EA's Sims Online Is A Flop And Other MMORPG Musings

Ignorant Aardvark writes "Wired has an article out about the upcoming Multiplayer Games Summit at E3. Some of the interesting parts of the article: 'The Sims Online has sold 125,000 copies retail, has been discounted from $50 to as low as $20 on Amazon and has 97,000 active subscribers.' Compare that to EverQuest, with 470,000 subscriptions. Investment analyst Michael Pachter says of TSO: 'They took a very popular franchise that's a single-player game in which you play with dolls, and when you play with dolls, they follow rules and behave in predictable ways. With The Sims Online, you're playing real people, and real people don't behave the way you'd expect them to.' And here's the gem of the article: 'Consumers might not be responding well to paying individual subscriptions for single online games, but might react better to cable TV-like pricing in which they get access to a number of offerings for a flat fee.' Does anyone see this pricing system as being more successful?"

Comments

Re:Forgive my ignorance

[MindStalker]

Actually there are a few like that, I believe anarchy online if free for a month and except the download time the software is free too :)

Valid question.

[Inoshiro]

] Can you even play Sims Online in single-player mode?

*Notes the "Online" in the title, as opposed to the lack of such in "The Sims"

It's a valid question. Phantasy Star Online has an offline, single-player mode (as well as an offline, multi-player mode).

On the Dreamcast, Next Tetris Online Edition worked fine offline as well (it had online features to suplement it, though).

Just because something has online in the title, doesn't make it an exclusively online game. Which is why that question is valid, and should be replied to seriously.

Re:Double pay?

[nvrrobx]

Sirius Satellite Radio. XM Satellite Radio.

DirecTV. Dish Network.

AT&T Wireless. Cingular. Sprint PCS. Nextel. (insert your carrier here).

Enough said.

Now, on the other hand, I do agree with the fact that I don't want to pay $50 for the game, then $10 a month. How about $15 for the game, then $10 a month? I'd be okay with that. Hell, make me pay $50 for the game, and include like three free months of service with it. That's okay with me.

EverQuest turned me off at the idea of $50 per expansion pack, on top of the $9.89 a month to play it. No thanks.

skotos.net has 7 games 1 price

[herderofcats]

I noticed that Skotos www.skotos.net has 7 games now for a single montly subscription price. These games include two 3D graphic games, three 'prose' games (two are MUD-like, one is MUSH-like), a strategic space war game, and a multiplayer card game. They have also announced more on the way, including a horror game called 'Lovecraft Country'.

The first month is free, so you can try all the games before you commit.

-- Herder of Cats

Why The Sims Online Failed

[PepperedApple]

I'm one of the 28,000 who bought the game and then canceled my subscription. I actually beta tested it for a few months before it came out.

TSO failed because it eliminated all the things that made The Sims popular:

1. Designing your dream house - without cheat codes designing a house was unaffordable, and earning money in the game was a boring waste of time.
2. Designing custom material - if you search google you'll find hundreds of sites with downloadable skins, furniture, decarations and houses. People made objects with photoshop and mesh editors, and people loved them so much they would pay real life $$ to download.
3. Playing God - in The Sims you controlled a character or family in a god-like way. Sometimes they would ignore your commands, and if you didn't tell them to do anything they would manage on their own - eating, peeing, going to work. In TSO you are your sim. If you don't tell it to do anything it'll just stand there.

When I called up to cancel they offered me a free month, but I declined. It was an unrewarding waste of my time.