I miss you bunches!! <3

From: MaxisLuc <MaxisLuc@maxis.com>
Date: Jan 31, 2008 10:30 PM
Subject: EA-Land
To: Former Members of The Sims Online

Dear Former Member of The Sims OnlineI would like to introduce you to EA-Land, an online world that is free-to-play, and based on a re-engineered The Sims Online architecture.  Yes, FREE.
(to see an HTML version of this letter please go to http://ea-land.ea.com)

We have played The Sims Online together, my avatar is MaxisLuc (yes, I work for Maxis/EA.) I wanted you to know that at the beginning of last year, I assembled a team to improve The Sims Online. After months of ongoing hard work, we can proudly say that we have been successful and we have made this game fun again! I am writing to you because I would like to invite you to rejoin us in the game. You can come back for free right now by just downloading the game (here: http://ea-land.ea.com/register/freeTrial.php). If you do so before March 2008, you can get your earned privileges back (gifts, skill locks etc.), but most importantly, you can re-join the game before the rush of new users.

EA-Land will host all of The Sims Online cities.

The Sims Online was made of 12 different cities (AlphaVille, Blazing Falls, etc..) and we are moving all of those cities inside EA-Land (this is called ‘the merge’ by the users!). We have a huge new map: it is 100 times bigger than the previous size of any city. We had to add a whole new zoom level to let users see it. The internet is faster now, so we have been able to let each house have more simultaneous visitors.  A lot of new users are constantly joining us and we expect more. As you have played TSO before, I think that you ought to own your lot in this new land, and I want you to have the ability to grab the best location before we open the gates. As an EA-Land subscriber, you will be able to have several Sims in the same ‘city’ unlike in TSO where you were limited to one Sim per city.

RE-designed with Smart Users

We have a blog (http://www.tso-e.com ) where we explain all the things we are working on and the events we are running in the game. We also have a very active wiki web site (http://www.game-blueprints.com ) managed by the community where you can work with others to design the game. We have already implemented many features designed by the users! The stratics forum community continues to be very active. We have made some big changes to the game, and many more are coming over the next few months. It is difficult to say which of the recent changes are the most important as users have different reasons to play the game, but let me tell you about the changes that I particularly like:

Custom Content

Users now have the ability to upload custom content. Like in the original Sims game, the goal is to let you customize the game completely, but in EA-Land you can see and buy the customizations of the other players! Players have already uploaded several thousands pieces of custom content. I suspect that by some time this year, all of the content of the game will have been replaced many times over by custom content. We started with the ability to upload bitmaps (easiest for the new creative users), then moved on to chairs and sculptures. You can now make your own portraits in the game and “skin” objects like in Sims2 by using your own images. Because we are approving all of the content, this user content is safe to be viewed by everyone! We are working with the main user web sites that have been providing custom content to the Sims users for years (e.g. http://www.TheSimsResource.com) to make sure that their content will be made available in the game.

New Economy

We heard from the community that the economy was broken in TSO. That was true, too many users were billionaires, and the goal of the game was mostly about extracting money from Maxis. I can now say with satisfaction that we have fixed the economy on EA-Land. This took many features, from establishing a real estate market, where users can easily buy or sell lots to one another, and a dynamic object pricing market where the prices of objects purchased from Maxis is based on supply and demand, enabling stores and entrepreneurs to earn a living. We also enabled users to buy simoleans directly from Maxis. While there is no need for users to do so in the game (we give subscribers simoleans every week), it can help new users build their dream house faster with a simple paypal transaction secured by us.

Web Services and Social Networks

The internet has changed so much since the launch of The Sims Online in December 2002, we had to change the way we think about online games. We have opened the access to most of the in game information to the internet through web services. For example this enables you to add Google or Yahoo widgets to your computer (or iPhone! ) and see if your favorite lots or friends are online. We are providing you with privacy settings so you can decide if or which of your avatars will broadcast what information to the internet. Sims User web sites are already using this feature to create some amazing community sites. We also built avatarbook, to show how that information can be seen and connected to social web sites like Facebook © (login to the “avatar book” application at http://apps.facebook.com/avatarbook where you can search for MaxisLuc’s profile page)

And there’s more to come! We are looking forward to seeing you back in the game and having fun with us again!

Sincerely

Luc Barthelet,
“MaxisLuc”

I just had to re-install The Sims Online onto a new machine and discovered the procedure changed slightly from the last time. 

Simply visit https://ea-land.ea.com/register/freetrial.php and at the bottom you’ll see the DOWNLOAD option.. you don’t even have to log in at that point.  Also, if you have a slow connection… it’s a HUGE download.. for $5 (U.S. via Paypal) they’ll send it to you on DVD.  Sweet!

Now we all hold our breaths for the merge to happen and to see what will eventually happen with their graphics upgrade.  Out of three machines, only one of mine has been able to launch “Test Center 3 - Test” without error, and even then performance was poor. 

 Seth of Sovereign Skills pays up after losing bet to Paulina about who would pull the first rare.

December officially marked the year where Dodge turned 5 years old. Yes he started playing in Beta and has been playing TSO since then.  His skill house Newbies has been on the Map in Mount Fuji forever, and any new player coming to Mount Fuji one way or another had the pleasure of skilling there. It is an Institution that has survived Mount Fuji’s up’s and down’s and will continue to be a big part in the upcoming merge.So in honor of Dodge’s 5 year survival, Mana threw a fantastic Surprise Party on the 30th at her skill lot. Dodge was able to attend, with the help of some of his roomies that wheeled him there . Mana did a great job and was a excellent Hostess. Even though the plan of all sims hiding under the Balloons caused a great deal of chaos and Dodge arrived during the hiding process lot’s of fun was to be had. We had live entertainment with the help of DJDaw over at Dragonwings radio. And even though Dodge was surrounded by a lot of woman that wished him well he still was able to make a few wheelies in his Wheelchair out on the street.

December 31st brought on another Party at Newbies. Garth had the time of his life ringing in the New Year and did a great job with the prizes give-away. Mal and Brooke did wonderful being great Hostesses and making sure all Sims where drinking , eating and be merry. Once again Dragonwings Radio was on hand to help us celebrate, and Daw did a great job even though her voice was slowely leaving her. Hope you feel better Daw :)  Hugs where plenty at midnight. And even though we had several time zones present, Mount Fuji residents didnt mind celebrating it over and over again.  Since we all know we love parties in Mount Fuji.

So when you come to Mount Fuji, be prepared to meet the oldest living Sim there and to have a good time, because I know I did.

Come ring in 2008 on New Years Eve, Monday December 31 at 9pm eastern time.  The party’s at Newbie Job Skill center in Mount Fuji.  We’re also celebrating Dodge’s 5th year on TSO with contests, giveaways and door prizes.  Lot’s of fruits and crafts!

This seems to work for a lot of people who are caught in the “verifying update” loop.

At the initial sign in screen, choose “Test Center 3″ and press login.  It’s okay if you don’t play in TC3, you just need to get to the screen where it shows the three sims.  Once you’re there, log out.

Now try logging back in under “The Sims Online” - the game will repatch and with any luck at all you’ll be back in the production cities.

My theory is the TC3 (ie: EA Land) servers have priority on the bandwidth and that’s why the update is failing for production city players.

Or you could start the rumor that they’re trying to get everyone into TC3 and doing evil tricks to get them there.

Hope that works for those of you that still can’t get in and if you discover any other tricks, please post them here or let me know so I can post them.

Happy Simming!

p.s. - Thank you Nichole for putting the fire under my tush to publish this!

I know this is old news for some, but as you can tell by the lack of posting here we’re really tapped out for news stories!!!

I just wanted to share an old resource that I have just discovered, a page on the Wiki with some solutions to a few of the newer EALand related issues some of you are experiencing.

Game-Blueprints Errors FAQ