Snap Judgment and Game Over

[Xenos]

I was listening to NPR's Snap Judgment today, and one of their stories was about the end of Sims Online aka EA Land. With what is potentially looming on our collective horizon, I must warn you that the second half gets a bit emotional. However, it's a great story (as are the other stories of this episode) and well worth the 10 minutes: http://soundcloud.com/snapjudgment/game-over-1

There are also a number of interesting things mentioned in that story.

Much of this story originates with Robert Ashley, who is a freelance journalist and radio producer. He also produced a podcast called "A Life Well Wasted" (http://alifewellwasted.com/), about videogames and people who love them. I was not familiar with it, and it's apparently on hiatus, but we may want to reach out to him. He might have a sympathetic ear and some media connections.

The other interesting person mentioned is Henry Lowood of Stanford University. He headed a project called How They Got Game: The History and Culture of Interactive Simulations and Videogames (http://www.stanford.edu/group/htgg/cgi-bin/drupal/). They recorded and documented the end of Sims Online amongst other things. They are archiving and curating virtual worlds. I think they might be interested in our situation.

I just downloaded their "Preserving Virtual Worlds Final Report" (http://hdl.handle.net/2142/17097), though I have not fully read it yet. But flipping through it I also saw some technical information (eg., how they used CopyBot to preserve information from SLO in XML files). You may want to check it out.

(And this is another educational site associated with this: "Preserving Virtual Worlds" - http://pvw.illinois.edu/pvw/ )

So how does this help us? Frankly, I don't know, but I think there is a lot of intriguing information there, and I wanted to share it right away. More heads and so forth...

[Teege]

Well there goes my free Sunday  :P

I'd think that information would be very useful in many ways, thanks Xenos!

[Burnt Toast]

And THAT made me cry :(

I imagine standing in Atlas Park on November 30, 2012... people all around me...and seeing the mapserv prompt... :(

I am incredibly bummed right now....

[LadyWizard]

Umm you do realize EA Land was Sims online not second life... and there is somewhat difference there.  Seems there was a child sex ring going on where at least one minor was a madam in a brothel becoming an in game millionaire and seems one CS agent had said due to the underage sex ect was why that got shuttered

[Xenos]

Umm you do realize EA Land was Sims online not second life... and there is somewhat difference there. 

Thanks for pointing that out...shows you what I know. I'll correct it.

[Xenos]

I imagine standing in Atlas Park on November 30, 2012... people all around me...and seeing the mapserv prompt... :(

Yeah, that was the part that really resonated. Didn't mean to bum you out...hence the warning.

Their situation (EA Land) was different than our's though. According to the Snap Judgment story, they were losing money...and according to LadyWizard there was even murkier stuff going on. So lets use this as a reminder why we are fighting. We are heroes, and this is what we do. ;)

[Victoria Victrix]

I imagine standing in Atlas Park on November 30, 2012... people all around me...and seeing the mapserv prompt... :(

I am incredibly bummed right now....

there goes my twelfth box of Kleenex.

[DrakeGrimm]

there goes my twelfth box of Kleenex.

*slides his over, sniffling*

[Vulpy]

And THAT made me cry :(

I imagine standing in Atlas Park on November 30, 2012... people all around me...and seeing the mapserv prompt... :(

I am incredibly bummed right now....

I've already visualized the end, should it come to pass, several times. I could go out a few ways--fighting bad guys on my main character, sitting solemnly in the Shadow Shard--but I think I'm going to be logged on my first character ever when and if things go dark. I'll probably be sitting in Pocket D on Protector, thinking about the glory days.

[TimtheEnchanter]

Umm you do realize EA Land was Sims online not second life... and there is somewhat difference there.  Seems there was a child sex ring going on where at least one minor was a madam in a brothel becoming an in game millionaire and seems one CS agent had said due to the underage sex ect was why that got shuttered

So instead of breaking it up and banning the players, the game gets taken offline?

Typical...  :roll:

[tattooedprincess]

I can't quit crying.... :'(

[emu265]

I refuse to listen to that >.<

All y'all's comments about crying are putting me on edge enough.  Point taken.

kthnxbai.

[Tiberian Fiend]

So instead of breaking it up and banning the players, the game gets taken offline?

Typical...  :roll:

I doubt that's what actually happened.  TSO's closure probably had more to do with the fact that it was just the Sims with a chat server, and there was no meaningful way of interacting with other players.