Yeah I know, this is technically PC news although, it’s more internet than PC, but I digress. When I finally started playing The Sims Online, it had become EA Land which didn’t really make any sense as it was was still The Sims Online and although I could have probably worked on Lots to make a bit of cash, I played for a few months before registering as a subscriber. Two months after I did, they announced that EA Land was closing, so where could I go next?
There was talk between a group of us as where to move on to, some were already on Second Life and so said they would most likely just stay on there more, but some had mentioned something called There.com or just There for short. I’d tried Second Life some time before even going onto EA Land and didn’t really like it much, I still don’t now because it’s not something I can really get into, I wanted something in which I could actually do stuff like in EA Land and build skills, that’s something There.com could offer.
You couldn’t/can’t actually play games in Second Life, at least not without some kind of script and even then there was a chance it would be too dodgy or inconsistant to stick with for too long. What made There more interesting and sometimes, exciting was that you could get in a vehicle and just drive for hours, exploring as far as you could go. Vehicles weren’t restricted to land, there were aviation creations from balloons to UFO’s that you could take to the air in and the best thing about it? You skilled up in whatever you drove or flew.
From what I can see, there is a survey by Makena, the company behind There.com and if there’s enough interest, there’s a possibility of it being relaunched under the title, There2. Not only that, it will apparently be subscription only without the options of free or trial accounts, although they could be an optin some time in the future. Now, I can see the benefit of having no free accounts as it would stop trolls and Asian kids overrunning it and bothering people like before, but I think trials would be a good idea to get people interested, how else will they attract a new audience?
Also, any existing members should be able to reclaim their accounts as long as they pay a membership fee and that’s where the survey comes in, how much would you be willing to pay and what kind of period would you pay for, for example; hourly, weekly, monthly or annually. The one upturn of that is they’re going 18+ only, I’m guessing you would be required to provide some kind of documentation to prove your age.
There’s a holding page at There.com with a few links including one for the survey, so take a look and see what you think, there should be quite a few videos on YouTube for you to watch and see what it’s all about.
