] "Next month, when video-game titan Electronic Arts
] launches The Sims Online, it will become something more
] than a game. Using the Internet, The Sims Online will
] enable millions of individual Sims to live, work and hang
] out together in a shared virtual world very much like our
] own. Result: a daring collective social experiment that
] could tell us some interesting things about who we are as
] a country. We're about to witness the birth of Simulation
] Nation."

TIME.com: Sim Nation