IGN Preview of The Sims Online

"This time around, Will Wright may not have invented a brand new genre as he did with both SimCity and The Sims, but he may have done something more amazing -- taking the best aspects of community-building on the web and putting them into what looks is going to be one hell of a game."

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The Sims Online

Will Wright's next trick -- the chat room as game.

May 22, 2001
E3 2001

"This game isn't about killing," Will Wright tells a room full of potential investors in the middle of E3. "It's about socialization."

That may be a strange way to sell a game, but if anyone can convince people to pay a monthly fee for a game that doesn't involve nuking, fragging, or otherwise pixelizing your fellow players, it's Will Wright. His designs fly in the face of the rest of the industry and its linear, goal-oriented games, but two of his open-ended 'software toys' -- The Simsand SimCity -- are among the most successful and original games in the biz.

I'm sitting in the back of the room, scribbling furiously as Wright begins his presentation. He clicks rapidly through a series of screens and a topographical map of a fictional world swims into view. It shows a blank expanse of terrain -- a coastline, a river, a forest, sort of like the empty green slate at the beginning of SimCity. Then he clicks on one of the icons on the map and we zoom in on a complete house, custom-built by a player, with the kind of tiles and furniture and interior decoration you find in The Sims. But this isn't someone's house, it's a casino another player made as a business enterprise. There's a free market economy in this game (based on Simoleons, of course), and every shopkeeper and customer is another player controlling another Sim. And once the game is beta-tested in earnest, hundreds and thousands of these houses, offices, and buildings will be popping up all over the game world.

Every server will be its own city, but they won't be clones of each other. The plan is to have some on the coast, some in the mountains, each with a character of its own. Wright also expects players to group themselves by interests and hobbies -- a Western-themed town over here, sci-fi fans over here, a fantasy world over here. "It'll probably end up like Disneyland where the players are building the rides," Wright says.

The graphics look very similar to what was in The Sims but the interface has many new features. You can set your character's mood, and to further emphasize it, go through some elaborate hand or body language to make your point. You can also set your Sims' interests, hobbies, and other characteristics so people will know what you like. "We looked at online dating services to see how people liked to personalize things," he says.

Over and over Wright emphasizes that the game is about getting players together to interact, and that's done in a dozen different ways. There are 'jobs' players can go to where they must cooperate with each other in order to get paid. There are built-in mini-games like chess, checkers, card games, and blackjack to help pass the time. Players may have to pool resources to afford a larger plot of land or go into business together. He's even taken a number of familiar community-building tools from the Internet, stuff like bulletin boards, instant messaging, and searching for people by interests. "This could be the ultimate chat program," he says.

This time around, Will Wright may not have invented a brand new genre as he did with both SimCity and The Sims, but he may have done something more amazing -- taking the best aspects of community-building on the web and putting them into what looks is going to be one hell of a game.

Frankly, this game has me a little worried. If EverQuest is as addictive for crack for some people, then for other people, this going to be pure uncut heroin.

-- Jason Bates