I was recently coaxed into playing the Sims Online. The game was very interesting at first, lots of possibilities in this virtual world. However, the fun peaks after about 10 hours of gametime, and the game will quickly cause you to lose interest, since there is really no point to the game.

The premis is this, you start out with one character, your Sim, he can be male or female, black, white, alien, or polar bear. You create your character and dress them up in a various array of costumes and hairstyles. My favorite was the stylish 70's white disco suit, ala John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

Once you are pleased with your Sim cosmetically, you must then find a suitable town to live in. Each town is a different server, so you must choose carefully, because you can't just pick up and move. I chose to live in Calvin Creek since it seemed to have the largest amount of beaches and mountain areas.

Ok, so now you've created your Sim and found a town to call your home, now its time to choose a profession. There are 6 skill types in the Sims Online: Body, Logic, Charisma, Mechanical, Creative, and Cooking, each of which corresponds to a certain profession and the higher the skill in each profession the more money you can make. If you build up your Cooking skill you will ultimately want to be a Cook. In the game there are a number of different objects that will allow you to train each skill, and even more that will allow you to put those skills to work and help you make money.

The real bulk of your game time is spent training up your skills, and once that is done, using your skills to make money. Its around the 9th or 10th hour of game play, when you've almost got your skills to the level you want and you are finallystarting to make a little money. This is about the time when you start to realize just how pointless this game really is.