TSO Restoration Project

TSO Restoration Project is a project of TSO Restoration Inc., a non profit. Its goal is to recreate the massively multiplayer online game, MMOG, “The Sims Online”. A video game that was take offline in August 2008 be EA, after re-branding and many updates geared towards reestablishing a large client base.
History
In early 2007, a programmer from Norway, known as Mats (Afro) began work on a small project to create a private server for The Sims Online. What first was a project to collect and decipher data packets from the original EA servers quickly ended with the closure of The Sims Online (EA-Land) in late 2008. Mats’s team disbanded and went their separate ways.
In late 2007 a partnership was formed between Mats and an individual known as Ghost. The two founded TSO Restoration Inc. and launched “The TSO Restoration Project”, on October 22, 2010.
The overall plan is to recreate the entire game exactly as The Sims Online exactly as it was in 2008 before EA re-branded the game to EA Land. Everything from the interface to the texture file will be identical. Economic issues that plagued The Sims Online from cheating will be resolved, and the selling of rares and Simoleans will continue to be allowed on the new servers. Founder statuses will also be in the new game. Over all the goal is to make the new game start off where the old one left off.
Progress
TSO Restoration announces progress in the form of bi-weekly updates. These updates are posted in the Updates section of the “Updates” sub-forum. These bi-weekly updates touch on current events facing the development team as well as the progress made.
Progress is occurring at a continually greater pace as more developers join the project. Developers can post a resume in a section of the forum called Developers Paradise. Developers work to recreate the server and client as well as help moderate the forums and chat room. Due to the small size of the community, developers interact with community members on a very personal level.
Legality
The legality of such a project has come into question on the official TSO Restoration forum and other outlets. In response to these allegations a project administrator, Ghost, released a legal statement clearing up questions on this matter
The statement explains that no copyrighted material will be used by the project. It also states that TSO Restoration will not distribute any intellectual property owned by EA or any other organization.<ref name="legal"/>
 
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