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GameSpot TSO Feature
As mentioned before, GameSpot has added their "Behind the Games" feature of The Sims Online. It's a long but interesting read. One thing that's talked about, is the original idea for TSO:
"'Originally, our idea was that you'd set up your house and it would act as a server,' recalls Wright. In essence, you would build your house offline and then open it up for online players to come and visit. 'It was going to be a lot like the matchmaking service on [Blizzard's] Battle.net,' says Wright. In other words, to visit someone else's house you'd actually connect directly to that player's computer. The idea seemed like a good compromise: It would be quick to develop, but it would also give the game online functionality."
The whole article is basically a big interview with Will Wright, designer of SimCity, The Sims and The Sims Online (amongst others). With its 13 pages, it's probably the longest feature about The Sims Online ever written so far. It even tells some things that Will is afraid of in TSO - "people spending too much time playing the game and about the illegal activity that could happen in his world". The development of TSO from the beginning until the play test and the launch of Alphaville is described. That play test was scary to quite a big part of the team, as it would show the consumer's opinion. People not pleased with the play test would base their opinion on that even though the game is still in decelopment. The result could be fewer consumers for the final version. Anyway, you should just read the whoe thing as it's too big to summarise here. A must-read for everybody: "The Endless Hours of The Sims Online". Enjoy the reading!

Written at 01:28 on Sunday, 1 December 2002 by ChEeTaH.


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