Playing the Sims Online is fun, addicting, and appealing to all age groups, both male and female, worldwide! A whole new "virtual world" awaits the person who pays the $9.99 monthly subscription to The Sims Online. This virtual world is open-ended, that is, it become what the players make of it. Players can live chat with others while doing tasks or performing actions, either independently or interacting with another sim. Among the most popular actions are hugging, dancing, and kissing, but also include things like High-5, juggling, shaking hands, nyah-nyah action, belching, slapping, or even pile-driving another sim! All actions will have either a positive or a negative effect on the other sim's social meter, and ultimately decide whether the two sims become friends or enemies. You can role play anything you can imagine, from running a Skills Ranch to a chain of Wedding Chapels. There is something for everyone in The Sims Online, just waiting for you to create it!. The Sims Online was released to the public in December 2002 by the Maxis division of EA Games, and is a live chat MMORPG game that is much like the most popular pc game of all time. The Sims. The Sims Online is rated "T" for teens 13 and up, and has a profanity filter that can be parentally controlled, but caution should be excercised for those under 18 since the open-ended game and chat in "real time". There is a complete Parental Block feature available which prevents a user from being able to see any user generated text in game which includes profiles and chat, as well as property names and descriptions. The game is complimented by a strictly moderated live forum for all users.

To begin play, first you must create your sim and choose a city to reside in, though moves between the cities, or servers, will be possible for your sim as long as only one sim resides in any given city at a time. You can create a sim that is either male or female in a wide variety of skin tone and head choices, which cannot be changed later, although the clothing can be changed at any time. You can even create a bear, alien, robot, mime, clown, santa, gorilla, or monstrous sim, but the most popular choice remains the 'human' likeness. You can write your own profile to fit your new role play character or to tell about your real self, it is up to you. In all but one city in TSO (The Sims Online) you will have to control every aspect of your sim's existence; he or she will not be able to move without direction from you. The exception city being Betaville, or the "free will" server, where sims can exist autonomously just like in the original pc game version of The Sims. Betaville also has spontaneous fire, which you will not find in any other city in TSO. Betaville is an unfinished product full of technical glitches, which make the already challenging game play even more difficult. Betaville allows for players to create not just one sim, but four on the same account to live as a family, and switching between 4 different sims is four time the fun!

Once you have created your sim, your sim will have $10,000 "simoleans" or in game currency, which will not go very far. Your sim will need to earn their own simoleans, which is better accomplished once your sim has acquired some type of skill. There are six possible skills: Mechanical, Cooking, Charisma, Body, Logic, and Creativity, and it is wise to choose only one to excel at in the beginning.  Each skill has at least two specific in game items that can be used later to earn simoleans. Once decided upon, the sim can gain that skill by looking under the "Skill" category of the property listings for a place specializing in that particular skill, where you will be sure to find the object; required to gain the skill as well as other skillers to help your skill speed. Sims that skill in groups of six or more achieve the fastest speed for skill gain. Once  your sim has accomplished a skill, with 20.99 possible points being the highest paying, then your sim can searh the "Money" category of properties for a place that specializes in earning money with your skill. There may be single user objects available, and just like skilling, sims earn more in groups, with 13 sims collectively working on the same type object earning the most money, depending on each skill level. To get top pay, a sim must have both maxed skill and 13 other sims to work with at the same time. There are also four group money-making objects requiring specific skill from each player and a cooperative effort to earn simoleans as a group. Many seasoned players are happy to teach new players how to use the Pizza, Code, Maze, and Band objects, but it is always easiest to start earning money on the single money objects such as Preserves (also referred to as "Jam tables") for cooking skill, Chalkboards and Potion table for logic skill, Gnome workbenches for mechanical skill, Typewriters or Paint Easels for creativity skill, Pinatas for body skill, and Telemarketing phones for Charisma skill. Your sim can also have a job as a waiter/waitress, as a DJ, as a Night Club dance, or in a Robot Factory, and go to work in a carpool.

While skilling your sim or making simoleans, you can chat with the other players in the community lot, or by private messaging. Who knows, you may forge lasting friendships with players from your own country, or perhaps another! Acquiring sim skills also enables a sim to craft special objects in game, but this requires two skills to be quite high at the same time. Skills will decay over time, so sims that wish to have more than one skill in their young sim-life will have to keep working on their skills. A skill lock of 20 points is given a new sim, but the older the sim becomes the more locks they will earn, at the rate of 1 point lock every three weeks. Also while skilling, making simoleans, visting nightclubs, casinos, or just hanging around your home in game, you will have to take care of your sim's needs! Your sim will neeed to eat, sleep, bathe, socialize, use the toliet, and have fun all at regular intervals, so you always have something to do! I you neglect  your sim's need for very long, he or she could actually die. The change is not permanent, however, more of an inconvenience, and the dead sim in their ghostly appearance can haunt other sims until thay can revived or until the alotted time has passed and then the sim is automatically restore by the game. During the ghostly period however, sims cannot skill, earn money, or interact normally with other sims.

Another aspect of the game is being able to build a home or business. The in game building tools are easy to use, and allow for unlimited creativity. There are landscaping plants, floors, wallpapers, and roof colors in a wide variety of choices. Building can be quite expensive, particularly for larger lots. Most new users find that becoming a roommate somewhere while gaining skills and saving up simoleans is the best way to go. In time your sim can move out and build their own house. Furnishing a sim house has all sorts of possibilities for style and theme, with hundreds of furniture and decoration stylings to choose from. The owner of a lot can choose who can become a roommate, and can also kick roommates out. Roommates cannot take objects belonging to others in the home they live in, and it is widely acceptable for all roommates within the lot as well as all visitors to be able to use all furniture and objects located there.

There are pets in game to play with, for an additional dimension to the game. Cats, dogs, parrots, fish, iguanas, and turtles. The most popular are of course cats and dogs, which are available in a variety of realistically reproduced breed types. Some pets are rarer than others, such as Tigers, Cheetahs, Afghan Hounds, St. Bernards, Pink Poodles, Purple Turkish Cats, and a Robo Cat and Dog; all of which can cost from 75,000 simoleans up to 10 million! The in game worth is determined by the players. Many users like to colllect "rare" items such as these pets, as well as decorative objects and "anniversary gift" given to players for longevity in The Sims Online. Therse "rares" are popular in eBay auctions, and represent an unusual but very active sector of on line auctions first seen demonstrated by another EA Game, Ultima Online. These on line auctions for virtual property have served as a "pulse point" for how well the game is prospering. (You can find TSO items from time  in My Store.)

Success as a lot owner are driven by the game's Visitor Reward system. There is a "top 100" list that evidences the success of a lot to attract and keep visitors, measured in "visitor hours". Some lot owners resort to a type of bribery known as "payouts" to attract visitors, but actually is entirely unecessary, and promotes a greedy society as well as a lazy one! If a property provides what sims are looking for, as well as more expensive, fast "motive improving" items for raising the need bars, they will come. Look for strategy guides I have written, also in My Store . As a beta tester (referred to by Maxis as a Founder) of TSO, I have played the game and explored every aspect of it for 4 years now, and can share with you the tried and true strategies for success in the game via my Strategy Guides. My guides contain helpful hints, tips, and ideas for havung a succelsful store, skill house, money lot, or crafting business in game, as well as general tips for playing the game well. I do not list any type of cheats on eBay,   nor do I recommend any,  I only share my experience and pass on to you what I have learned the hard way. Over the years there have been some who emerge using programs or methods not allowed in game to cheat the simolean earning system, and have cheated themselves out of the rich and rewarding experience that the game was designed to be.