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Sims Online, The

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6.0 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 23 critic reviews
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Based on 17 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Maxis

Genre(s): Simulation, Strategy

Players: Thousands

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: December 17, 2002

Summary

The Sims Online is a virtual world built from the imaginations of thousands of players like you -- an unpredictable, alternate reality where you are both spectator and participant. Build a network of friends to enhance your power, wealth, reputation and social standing. Explore neighborhoods, create crazy locations, or host wild events to entertain others. In this massive and never-ending online event you become a Sim, choose your role and find your destiny. [Electronic Arts]

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Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Maxim Online

Unlike the previous Sims games, all of these citizens are controlled by actual people. In other words, you might want to double-check the genders of those two cuties before you try to score the world’s first virtual hot-tub ménage à trois.

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GamePro

There’s just one problem with The Sims Online: It’s almost not a game. The slow-paced activities rely so heavily on social interaction that in some ways it feels like a glorified chat room.

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Game Informer

The Sims Online has retained the je ne sais quoi that makes its brethren so fun to play. [Mar 2003, p.89]

GMR Magazine

A game that no review can adqeuately describe, since the possible experiences are virtually limitless. Is it a game or a playground? Play it and decide for yourself.[Feb 2003, p.66]

Computer Games Magazine

It's a game about nothing... It's a world entirely in the hands of its players, so the possibilities for creativity and expansion are virtually endless. [Apr 2003, p.74]

Armchair Empire

While there is room for improvement, the great feature about The Sims Online is the ability to update and add content at the game sign-on menu. (Maxis’ intends to add new material to The Sims Online for at least 2 or 3 years.)

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G4 TV

Makes for surreal fun with a strangely addictive quality, and, if anything, it has seemingly endless potential. Like the stand-alone versions of the game, The Sims Online is what you make of it.

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GameNow

Cooperation is key. It's easier and faster to do everything with the help of other Sims. [Mar 2003, p.55]

GameZone

If the idea of chat rooms appeals to you, if the idea of stepping outside yourself and trying on a different life and face (even a polar bear’s head) is something you would enjoy, this could well be the game for you.

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IGN

While there are similar problems with the original "The Sims," the element of time and quantified social interactions provided a real sense of challenge and conflict that's completely missing here.

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TotalGames.net

A major problem (though one that is sadly unavoidable) is the way in which activities can’t be fast-forwarded... The result is that a great deal of time is spent watching a Sim doing something utterly trivial and dull.

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Gamers' Temple

The greatest chat room ever, or the most boring online game in quite a while?

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PC Gamer

Extremely social chatters will enjoy it, but everyone else will be thumb-twiddling. [Mar 2003, p.96]

Gaming Age

Can be as mundane as real life... You’ll have to invest virtual sweat and tears to make it a worthwhile experience.

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GameSpot

Though the game's developer plans to make many additions to the game, for now, The Sims Online lacks many of the options that made the original game so intriguing, and it doesn't really replace them.

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PC Gameworld

Will entertain for a while, but will become old fast. People interested in a chat room environment will find some fun here, but others, especially fans of the previous games, may feel cheated.

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All Game Guide

Sartre once noted, "Hell is other people." The Sims Online is strictly for those who would disagree.

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GameSpy

It's fun as a chat room, but has a lot of growing to do as a game.

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Computer Gaming World

You'll be praying for at least a competent if not sparking conversationalist... For now, the game is pretty boring. [Apr 2003, p.104]

Adrenaline Vault

Even when it works, The Sims Online has little to offer beyond serving as a graphical instant messenger with an economy.

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Yahoo! Games

Unlike the offline game, The Sims Online lacks the mad energy and pleasant frustration of managing a complex system of happiness, goals and limited time.

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FiringSquad

The chat interface is a poorly organized mess. Guiding your sim through necessary activities requires too much real time hand-holding and should have been better automated.

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Game Revolution

The Sims Online is burdened by an intense emphasis on drudgery and an amazing lack of emphasis on fun - unless it's a quick pit stop at a pool table or in front of a TV to juice up your Sim's Fun meter to prepare for more work. That's just a little bit too much like real life for my tastes.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kasey G. gave it a10:
Love It

Andrea gave it a9:
The sims online is pretty good i guess i've never really plaed it but i've played the other sims so the sims online must be great to because most of the other sims games rock.

Brad D. gave it a 5:
This game lied to me. It told me it was really fun and interactive. Like The Sims only online. But instead I got a big chat room where you get to see yourself cybering w/ other people. This game is very fun....for the first 20 minutes. Then it gets stupid and repetitive. It promised a chance for people to escape their own lives and make a new one but instead it presented the world with a virtual reality where the world is controlled by the first 30 small businesses that popped up and not enough work in the engine to be anything like the real world. And if you guys think ten bucks is a lot then you obviously dont play MMORPGS becuase most of them cost more.

PIPI sushii gave it a 10:
I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! But im not all that crazy that I have to pay $10 dollors a month. It might be better if you lowered the price to $5. Maybe other people would LOVE it too.

Sungirl gave it a 0:
Looks stupid... real stupid.

Lori T. gave it a 2:
Its great if you love to chat and be able to do so with a character. The game itself lacks all the fun and challenge of all the other sims games. Too much time to skill build and to constantly have to re do that because of decay makes the game boring as hell. Needs alot of imagination if its going to last.

Han D. gave it a 6:
The game holds more value, if you download it and don't pay for it.

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Sims Online, The

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