves creating characters and a virtual world for them to live in, complete with school, marriage and neighbors. |
Alison Jaeger has designed her own house. She has yet to figure out how to afford a toilet, a bed or furniture.
Alison is 11, and in the video-game world of "The Sims," her alter ego is Cassandra, a grade-schooler making her way through virtual reality.
The game the Koko Head Elementary School fifth-grader from Hawai'i Kai got for Christmas last year is still among her favorites. The game is so popular that 20 million copies of "The Sims" and its expansion packs have sold worldwide. Released in 2000, "The Sims" is the best-selling PC game ever.
An online version of "The Sims" went on sale recently ($49.95 for the software), and hordes of gamers are signing up to fork over a $10 monthly fee allowing them to move into "The Sims" neighborhood.
The online attraction is expected to break even bigger than individual video-game sales in the business. "The Sims Online" already has made the cover of Newsweek.
The $10-a-month price doesn't fit into Alison's real-life allowance budget — and her mom, Jacky Jaeger, is a little leery of letting her play with strangers. But she does see the benefit of letting Alison test out the simulated reality of "The Sims," where players re-create ordinary life in a suburban setting, get jobs, meet friends and make money.
"I was skeptical of it, because I'm not big on computer games unless there's something educational to it," Jacky Jaeger said. But since her daughter began playing, Alison has learned about managing money, setting up a household and solving problems.
"The Sims" pulls in participants by being a continuing drama.
Makiki Video has trouble keeping anything Sims-related in stock. It appeals to people looking for a mellower, nonviolent game than most of them out there, said manager Penny Wilia, who has played SimCity but also is a fan of Grand Theft Auto.
At Gamestop in Pearlridge, free demos of "The Sims Online" are available, said assistant manager Lance Yamada.
"Sims is actually a very popular game, especially among the female audience," he said. "It's been called kind of the soap opera of computer games."
Alison has experienced some of life's lessons in "The Sims" universe: Get an "F" in school and you'll be sent to military school for good. Oh, yeah, and she's learned about taxes.
"It kind of taught me you can't always have everything you want," she said.
For hard-core gamers, "The Sims" social life is about to expand dramatically as the PC world transfers to the Net. Real-life players in the real-time drama are expected to number in the hundreds of thousands as the game launches.
In the online Sims universe, there will be block parties to look forward to and growing pains that could make the game a bit more of a challenge.
You can find the game at www.TheSimsOnline.com. It bills itself as a massive world built by thousands of players. "Create a Sim and play yourself or your alternate Sim persona." the Web site says. "Explore neighborhoods, make friends or run a business. The only limit is your imagination."
Critics say the drawbacks are that it's time-consuming, it takes a long time to set up the options and it can be addictive.
Wilia finds the recurring fee a little too real-life.
"I'm too cheap for that," she said.
Reach Tanya Bricking at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026.
