Flashback: January 2000. It's the turn of the century, the beginning of the new millennium, and TheSims.com goes live. The Sims, itself, is still a month away from release, however.
Flashforward: June 2009. The Sims has become a gaming legend and some now refer to it as The Sims Classic, The Sims 1, or The Sims Original to distinguish it from its sequels. Its second sequel, The Sims 3 is released this month also. Some months ago, the original URL, TheSims.com, redirects the user to a directory of Sim games -- The Sims Original and 2; SimCity 3000, 4, Societies, DS, and Creator; SimAnimals; and MySims.
Unflash to the present day. The ten-year-old Sims Original website has now been deactivated. Entering and searching for the URL ("thesims.ea.com/us") redirects the user to The Sims 3's website. Attempting a workaround, I went to Google and searched generically for "the sims", which returned several hits for the original website. Clicking on one of them, I was directed to a "404'd" type page on TheSims3.com.
On a related note, I went to Walmart the other day and perused the PC software section, as I generally do. Walmart is good about keeping old electronics hardware and software in stock for a long while (for example, Microsoft Office 2007... I think. Or '06... whichever one exists). I got my copy of The Sims Complete Collection from them in 2007 (it was released in 2005). I've seen it for sale on every subsequent visit... until last month. The Sims Complete Collection was nowhere to be found. There was The Sims 2 Deluxe Edition, The Sims 2 combination Open for Business-H&M Stuff-Ikea Stuff, The Sims 3 World Adventures, The SimCity Box, but The Sims Classic was glaringly absent. On every visit since, I have not seen The Sims Complete Collection for sale at Walmart. GameStop doesn't have it, either. Target, Best Buy, Shopko, even Office Depot -- places where I'd seen it for sale in the past -- were sold out.
At Best Buy, I even asked a clerk about it: checking his computer terminal, he said, "Well, it doesn't look like we have it in stock. But, The Sims 3 is the newest version."
Having played The Sims 3 and finding it inadequate in comparison to The Sims Original, I replied, "The Sims 3? Have you no respect for the dead?"
That's 633k5p33k that you use when you talk about outmoded electronics. Clearly, this man was not a 7rü3 633k, 'cos he totally missed the joke.
Of course, what I said in jest turns out to be the case. As far as EA is concerned, The Sims Classic may as well be dead. I don't believe they even offer technical support for it anymore. I should test this theory by coming up with a fictional problem with my copy of Livin' it Up (which I haven't owned since 2004) and send it off to EA tech support.
I guess I should have noticed the downward trend that Sims Classic was taking when it showed up in a SimMania pack a few years ago. This pack had The Sims, SimCity 4, and SimGolf in it.
Of course, in tech terms, a decade is a long time. After all, 2000-2010 represents the end of the Nintendo 64, all of the GameCube, and the first four years of Wii, to put it into perspective. Really, anywhere, ten years is a long time. Someone who was born in 2000 would now be in the fourth or fifth grade. An automobile of typical workmanship would now have accumulated so many trips to the mechanic's shop that it would be more economical to buy a new car. Windows ME was the newest operating system in 2000. Now, it's gone through XP and Vista, with the newest being Windows 7.
But, for some reason, The Sims Classic seems newer to me than, say, Windows XP, or a 2000 Pontiac Grand Am, or a copy of Luigi's Mansion. To borrow a cliché, it seems like just yesterday that The Sims: Makin' Magic was released... okay, maybe more like a couple of months. In any case, it doesn't seem as antiquated as EA's recent actions would have me believe.
I suppose, if I were still into conspiracies, EA could see The Sims Classic as a threat. Players who traded in their old Sims expansions and bases for the new ones may have been rediscovering just how much better it was back in the day, making blog entries on much more popular sites than this about how Sims division will never measure up to Will Wright's original vision, shown in Sims Classic. So, EA could have severed all ties to the original Sims -- stopping production of The Sims Complete Collection, shutting down the original Maxis website for the game, redirecting people who want to go to the old site just over a few servers to The Sims 3 website ("Don't look back at old crap like that! Look forward to new crap like this!").
But, I don't get into that anymore. Conspiracies are based on conjecture, wild assumptions, and outright paranoia. The simple truth of the matter is that The Sims Classic has had its day, lasting six years beyond its original date of obsolescence by The Sims 2. The servers couldn't stand the strain of supporting three independent Sims exchanges, forums, and downloads pages any longer.
It really is the end of an era. The end of, if one may be so bold, the niftiest era in recent history. One that I won't soon forget. Hopefully you shall remember The Sims Classic as well.
R. I. P.
THE SIMS
"The People Simulator From The Creator Of SimCity"
February 2000 - October 2010
