relax | TirNua's Premiere Magazine

After thinking over it, I've decided that I will have a site dedicated toward TirNua and it will cover much more broad subjects than what we covered at the EAL Herald. The site will be a magazine and will have weekly PDF publications to go along with the daily updates.

We will start looking for reporters and freelance writers this fall. We predict that the game wont be released (for beta) until Winter 08/09. This will give us much time to prepare.

Until then, check out these TirNua fan websites:
TirNua Game
TirNua Naucht
TirNua: luceat lux vestra
TirNua Central

See you this winter!
Xander Hill

TirNua Times?

Since we've closed we've had a good amount of traffic from those who didn't know EAL is closing or are just checking up for any new happenings. I'm glad that you may still come to this site for news, but there's been no big news stories in a while. Until now...

On June 5, 2008, Luc introduces us to TirNua, a new MMO game being developed by himself and many of the old TSO-e team. You may even remember their names:Audrey, Cort, Greg, Larry, Laurent, Lee, Margaret, Sarah . They've shown their compassion and love for making games in the TSO/EAL days, now they're making TirNua from the ground up and want your input! They'll be updating their blog constantly(so they say) to get input from gamers on different aspects of the game.

One aspect that Luc already revealed, and may be a big one, is enviroment.

"As some of you have already guessed from just the lovely image above, one subject of interest in Tirnua is the environment.

Next week, when the blog opens, I will start collecting your thoughts on how we could impact our real world environment, while having fun in our virtual world."

- Luc, TirNua.com

We will be bringing you up-to-date news on TirNua. It is unclear whether or not we'll actually make a newspaper/blog dedicated to TirNua. Make sure you add us to your RSS feed to get the updates fast.

EAL Herald Closed

Because of the stymied growth from EAL and the lack of communication between players and devs, the EAL Herald has decided to shut down operations. We feel that EAL is on the end of it's rope and there's no where else to go but down.

We would like to thank all of the hundreds of people who visited our site daily and we hope to see you again someday.

Thanks,
EAL Staff

Friendliest Sim in EAL: An Interview w/ Debbie Simth

Meet Debbie Simth, she is the friendliest sim in EA-Land and has over 300 friends to prove it.

EA Land Herald: Tell us a little about your sim and her simmy ways
Debbie Simth: Well, I came back after a two year absence. And I'm SO glad I did.

EALH: What made you return?
DS: I just really missed it. I went to EA to find out if the discs were still available and found the downloads. I was VERY fortunate to have come back at the perfect time.

EALH: So, did you ever think you would become the nicest sim in EAL?
DS: LOL - I think what I actually am is the most compulsive avatar in EAL. I decided about two weeks ago that I needed more friends, and I just haven't' been able to stop.

EALH: Haha, I noticed you're not that old (46 days old), must have been alot of work.
DS: It probably has, but I play a lot of hours a day. It's been so much fun, though, it just doesn't seem like work. If it weren't for the fact that I'm trying to carry skills without locks I could probably have more. But I keep a careful eye on the skills

EALH: Was it ever your goal to be the nicest sim?
DS: No, that just happened when I couldn't stop LOL. It was my goal to be on all 3 of the lists, though

EALH: And are you?
DS: Yes, I'm proud to say I have reached that goal.

EALH: How do you stay in touch with 300 sims?
DS: I spend at least 2 hours a day making sure the links don't drop below 75. After that, I spend another hour serenading people I havn't previously met. Finally - I check the people in the room I am near to being friends with, and finish the link. That takes about another hour.

EALH: It sounds like a chore?
DS: Well, I'm having so much fun with it, it doesn't seem like a chore : ) So it's good. When it start feeling like work I'll find another goal to work on.

EALH: What perks, if any, do you receive?
DS: Hmmmmmm. I guess you could count this interview as a "perk". Other than that I haven't really noticed anything. I have my personal sense of accomplishment and that makes me happy: ). It is really amazing to me that behind all these avatar friends are real honest to goodness people- from all over the world. WOW

EALH: Do you ever try to use your status to your advantage? lol or flaunt it to your 300 friends? lol
DS: LOL- I have no extra time for that! I hope I haven't flaunted it - but I AM human. I guess you'd have to ask others about that.

EALH: What feature would you most like to see added to EAL in the future?
DS: I hadn't really thought about that. I like the new features ( I get to see Jack Sparrow in the house I'm in now!), but as for new things I guess I'm not creative enough to "dream" what could be. I just roll with the flow.

EALH: Thank you so much Debbie for agreeing to this interview :)
DS: Thank you for asking! It was fun : )

Player's Choice - Part 1: Our Voice

(Because some players complained that the Special Reports are too long, I'll be breaking them down into 3 parts for this month, Enjoy)

As EAL is starting to form together as a big post-merge community, we're finding that our choices for sources of news and feedback is not only limited but also discouraging.

The Sims Online(older EAL) used to host it's own message board at it's older site "thesimsonline.com". There, players could discuss problems and have actual one-on-one interactions with Maxis devs. With the major overhaul of the site in 2003 came the termination of the Official TSO boards. Players were left to scatter across the internet and find sites that had TSO boards. Stratics has been, since 2003, the most popular TSO/EAL message board for players to voice their concerns and feedback. Parizad comments that "Stratics is not the official EAL board" and that "EA and Stratics have no relations". Meaning there is still no one site for players to gather all of their information. Because of Stratics being the largest EAL fan community, it is dubbed by players as the "unofficial EAL boards." But posting at Stratics brings new TOS rules that were never present at the old TSO boards. Rules that deny you of helping others and protecting the community.

One TOS from Stratics states,

"C. Personal attacks are prohibited. This specifically means any text/post that is blatantly attacking another person on or off the forum, especially in a personal way. This includes accusing anyone of cheating, using exploits, or scamming. Stratics does not have the ability to follow up on these claims to verify their validity, therefore they are not allowed. "

The advocates for the rule say that it protects the misaccused or innocent. But how many times has a player cried wolf over scams? For a recent example, I'll use the Bradleys. The Bradleys are the most well-known scammers in EAL. A few weeks ago the EA devs finally took care of the problem by terminating their accounts. The EAL Herald reported on it(exclusive ;) )and it so happened that we had a link on the Stratics board. The link did not even lead directly to the article. We were instantly messaged by Stratics to take down the article or remove the link from their site. We found that the truth should remain lit so we deleted our link on the Stratics site and parted ways. Stratics dosent realize how many sims.....avatars will get scammed in EAL because of the rules that restrict us from protecting other players. Even when the scammers are well-known and the EA devs took serious action because of their scammings.

Players are starting to stop and stare at Stratics's TOS and reevaluate their choices. Players have started to create their own sites with boards on them for other players to talk and discuss EAL topics freely without having to limit their speech or thought. A few examples of these sites include EA-Land Mania, EA-Lander, and EA-Land Forum. Players see are starting to see how unfairly Stratics is treating the EAL players and how they will take advantage of their high membership for their own benefit. Players are also starting to see their choices grow from one to many, as we continue to grow as a community and keep our bond strong.

Parizad Speaks, "A few people came in to do nothing but bitch and moan..."

The following is a comment made by Parizad when the topic of the EA Town Hall Meeting schedule came up on Stratics.

"I'm going to wear my heart on my sleeve in this post.

We (the whole team) works crazy amount of hours each week. We try to make it to the Town Hall whenever we can. In the past, we tried to be there religiously. As time went on, we got busier and busier. I don't know if you guys noticed that I cut back the hours posted? We'll probably cut it back some more.

The last couple of times I was there, I was so busy that I knew, absolutely knew I'd have to work until 9 p.m. or later, but I went anyway. You know what happened? A few people came in to do nothing but bitch and moan about how much we sucked. They did not have any questions or issues. They only wanted to form a mob. They kept keeping the players that actually had questions from asking them.

You have to understand, the stuff you guys post about and the feedback we get in-game... the bugs, exploits, etc, we take those very seriously. We're keep pushing ourselves to make this game better for you guys. When people come in to do nothing but whine, and do not have any suggestions on how we can better this game, it really takes a toll on me. Like I said, we're stressed, working tons of hours, and often times these people are the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Often times, it is easier to just close down the Town Hall than it is to play into their hands by reacting to their diatribes.

I can help you guys, the community, sooooo much more with the things I do behind the scenes. Whenever I can, I'll go to the Town Hall. The times posted are more of a suggested schedule"

Well we brought the heat, they ran like hell from the kitchen.

-Via Stratics

First Look: City-From Gifts (Cont'd)

Here are a few more detailed pics of the City-From markers.

First Look: City-From Markers

The EA-Land Devs announced a few days ago that they were working on giving us "City-From" gifts for our sims that merged/moved to EAL from an original TSO city. EA-Land Herald had a chance to take a first look at the markers and we have the pics here for you.

The bottom three markers are for TSO Founders, EA Land Founders, and EA Land Explorers.

More detailed pics will be posted tomorrow.

"Party Time!", Skill Speeds Raised

It’s only midday Saturday and there has already been two periods of increased skilling so far this weekend. In addition to skilling, payouts were raised significantly yesterday.

What is the cause of all this? Some speculate that this is some sort of minor compensation for the extended downtimes users have been experiencing lately. There is another promised timeframe for “Hyper skilling” later tonight with the possibility of more tomorrow. Be ready and keep an ear open as the sun goes down for another chance at increasing your skills at record speeds.

Scammed, Stolen, Trashed, Gone: The Bradleys

Many of you many already know of the Bradley's. We had an interview with them earlier this month titled "Famously Infamous". If you're new to the game, the Bradley's ran a scam house titled Free Money For Newbies that dared newbies into doing ridiculous acts for a promise of large sums of money that was never given. The well known family recently had a run in with EA staff. Their past incidents finally caught up with them when the EA staff took actions to make sure the Bradleys left the game forever.

One of the most recent attack the Bradley's orchestrated was against a roomie at the "Tonight-Show with ED" lot. The roomie, who has now left the lot for security reasons, will be known in this article as Anon. About 2 years ago, the Bradley's downloaded a keystroke program onto Anon's computer to steal the email account information. Yesterday, we learned that the Bradley's kept Anon's email account and just recently logged into the email to request the member name and password from ea-land.com. After requesting the information, the Bradley's deleted the email so Anon wouldn't see it. The Bradley's then logged onto one of Anon's accounts and completely destroyed and trashed the lot.

After a few minutes of investigation, Anon logged into another account and then caught someone else on the account she just got off of. Anon confronted them, but they logged off and then Ophelia IMed Anon. Anon then realized the situation and contacted EA staff. But it isnt the first time Anon contacted EA about the Bradleys.

Prior to the whole trashing and stealing situation Anon and a few other anonymous sims contacted EA devs about the Bradleys. The complaints ranged from being scammed to being harassed. Sources report that the EA devs have been collecting enough complaints against the Bradleys to justify a permanent termination of their accounts.

Along with the termination of the Bradleys, the Vontrells were also terminated for very similar reasons. Major scammers have finally been taken care of thanks to the players of EAL, Anon, and the EA devs.

Fixing Bugs and Exploits

The EA devs have had EA-Land down for almost 24 hours now due to the excess of bugs and exploits found in the game. The exploit found was a simolean granting exploit that has gone unnoticed by the Devs for some while now. But they assured us that they're #1 issue is to get us back into EA Land.

We also asked about if there was someone working on fixing the roof bug and Parizad replied "Yes."

EA-Land should be up by 3PM EST.

All Merged!

It's been a bumpy ride from the start of the merge to today, but we got through it! Through all the lag, bugs, and glitches, we're finally all together(except TC3). Blazing Falls and BetaVille were finally merged today. Welcome to EA-Land!


According to our poll, the majority of you would like to see all bugs fixed before EA hands out any other features. I hope they take note and fix it all. It would be nice to finally have a roof, the blue tarp isnt cutting it.

Already Merged: IH, JP, DC, MF, EJ, DG, CC, FF, AV, BV, BF

Master In the Art: An Interview w/ Thrill

We were first introduced to Thrill through the TSO-e website. He was the one responsible for publishing the helpful custom content tutorials and taking hundreds of sims step-by-step through the CC process. He was then recognized again by TSO-e because of his clever 'Car Chairs' that he uploaded. Now he's being dubbed the "Top Earning Sim in EA-Land". Thrill seems to be aiming for the stars and there's no one in the way to stop him. We wanted to get an interview with Thrill and talk about his success and his future. With so many acclamations from TSO-e and the TSO community I'm sure he wouldnt mind us calling him a Master in the Arts.

Thrill: hi Xander

EALH: Hello Thrill

EALH: How did you get your start in customizing Sims objects?

Thrill: well, i first started customizing Sims objects a few months ago, when Luc mentioned on his blog that he will allow us to upload those files


EALH: So prior to his announcement you had no experience in customizing sims objects?

Thrill: correct, i never did any customizing before that

EALH: I take it that it was easy to pick up? seeing how far you got today

Thrill: yeah, once you understand how the items work, it easy to make your own unique items

EALH: What made you want to make customizing a sim career?

Thrill: I had look forward to doing this since Luc first appeared again in TSO and offered to included custom content. At that time, I had been looking for a game to express my creativity online.
Thrill: *include

EALH: So I take it that expressing yourself drives you to create items?

Thrill: yeah, pretty much. Plus the challenge of creating new items that other sims find interesting and can add to their enjoyment

EALH: What's your favorite creation so far?

Thrill: i like the Tree Swing so far
Thrill: i'm looking forward to scripting it to make it move

EALH: Do you have experience in scripting?
Thrill: I'm a programmer in rl...
Thrill: and have done some UI work for Warcarft and scripting in Second Life

EALH: wow, so you pretty much know what you're doing

Thrill: pretty much, but everything has a certain learning curve to it
Thrill: dont mean that to sound arrogant lol.. cause i'm sure i'm not nearly as good as many others are at scripting

EALH: You said you played Second Life, how does TSO and SL differ on the creation of items? Is one easier than the other?

Thrill: TSO and SL are very different, SL has it's own in game tools where TSO you really on outside programs like 3D Studio Max and Photoshop
Thrill: *rely

EALH: What other CC uploader do you admire the most?

Thrill: there alot of CC creators that are doing cool things, some of my favorite so far are Toby Maxwell, Harley Ryder, and CntryGirl

EALH: Do you find yourself competing to create the "next big thing"? I'm sure the car chairs were a hit
Thrill: ah, yes and no... Thrill: i'm not really trying to compete with any of the other CC creators,..
Thrill: but I do try to "compete" with myself to continually try and create better objects
Thrill: I encourage all CC creators to make the best objects they can, and offer my if they get stuck. And also provide tutorials to aide with those who want to learn more

Thrill: *help

EALH: After being recognized by the TSO-e team several times do you believe the extra popularity helps your business?
Thrill: i think it has
Thrill: i find people like to stop by our shop to see what new objects we have to offer

EALH: What are your future plans for TSO?
Thrill: so far it is to just keep up with the new CC items that Maxis will allow us to create
Thrill: and try to make items that everyone will enjoy

EALH: Which future TSO feature do you look forward to the most?
Thrill: i look forward to the Scripting the most
Thrill: followed by Animations

EALH: Which current object do you look forward to the most for adding animation?

Thrill: probably sculptures, with that we can make cool fountains or aquarium type objects

EALH: I look forward to them

EALH: Thank you Thrill for letting us interview you
Thrill: ty Xander, I'm glad you had me to interview



Note: This was a "Flashback Article". Because of the recent move from one site to this one, we left behind a few articles. We still want those articles to be viewed so we're bringing them back. A few details in this article may seem irrelative or wrong. Please note that this article is old.

Custom Content Showcase 3/14

We are starting a new weekly article here at the EA Land Herald. Our reporters will scourer the cities for the best looking custom content available and bring it to our readers’ attention. We have two lovely pieces to showcase today.

This lovely piece is a Mahogany Cabinet uploaded by Rayne Morgan which can be found at CC and Household. It is made with a deep, richly colored wood along with realistically displayed items complete with reflection.

This handsome chair was uploaded by xSweet-Viviex and is entitle “Bulk Arm Chair.” I found it at Shopping MallTWO while browsing around late at night. The texturing done to this chair is gorgeous and could be proudly displayed in many home decors.

Stay tuned for future Custom Content Showcases

Tonight Show with Ed: Premiere Show

I'm sure many of you have seen the advertisements the right for upcoming entertainment lots. Well one of those lots, Tonight-Show with ED premiered yesterday to a packed house.

EA Land Herald was there and we took a few pictures for you. The talk show consisted of interviews of very well known sims in EA Land and audience giveaways. One of those guests, Tinny (CC maker), gave away some of his own CC to lucky audience members!

If you didn't get a chance to check out the premiere show make sure you check for upcoming shows!

USG White House Releases Statement Regarding Bradleys

In response to the recent article posted here on the Blog and recent skepticism surrounding the Bradley Family and the "USG Capitol", the United Sims Government has come out with an official Press Release.

"To all Citisims,

The United Sims Government is aimed at protecting all of EA Land's citisims. In recent time, local residents have filed complaints of the property in EA Land known as, "The USG Capitol." The building run by "President Bradley" is a fake. Although our offices have been initially flattered by the imitations, we in this case are not. The imitating property is NOT affiliated with USG nor is its owner, President Bradley.

We warn all citisims not to enter this property due to numerous scamming concerns. We take our reputation and safety of EA Land's citisims seriously. Therefore we ask citisims to report any suspicious activity to the Police Department. If you have been scammed, know someone who has been scammed, or have any concerns please contact, Commissioner Peglin, head of the USG Police.

In regards to who are members of the United Sims Government and those who are not, please visit our website at www.usg.moonfruit.com, or visit us at the USG White House, located under the Welcome Category. Thank you and we hope you have a pleasant, safe, and a fun day in EA Land. Happy Simming!

- Alexander Hayes, Director of Community Affairs.
- United Sims Government White House."

Famously Infamous: An Interview w/ the Bradley's

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Mrs Ophelia Bradley and Mrs Fiona Bradley of the well known Bradley family. I asked them about their history in TSO and their plans for the future in EAL. They had very interesting answers to the questions.

EALH: How did the Bradley's get their start in TSO?

Mrs Ophelia Bradley: "Well... we started by doing a few other things. We got aggravated with the AVG. It was just.. you know, stupid.
Mrs Fiona Bradley: "Formality in a game, bad idea."
OB: "So we decided to start a counter to that - Operation Opposition."
FB: "Thus, the Royal Opposition was formed."


EALH: Bradley is a well known name in TSO, why do you think that is?

OB: "Originally when we started to play, we decided on Bradley. It kind of went in hand with us from then on. I think that it's infamous because of thing that have happened.. And it's always been a very respectable name in the game."
FB: "People just...know us."


EALH: Do you think people's perception of the Bradley's being griefers is misconstrued?

FB: "Sean, I would go as far to say it is outrageous. We have always been in The Sims Online to help others."
OB: "That's really an unknown fact."
FB: "Some people see it the other way unfortunately."
OB: "People dont like to make newspaper articles about how we help the game and love to help people."
FB: "If you ask some of the veterans of Alphaville, those who dont play anymore, most would say they loved us."


EALH: An example of how you help the game and people?

OB: "Well Sean.."
OB: "Im sure you have been to several of our properties throughout our lifetime. We use to give out money by the boatloads. Just recently, we gave out sex."
FB: "We actually had a boat once"
OB: "I was going to say that Fiona. Thanks dear"
OB: "Do you remember our house boat, Sean?"

EALH: Hm, can't remember.

OB: "We gave free cruises away all of the time."
FB: "Sean, let me ask yo a question. What is your fondest memory or our family?"

EALH: Well I dont think I ever really interacted with the family back then. I just knew of you.

OB: "Im sure some of your friends interacted with us, however."

EALH: Yes



EALH: What are the Bradley's up to today in EAL?

FB: "Well, actually we have exciting news. Mother has just received word she has been appointed President of the USG!"
OB: "Isn't that fantastic, Sean?"

EALH: Yes. Where have you heard that from?

OB: "It's all across the news."
FB: "MSN most recently reported it. We really want to change EAL."
OB: "The voter that I campaigned in front of told me they were tired of Mr Sim and Jack...the"self-appointed."
FB: "It seems that to be in a position in USG, you just have to think of a clever name! Be honest Sean, how ridiculous are those police officers? They aren't even roommates!"
OB: "I like how Jason Sim is also his secret service agent"

EALH: True mostly new sims. But you are President of USG cant you change that?

OB: "Ofcourse"
FB: "Have you seen the Star Wars trilogy, Sean?"
OB: "That's why you see some people living in this house that arent Bradley's. We are here for the people, Sean. You know that."
FB: "Mother will have royal imperial guards guarding her, not Secret Service agents!"
OB: "And to top it off.. I wont play as President and Secret Service Agents, like Mr Sim."


EALH: Do any of you have anything to add?

OB: "I would like to add.. I want to thank all the sims that voted for me as President. I want to invite everyone to the Capitol.. and.. I want to give Mr McKinley-Sim and Mr Whiterstien a message.. They know who runs this town..and if they aren't careful, they wont be in this town. Fiona do you need to add anything?"
FB: "Very profound mother. Yes. I want to send this message to all those who really arent familiar with us. We are a family that has earned its reputations through our trust. We encourage all of the newbies to experience us, first-hand. That is all.


EALH: Ok. Thank you both for letting me have this interview :)


Correction: EA Land Herald checked with the United Sims Government Founders and discovered that contrary to our interviewee's response, the the USG has not yet held elections. The USG Interim President is still Jack Whiterstien. They also add that elections will take place once all cities have merged.

This is Why EA Land Will Fail

The good ole' days in TSO, remember them? You know the time where you were still a newbie but so was everyone else? New adventures around every corner, new friends to give balloons to, and a couple of annoying people to slap around with your black leather glove? Yep, those were the golden days of TSO. It ended pretty quickly, but it'll always stick around in our memories. Now fast forward, pass the time where EA abandoned us, to today. Things look the same, we have new items and new features, but essentially things are the same right? No. This is why EAL will fail.


Bugs/Glitches. If you were apart of the TSO beta I'm sure to quite used to the bugs and glitches. But for us who joined a few months, or years, later this is something new to us. We never experienced these many bugs in our simmy lives. Roofs aren't there, lights give off a striped ambiance, random crashes to desktops, glitches that take away our items, and lags that could kill. There's no doubt that EAL is still in beta, but beta shouldn't always be hell. Beta is meant for there to be testing and a quick fixing of the game so it can go gold. Remember people, devs had 5 years experience with TSO, yet EAL is in "beta"? Sure, we know that the devs are doing "all they can" to fix our problems, but what impressions do these bugs make on new sims and especially returning sims? It tells them that this game is not a finished product so why waste anymore money? During the long break between moving EAL to the East Coast Server and merging EJ they should be quickly dealing with all of the bugs. In a recent town hall meeting, Greg told us that there's "No one working on roof bug yet."EAL will fail due to the lack of response by devs and the growing frustration from players.


New Economy. I'm sure that you know by now that there's a new "Dynamic" economy set up to mirror that of our real life capitalist economy. There's a system of "supply and demand" that raises retail prices of objects when alot of people buy them and decreases prices when no one buys them. The same "Dynamic" system is in play for real estate and payouts. It's been a little over a month now and we can clearly see that this new economy is not what we need right now. In EAL you're either rich from CC/Shops or just getting by. Sadly, not all of us can own a store or create Custom Content so what is there to do? Skill and make money through money houses! Grand idea, spending over 25 real life hours staring at our computer screen and then going to a money house to receive 52 simoleans a painting (on a good day). This economy is not meant for EAL. It only benefits the shop owners and their 20 accounts. Welcome lot owners have it the worst. We need an economy that rewards you for opening a Welcome lot and rewards you for cooking and giving advice to new sims. How can welcome lot owners benefit financially when their primary guests are newbies who have no game experience or job? This economy isn't even stopping botters from soaking up all the simoleans. Botters are still active and well. They may not be getting all the money that they were previously getting but 50k+ simoleans a day isn't that bad. EAL will fail due to the economy punishing sims with little to money and rewarding sims that use 3rd party programs to get money.


Botters. In EAL we refer to those who use 3rd party programs to gain simoleans as "botters". They've been around since the start of TSO. Always figuring out ways to exploit the system and succeed. During that time when EA abandoned TSO (2004-2007), which I will refer as the "Great Depression", botters ran rapid and we all thought they were ruining this game. When TSO's "savior" Luc showed up he pledged to restore TSO to it's full glory and get rid of the botters. A year later botters are still present and we're still paying the price for it. It seems as if the devs see the botters as clever, because in the 5 years TSO has been running, they have yet figured out a way to stop them. The devs thought the new economy would stop them, it only slowed them down. Now we're all waiting for the devs to present us with some unstoppable plan to defeat the botters. As we wait we're paying them 10$ and barely getting 3$ in payouts a month. EAL will fail due to the devs not being able to stop the botters. Today, we're still waiting...


ATMs. We've all seen these green blocks around on properties. They were introduced to give players a choice to buy simoleans with their real life currency, known as "cash-in". They're also designed to be able to transfer your simoleans into real life currency, known as "cash-out". I'm not saying that the physical ATM objects will make EAL fail it's the cash-in and cash-out. Ever since they introduced the idea on their blog there has been alot of controversy on the subject. Many think its a good idea for sims to buy simoleans to make a business of some sort and then cash-out to make a real life profit. While the majority of players believe that this system will only deepen EAL's grave. When people buy simoleans it isn't coming from EA's wallet, ATMs allow people to "buy" simoleans out of the economy. Not only do we suffer from this, but EA profits from it because they inject a ATM fee for themselves. With cash out, people are not putting the money back into the economy but instead putting it into their bank account. Win-win for EA, lose-lose for us sims. EAL will fail because of the burden of EAL's new economy and the ATM system.


EA Land. Yes, we all know the name is dumb and they could've been a litte bit more creative. Sims World, SimsVille, any thing but EA Land. But there is a specific reason why they chose EA Land. In the future they plan on bringing other EA games into EAL, a game mentioned by Parizad was "Need for Speed". Another reason is because they're moving EAL as far away from The Sims franchise as possible. TSO was huge for a few months and then turned out to be a major flop. The Sims franchise is known for having the top selling PC game and introducing a new brand of simulation to the market. There is no way they could continue to have TSO in their portfolio. That's why you'll see in the coming months the devs rename simoleans and will try to further separate The Sims and EAL. Ever since Maxis stopped having control over TSO in 2004, EA has ran TSO into the ground. EA has been against TSO ever since Will Wight introduced the concept. Don Hopkins, The Sims development team member, said in a past interview, "I recall that one of our most difficult accomplishments was convincing EA not to cancel the project". Luc was the one that let TSO live a little longer, but it seems as if that came to an end quick. EAL will fail because it's not the original concept of TSO.

In another quote by Dan Hopkins he says,"I don't think the lack of user created content is the only reason The Sims Online is a failure, but I think it's an extremely important one that EA went out on a limb and promised, but never executed on."

TSO used to be Will Wright's(The Sims creator) favorite game. A joyful game to played by all gamers. The good ole' days, remember? That's all we can do, just....remember.



Drop us a comment! Be sure to keep checking out the EAL Herald for "How EAL Can Survive".

A New Beginning

Not long ago Ace Reporter, Hook, interviewed Jack Whiterstien about the prospects of there being a government formed. After the article was posted it seemed as if there was a spark that ignited a new beginning to the United Sims Government. Jack Whiterstien, now United Sims Government Interim President, and Jason McKinley, USG Interim Vice President, have led the charge of a new government focused on helping the sims of EA Land.

I was honored to be chosen as one of the select few to attend the meeting and help set up the USG's foundation and structure. The chosen "delegates" conversed about the future of USG and it's sole mission in EAL. They also decided on the Interim President, who later chose his Interim Vice President, to lead the set up the government.

(USG Interim President Jack Whiterstien with USG Interim VP Jason McKinley)

Because of the USG's potential to become one of the largest organizations in EAL, we decided to cover any news and happenings within the USG that may affect the sims of EA Land. We will make sure to keep everyone in the loop as we always do.

If you havn't already, make sure you voice your vote in our weekly poll.

The Insider - EA Town Hall Meeting 3/5

This is the first semi-Town Hall meeting since before the merge started. Parizad was trying to multitask by hosting the "Street Fair", answering questions, and solving bugs/errors. We could barely get in any questions concerning the future of TSO and EAL. But the few questions that we did get in might be helpful to some of you.

- Owning multiple lots: Parizad told us "Not any time soon." Larry was working on owning multiple lots and they kept crashing in his sandbox game. "Alot of bugs to fix."

- Cash out: "Soon." Parizad reminded us about how much she hated timelines by simply guessing. I reminded her about her statement on 1/30 when she stated that cashout would come "within a month". She said responded by saying that they "found bugs" and are still "working them out." She also reassured us that the "Webservices team is working hard on it."

- TS3 Graphics?: "Possibly." Parizad gave us something new to ponder about as we get stuck at 50%. She then quickly added "I cannot deny nor confirm." But she was very clear about the TS2 client by saying that its "moving along nicely."

- Expansion Pack Objects: They're already very quietly filtering into TSO. She said that there are chairs in the game that were recently added from the expansion packs.

We hope to get more for you in the future. We asked Parizad about the Town Hall meeting schedule and she said she will try to be on more and answer more questions in the future. With the merge coming to an end we're starting to run out of questions. Got any? comment below!