You create a simulated person or family and help them get through their daily lives as they try to decorate their homes, hold down jobs, make friends and win the hearts of the other computer-controlled "sims" in the game. Since its release two years ago, Electronic Arts has racked up worldwide sales of nearly 20 million for The Sims and its expansion packs. If you haven't heard of The Sims-the twisted-sitcom-as-computer-game from SimCity creator Will Wright-you're either a recluse or you watch nothing but C-Span. We have to be successful with this first." "A decade from now, tens of millions of people will be subscribing to games like The Sims Online. "It's the metaverse meets chat meets IM, and no one has done that before," says Electronic Arts president John Riccitiello, who sounds cautiously optimistic one month before the game's Dec.
Since The Sims, which was released in 2000, is already the best-selling PC game ever, many are predicting that The Sims Online will shoot to the top of the online-gaming charts as well. That's because for many people it's more fun to outwit, outplay and outlast a fellow human being than a computer. An additional $196 million came from subscription fees to online games, a number that is expected to grow to $1.4 billion over the next five years, according to Jupiter Research. Last year $6.35 billion worth of video- and computer games were sold at retail. It's no secret that electronic games are a big business. Could online games like this be the future of entertainment? Starting in December, thousands of people are expected to spend $10 a month for the privilege of living in Alphaville and its sister cities. Just seven days into NEWSWEEK's play test of Electronic Arts' weirdly addictive virtual life simulation, The Sims Online, we'd effectively been voted off the island.
Upon our return JB said, "You're not online enough to help the cause," and kicked us out of the house. Life in Alphaville was a 24/7 party backed by DJs and go-go dancers-with a couple of brief pauses to earn cash spinning pizzas-until we disappeared from the house for an entire weekend. To show our appreciation, we blew $2,000 of our savings on an espresso machine for the house and a pool for the backyard. We didn't even need the classifieds to find a roommate a guy named JB with a fondness for black leather pants asked us to move into his crib along with six of his buds. So when we arrived in sunny Alphaville-population: 26,900 and rising-and a couple of babes asked us to join them in the hot tub a mere 10 minutes after our arrival, we decided that small-town life wasn't so bad after all.
For diehard New Yorkers, moving to a small town where you don't know anyone isn't easy.
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