We’re all used to our old, deteriorating, production cities; they were always slow, lacking people, places to visit, and fun a lot of the time. Now, we’re overwhelmed! The population seems to be exploding in this five-year-old game and not from returning players but from new ones. It’s a blessing and a curse. A younger and more robust user base brings more activity and innovation but also server overloads and the dreaded rude newbies. New players require education and tolerance from older sims. Our TSO community has always been known for its reception of newbies. For the most part we’re kind, friendly, and extremely helpful, but we have never needed to be this way so often! With many news sites such as Kotaku and Gamespot reporting the recent change from paying subscription only TSO to free play EA Land, new users are signing up left and right. The learning curve for the game isn’t all that steep even if you have been on Mars, in a cave, under a rock, with your fingers in your ears missing the best selling PC game ever, The Sims. Regardless, newbies still have plenty of questions they want answered and some sims are feeling the pressure. It seems every lot has turned into a welcome one with new comers wanting to learn the ropes and many aren’t happy about it.
Putting up with goofy behavior and the repetitiveness of their questions is not worth it, especially in the absence of visitor bonus. Many contend it should be Maxis’ job to provide a 24 hour welcome house that could provide tutorials for most game play aspects. However, some people enjoy helping newbs. They say it’s very similar to real life. There are people who are only concerned with themselves and their money and those that enjoy public service and volunteering.
In either case, after the buzz dies down from all this change, the amount of new players joining should drop into a more manageable region. But for the time being, we are experiencing exponential growth.
