Development and Testing Update Recently The Sims Online team achieved our Alpha milestone for our next play test version. We will be starting an internal test within EA very soon and use this internal testing to prepare ourselves for our first external test. In about a month, we will be opening up The Sims Online to external testing. People who subscribe to The Sims Online newsletter will be randomly selected and offered the opportunity to participate in the Play Test. This test will grow from a few hundred to over 50,000 players in the next few months, so be patient if you are not immediately selected. When you are selected, you will receive an email invitation with a link to a Web site where you can order the CDs. You can order one set of CDs per invitation. We will be charging $5 to offset the shipping and handling for the two-CD set. Joining the Play Test will give you some benefits as a player within The Sims Online. Your account will carry through to the production service for The Sims Online. In fact, you will get to play the first two weeks after launch without having to purchase the game. Our intention is to not wipe the servers for about a month prior to the actual launch date, meaning you will get a considerable head start in The Sims Online by being part of the Play Test. Finally, your Sims will always have a designation indicating that you participated in the Play Test. As with all massively multiplayer online games, we need real people to help us test the game and to build the initial community. We hope you take advantage of this offer when you are selected, since we can use your help. You need to be ready for some ups and downs if you do enter the early testing process, though. Typically it takes a few months from the beginning of a test before the software nears the state matching what we would ship at retail. There are always software problems and unexpected service outages in a multiplayer game undergoing testing. If you don't feel comfortable testing pre-release software, please wait until we announce we are nearing launch before joining the Play Test. We want your experience to be one that is fun, after all! Good luck in being selected early for our test, and let your friends know that subscribing to the newsletter is the way to be on our selection list for testing The Sims Online. I hope to see you in the Play Test! "M.O.M.I. -- Service, Smiles, and Security!" Gordon "Tyrant" Walton Executive Producer, The Sims Online