TirNua, Anyone?
 

For almost a year and a half now, a few of the Developers behind The Sims Online have been hard at work on their own project: a browser-based game called TirNua, which centers around the environment. The game is constantly evolving (in the past year and a half, there has been a LOT of groundwork covered... I can't even begin to tell you how awfully boring it was in the first handful of months! -shudders-), and there's a Weekly "Push" or Update released by the Devs every Wednesday or Thursday. These "Pushes" are very much mini-Betas, since they always include new features and new variants in the gameplay pool. If the team gets something wrong, they'll always listen to what the community has to say and oftentimes the disagreeable things are weeded out in the next week or two, if not the next couple of days.

Blah. I sound like a spokesperson! Anyway, it's hard to give TirNua a specific description, since it's constantly evolving; about this time last year, I would've said "It's a game where you grow potted flowers!" but SOOO much has changed since then! There are more gardening options, there's an option to prepare food... There are several ways to produce electricity, which you collect in batteries and then use to power every machine in the game.

Anyway, I'll stop before I sound like a walking billboard! I just wanted to give some insight into it beforehand, since I guarantee that hardly anyone has heard of it - let alone appreciates it for what it is, which is a constantly-evolving world with a passionate team and dedicated members behind it. While it may not look all that glamorous, it has totally changed for the better in the past year and a half. We went from 2D avatars in red-flowered sundresses with broken arms, to looking like human-preying mantis crossbreeds, to... well, looking a LOT more normal, although there's still room for improvement.

One of the nicest features in-game is that you can produce your own custom clothing and custom floor tiles. There is more customization to come in the future I hear, although you never know what the Devs are working on, so "in the future" could very well be next week! :lol:

...I'll shut up now. :(