Now, you can go to jail while working the criminal career path. Now, you can steal things from your friends' and neighbors' houses. Now is when The Sims 3 gets interesting; because for the first time since a sim slapped on a striped t-shirt and snuck off into the night, players might find themselves facing real moral dilemmas instead of just random chance events.

What Is It?
The Sims 3 is the latest sequel in the crazy-popular EA Sims franchise that started in 2000. The entire game is a life simulation that covers a "sim" life from birth to death – and maybe a little bit beyond. Players act as an omnipotent being that can micromanage every aspect of a sim life, or just leave them to rot and die in a puddle of their own urine. The structure of the game is an open world with no narrative and no ending. So – like a dollhouse, only your dolls can die.

What We Saw
Associate Producer Grant Rodiek co-piloted me through the creation of two Sims and a tour of their neighborhood, which included their houses, the local gym, the cemetery and the headquarters for the criminal career path.

How Far Along Is it?
The Sims 3 was pushed back from a February 2009 release to June 2, 2009. The game is essentially final, but EA really wants that one last layer of polish before releasing it into the wild.

What Needs Improvement?
Glitches, Bugs, Hiccups: The Sims is a huge game; lots of little things like a twitchy animation or a grammar error get missed. I saw only one major bug where something pops up when it's not supposed to; but one hour isn't nearly enough time to comb through the entire game for every instance of minor screw-ups like that.

Online integration: The online community for the Sims franchise has always been active in creating custom content (my personal favorite being vials of poison for those pesky sims you need to kill off quickly); but ties between the game itself and the community have been weak. Supposedly Sims 3 will allow you to share even more custom content with the online community – but unless there's some incentive to do so (like a create-a-look-alike sim competition), the community won't change very much from its Sims 2 level of participation.

You still can't get your kids back if the Social Worker takes them: So much for total realism.

What Should Stay The Same?
The unspoken narrative: New things like Traits, Career Paths, Opportunities, Wishes and Lifetime Wishes all serve to create more of a narrative for the lives of sims than in previous games. Traits determine a sim's personality, personalities determine what Career Paths the sim will want, the Careers open up Opportunities (which are like mini-quests) and play into a sim's Lifetime Wish, which also guides immediate Wishes. It's all connected somehow, so you never feel like you're not doing something or working toward some goal, which makes those chance events even more meaningful.

"Decaying to neutral": Sims 3 won't punish you for not fulfilling Wishes or answering the phone every time a friend calls. Relationships decay to neutral rather than deteriorating to the point where you have to work really hard to get them up to friendship status again. And if you sit back and do nothing for your sim, it won't flounder and die in a puddle of urine – it will largely look after itself; although it won't be all that happy if none of its Wishes are fulfilled.

The sense of humor: Everything from the gameplay to the text has something amusing about it. Example, Rodiek showed me a negative personal interaction that carried the option to "Imply Mother is a Llama." While doing so, he related to me the story of one of his sims that had an unlucky trait which 1) caused the sim to die whenever the he tried to repair something and 2) Death to feel sorry for him and resurrect the sim repeatedly. That sounds more hilarious than my pregnant sim that caught fire twice in The Sims 2.

The tweaks we've long been waiting for: You can now place items on half-tiles so they straddle a line on the grid in buy or build mode; pick up and throw away things for your sim without telling them to do it; and turn all items diagonally. If you were ever a Sims fan, two of these tweaks alone will make the game worth your while – never mind all the new stuff.

You can now pick shoes to go with outfits: Awesome.

Playable ghosts: Twice as awesome.

Final Thoughts
I'm on the fence about the UI overhaul. On the one hand, it will be easier for newcomers to find what items they want or which hair color they like because everything is arranged intuitively and options are embedded within submenus so as not to overwhelm the noobs. But on the other, it might be hard for old hats like me to find something we're used to seeing all the time and we lose a little nostalgia at not being able to see stats like Bladder, Environment and Social right from the start.

It's obvious by the big 3 in the title that this game will appeal to the fans of the first two. It doesn't matter what's different and only barely matters what's the same; there will be hordes of people buying it whenever it comes out. But I think EA did right by making Sims 3 with as much new stuff as they did and by taking the time to polish it as much as they are. Whatever else Sims 3 is – "game of the year," "for fans of the genre," "Will Wright's plan to take over the world," etc. – it's most definitely not Sims 2.5.

There's always something supernatural in every Sims game. From werewolf babies in the Sims 2 Pets expansion all the way back to alien abductions in The Sims (which did not result in pregnancy), producers have slipped something strange in to make gameplay that much more interesting.

Sims 3 Associate Producer Grant Rodiek is no exception. One of his many pet-projects in the game is the "playable ghosts" Opportunity. Opportunities in Sims 3 are like mini quests – they appear every so often in one of the Sims' sub-menus as optional tasks your Sim can complete to earn special bonuses or rewards.

Rodiek wouldn't go into too much detail on how the Ghost Opportunity worked, but he said completing it was a walk in the park compared to how hard becoming a werewolf was in The Sims 2.

As a consolation, he took a sim to the town graveyard to show me another facet of the ghostly occult in Sims 3. You can send a sim into the stone mausoleum the way you would send them off to work in The Sims 2. Text options will pop up, letting you choose what your sim should do down there in the dark catacombs. Good things might happen, bad things might happen; or, he hinted, your Sim might not make it back.

New screens below:

The choice to make pregnancy a part of gameplay adds a whole layer of moral issues to development, as well as some awkward questions about how to represent all nine months of swinging hormones, morning sickness and stretch marks.

"It's actually 10 months. A lot of people don't know that," points out Clary Alward, managing editor at the self-explanatory Pregnancy Magazine, the premier publication for all stages of pregnancy.

Pregnancy in video games has come a long way from the 16-bit days where you couldn't even render a baby bump with the industry's best artists. These days we have Harvest Moon games with magic pregnancy potions, Fable II with fancy pregnancy cut scenes and the Sims franchise which has graduated from "shower of daisies" to an actual trimester system.

Pregnancy in The Sims 2 is the most realistic and gives players the greatest sense of accomplishment. Here's how it goes down: a would-be parent has to select the "Try for Baby" option when "Whoo-Hooing" with a member of the opposite sex. If the attempt is successful, a soft chime indicates to the player that the female Sim is pregnant. For the next 72 sim hours, the mom-to-be will experience bouts of morning sickness, run out of energy more quickly, need to use the toilet more often and will usually be more hungry (as a result of throwing up from the morning sickness). At the end of each 24 sim-hour "trimester," the mom's stomach will expand — that's called "popping" in pregnancy language — and on the third day, she goes into labor by grasping her stomach, writhing and moaning. Then you get a nifty little cut scene where the mom's plumb-bob (a.k.a. green glowing gem above her head) splits into two and the baby falls out of thin air into her arms.

MJ Chun, Associate Producer on The Sims 3, says the decision to include pregnancy as part of gameplay in The Sims 2 was made partially because the game featured multi-generational families. But the bigger goal was achieving a level of realism.

"One of the challenges [of realism] was communicating to the player that it was time for the Sim to go into labor," Chun said. "A couple of ideas were debated including having the Sim's water break but it was high on the icky factor and too subtle visually to easily observe in game."

So, does our pregnancy expert sign off on it?

What Clary had to say about The Sims 2 was was something between amusement and disgust: "I really am amused by the writhing and the grasping of belly and the wailing… In the movies when you see women freak out during birth — that is known as 'transition.' Transition is the most intense part of birth, including labor, including the whole phase of delivery. It's wicked, wicked painful. And so the fact that [the developer is] portraying the entire labor and delivery process as like being transition is… it's perpetuating all kinds of stupid things."

Clary also worries that the game sends the wrong message by not covering some complicated parts of pregnancy and its aftermath. For example, I told her about one my Sims that had a Lifetime Aspiration to have 10 kids. The first five pregnancies were okay — but around baby six, my Sim started to have a Fear of having a baby (this is what postpartum depression looks like in the Sims). Because she still had a Want for the baby, the Fear was canceled out when babies six, seven and eight were born. But then, baby number nine caused catastrophe.

My Sim no longer had a Want for babies and the Fear of having babies was still there even when she wasn't pregnant. On the first day of her ninth pregnancy, her husband-Sim died. I couldn't get her mood back to normal before the baby came, so when the Fear of having the baby activated, she had a nervous breakdown. To make matters worse, one of her kids had just failed out of school, so the Social Worker showed up and took all nine kids from the household.

What does this say about pregnancy? Is it realistic in that many mothers struggle with wanting a kid and not wanting one at the same time — or is it just a case of user error not to be read into too deeply?

Clary didn't think what happened to my Sim was all that realistic (especially the Therapist hallucination), but she did say that the game was sending the wrong message by limiting pregnancy to just morning sickness, labor and postpartum depression. There is such a thing as adoption in real life; courts will give unfit mothers a second chance; and it's not unusual to not want the things you thought you wanted before you got pregnant. Clary said she thought game developers should be more responsible about the way they integrate pregnancy and to always make sure that there's a point to it.

Games that have a "point" to pregnancy seem to be about establishing an emotional connection to characters. Dragons Quest V is like that — the twins you have with whichever wife you pick are a major part of the story. A more recent example would be Fable II.

Technically, your female character in Fable II doesn't get "pregnant" — you just get a cut scene that explains you gave birth and then the game resumes with a cradle in your house. It's the same for male characters as it is for female. But that wasn't the way that Lead Designer Peter Molyneux designed it.

"Originally we did plan to depict pregnancy in game with the female hero's stomach expanding," he said. Lionhead Studios decided to opt for a cut scene instead, though, after considering all the moral quandaries that come of having a six-month pregnant mom-to-be wielding a broadsword and getting cut up by bandits.

What I got a kick out of is the part where you have to be married to have kids. I didn't know that when I was trying desperately to get my character, Missy, pregnant. I eventually figured it out — after Missy had slept with half of Albion — and got her hitched to the town crier. In short order, she was at last blessed with a little bundle of joy named Finally.

All of the work I had to do to get Missy pregnant definitely did make subsequent plot choices in Fable II feel more important. I'd spent a ridiculous amount of gold to get the town crier a ring then oh-so-much time pleasing my baby son by dancing in front of his cradle — of course I was more invested in the characters than if I'd just been given these attachments at the start of the game.

Clary's reaction to Missy's story was something between amusement and unease. "There's some really strange imbalance between the real world's mores that they place on the game," she said. "And then there are… some very, very strange messages you could tease out from gameplay."

The most bizarre pregnancies I've ever experienced have been in the Harvest Moon games. The most recent installment — Tree of Tranquility on the Wii — lets you play as a boy or a girl. Each character can get married to one of the townsfolk and have a baby that they raise over the course of the game.

The way it works is that a year to the day after your character gets married in the game, the wife will faint during a cut scene. The husband rushes her to the hospital where the doctor informs the couple that they're expecting. And then the game goes back to business as usual — no "popping," no morning sickness, nothing — for three more months until the baby comes (again, in another cut scene).

It's bizarre that when playing as the girl character you're pretty much farming, fishing and horseback riding all the way up until the point of labor. Then one morning, your husband finds you lying in bed looking ill and then rushes you to the hospital to have the kid — which is essentially his only contribution to the entire process (aside from the obvious fertilization part). Jerkface doesn't even help you out on the farm or watch the kid when it wanders off down toward the river.

The implications are staggering: you have to be married, the baby will take care of itself and your body doesn't change at all physically during pregnancy and of course you can go out and till those fields! Clearly because this is a kids' game, realism isn't high on the list of priorities for the developers when it comes to implementing pregnancy. But it does strike me as a weird way to go about it, if not just plain wrong.

Clary's concern about over-simplified pregnancy in kids' games is that children will see this and it will be their only exposure to pregnancy 'til the real thing happens.

"It's like Guitar Hero," she said. "You play Guitar Hero and it's nothing like playing guitar. I would definitely argue that Guitar Hero and the like should become more like real guitar playing. So I can see a point in having children in games but I think that the gameplay should then arc toward being more realistic as it goes on in development."

The bottom line from Clary's perspective is that many of these games are designed by guys for guys. They're not going to care about realism — they only want it to be fun. That's not to say that pregnancy in a video game couldn't be fun; Clary said she could see women who play World of Warcraft wanting to get their characters pregnant just because of all the time and energy they invest into the character.

"There'd be a point to games doing this," she said, "but whether I think they can do it well or do it accurately or make it something that both men and women would be interested in… I'm kind of doubtful, honestly."

What can we look forward to in games that will feature pregnancy? Well, MJ Chun says to expect more of the same from Sims 3, plus some interesting new ideas.

According to Chun, players can now take their sim to the hospital when she goes into labor, or they can just make Mom stay home and have the baby the ol' fashioned way. Expecting mothers are not house-bound however, the way they were in The Sims 2. "Moms can lead a full life and go visit the library, visit their neighbors, go to the beach or even catch a movie," Chun said. "They [still] get maternity leave so they don't have to go to work."

Expansions in The Sims 2 introduced ways to influence pregnancy, like a cheesecake that gave the mom twins. Sims 3 will have other weird ways to influence the number and gender of babies than just food — like watching certain TV channels or trading in lifetime happiness points for a Fertility Treatment reward (which could lead to triplets).

Oh, and Chun added, "There are now playable ghosts who can have babies."

Ghost babies? GHOST BABIES!

Update: Clary emailed me the following clarification in response to the wrath of the Internet - "Pregnancy does last 40 weeks, which can either translated as more than 9 months or almost 10 months."

There are so many innovations in The Sims 3 so it’s really not possible to transfer items or Sims from previous games. The level of detail in The Sims 3 is so high that any conversion from older games would not be satisfying for players.

Oh well. On the plus side, the average The Sims 2 player probably won't have the system on hand to run The Sims 3, so you can at least futz about with the old game while awaiting your PC upgrade. Hit the jump for the full Q&A, translated from Simlish for your convenience.

The Sims 3 Q&A

1.After all these years of creative thinking, Sims Fans have made many interesting Sims, houses and other objects. Will it be possible to transfer Sims from previous version to The Sims 3? And what about other objects like house and furniture designs?

There are so many innovations in The Sims 3 so it’s really not possible to transfer items or Sims from previous games.  The level of detail in The Sims 3 is so high that any conversion from older games would not be satisfying for players.

2.Also many Sims fans have gathered a huge pile of CD’s with add ons for 2nd version of the game, which will turn into junk once 3rd version comes out. And what add ons will be included in The Sims 3? Can we expect pets, seasons and magic in the initial release? And what of additional extras for previous version we will have to re-purchase for new one?

At the moment, we’re only thinking about The Sims 3.  We have a huge team devoted to making the best possible game and we’re not going to think about anything else until it’s perfect.

3.Also there are many questions about ‘living neighborhood’. Before Sims 3, player-made families just waited patiently until someone plays them, now it appears to be that they will live on their own. Let’s assume that player created two families: “Mary and Bob” and “John Smith”. Then he played with “Mary and Bob” for long time, almost forgetting about that other family. It’s quite possible that when the player returns to John Smith, he’ll find no one there, since he could live his entire life, get old and die, so there will be no opportunity to play with him. Is there any solution already?

There are lots of options in The Sims 3.  In the example that you just presented, the families that you don’t control will develop along with the household that you are controlling.  However, you can switch between families at any time.  You can also move families between save files, so you can develop one family to a specific point and then merge them with another save file.  Story tellers will do that a lot.

4.We’ve already heard that there will be ‘Hand of the God” in the game, that allows to pick up and move Sims and other objects. Also it will be possible to feed and clean Sims with one click of the mouse. Which other simplifications should we expect?

There isn’t a feature that works exactly like you describe.  However, players can do something that we call “live dragging”.  In simple terms, you can manipulate some objects directly with your mouse.  In the past, The Sims had to clean up everything for themselves.  Now you can grab trash and throw it away, or grab an item from the floor and put it in your Sim’s inventory.

5.And what about robots, Aliens, Vampires and others? Will be they available in the initial release or we will have to wait for them to appear in outgoing expansions?

We have some tricks up our sleeve…

6.Since there will be quite big virtual universe on player’s disposal, are there any plans for minigames like car driving? And what about dance simulators, which are so popular on consoles?

There are some really interesting collection games and skills have a lot of rich detail.

7.Are there any plans of extending Sims’ vocabulary, e.g. will their words really mean something? Or they will keep mumbling some meaningless Simmish like before Sims 3?

The Sims always speak simlish.  We’ve tried to teach them the languages of the world but they don’t want to listen.

8.Some years ago The Sims Online was started. But we didn’t heard about this project for a while. Are there any plans to include some online components in Sims 3, like chats or minigames where players can use their Sims as avatars?

The Sims 3 players will have unprecedented freedom to customize the look of their game.  A player with creative aspirations and no technical training or knowledge can make changes to the look of just about everything in their Sims life, right in the game.  We call the technology Create-a-Style.  In the past, fans made their creations outside of the game and then shared them on the exchange.  We wanted to give the power that our artists have to the players. 

The process of getting creations online is easier than ever.  The Sims 3 launcher helps you install and manage custom content so that you don’t have to hunt around for directories or anything like that.
 
Finally, The Sims 3 community is completely new and there are some incredible tools, including a web-based video editing tool so that players can make movies from the videos they capture in the game.

9.What kind of player activity have you planned for The Sims 3?

Sims can do things that they couldn’t do before, like ride bikes, work out at the gym, go to the beach, grab a snack at the bistro and more!

10.What about the game has been upgraded and what is completely new? Also, can you explain a bit about how the new 'boundaries' work? What kind of activity will be opened up for the Sims?

The first thing that people will notice about The Sims 3 is the world around them.  If you see it, you can go there.  In the past, The Sims players were confined to playing on little levels that we called lots.  Now there are now boundaries.  The technology is incredible because we can show you the tiniest detail of your home, like the petals on a flower.  A few seconds later you can look at the tiniest freckle on a Sim on the other side of town.  This all happens in real time.  We're in a great place as developers these days: Realism has been achieved...check.  We can just focus on style and delivering seamless experiences so that the player can be completely immersed in their story. 

11.How, if at all, has the customisability of The Sims evolved for The Sims 3? How will players be able to integrate this into their Sims experience?

We're going to give the player unprecedented control over the visuals in the game so that they have the same control that our artists have, right in the game.  The new Create - A - Sim allows players to make just about any person they can imagine, and there are tools in the game that let you change the look of almost any surface on your Sim or in their home.

12.Can we expect to see our favourite Sims families return, having grown, as they did between The Sims and The Sims 2?

Yes! You will see many of your favourite things from past games in The Sims 3.

13.How has player feedback impacted changes you have implemented for The Sims 3?

We're all fans of The Sims, and a lot of our team worked on The Sims and The Sims 2, so player feedback is built into our team.  We also spend a lot of time interacting with members of The Sims community around the world.  I don't think the game would be what it is without The Sims community.  Fans have always wanted more interaction with a community of Sims. If you think about it, The Sims is the most detailed depiction of contemporary life to be presented in a work of fiction, but half of life was missing. In The Sims 3, we’ll let you explore the other half of life that happens when you are not at home.

14.How do the 'new personalities' work?

There are over 70 personality traits that players can choose from. When you choose traits they are represented as a simple word that you might use to describe someone you know so it’s easy to understand what they will do in the game. What makes traits so powerful is that they can change the game in profound ways. You’ll see different behaviors, interactions, advantages and goals depending on the traits that your Sims display. Just to name a few examples of more extreme traits, you can let your Sims be Insane, Evil, Kleptomaniac, Paranoid, Brave, Hates Kids, Genius and more.

15.What challenges did you face in the creation of The Sims 3?

Working to tune the AI so that the people who live in your town have lifelike behavior. Over time, all of The Sims in the town grow and develop, and it takes an impressive amount of tuning to make this work just right. I think that people are used to seeing lots of other characters in a game world, but they’ve never seen a game world where every character is being motivated by unique personality traits and motives like The Sims 3. Another thing we’re working on is a feature called Create A Style which allows players to customize just about everything, from clothing to furniture to cars. We want players to be able to change the game like our artists can. The interface is really powerful and we want to make it perfect.

16.We understand that the game features a continuous neighborhood and no loading times, but there won't be multiple neighborhoods as in The Sims 2. Tell us a bit about this decision. How will it change what different players do with the game once they get it in their hands?

There is one neighborhood, and it is pretty amazing. We’ve been working exclusively on this one neighborhood, Sunset Valley for the last few years. It’s bigger and richer than anything we’ve made before. We really just wanted to make something that would blow people away, and we wanted to do more with the town than we have in the past.

No two towns will ever be the same after one generation in The Sims 3. As I mentioned, every Sim has complete AI throughout their life, so you’ll see people grow up, go to school, fall in love, get married, get jobs, move out, have families, grow old and pass away. It’s also possible to change all of the Sims in your town, so you can fill the town with whoever you like…yourself, your friends, characters from your favorite show, favorite band or sports team, anyone you can imagine…you get the point.

17.We understand that every Sim has a dream that can be fulfilled as part of a lifetime achievement goal. What are some examples of lifetime achievements, and what happens when you reach it? What if you fail?

Just like people, The Sims have wishes. Some of their wishes are really big and we call those Lifetime Wishes. A Lifetime Wish is a really big achievement like becoming a rock star, raising a huge family, getting rich or becoming an astronaut. Along the way to achieving your lifetime wish, you’ll fulfill smaller wishes. As you fulfill a Sim’s wishes, you earn points that can be used to purchase special Traits and reward objects that are generally hilarious and awesome. There really is no way to fail in the game, but you can make some really funny things happen if you want to cause trouble for your Sims.

18.How much dedication does it take to reach the pinnacle of your respective career ladder? Are there any shortcuts to the top?

If you play your cards right, you might be able to get to the top of more than one career in a lifetime, but it would take a lot of hard work and your Sim would need the right traits. Workaholic Sims will be happy if they live at the office, so that might be a good way to go. There are definitely some shortcuts, and your Sims will get Opportunities from time to time that give them a boost.

19.Plenty of open-ended moral choices will pop up in The Sims 3, like giving you the choice to skim off the top of campaign contributions in the political career. Give us some more examples of these moral choices depending on your career. What are the consequences of such decisions?

The game is full of moral choices. Some of them are presented to the player as career Opportunities. I don’t want to give too much away on this subject. A lot of the moral choices in the game come from the social simulator, and this is where the game becomes so compelling. A lot of players use the game to explore moral questions in their own lives. It’s sort of a “what if” simulator. For example, your Sim can choose to Whoohoo at work, but if they get caught then both Sims run out of the office naked. Now, that could be a lesson you don’t want to learn in the real world!

20.What can you tell us about the community features and sharing options players can use to build and share with their friends and with the larger Sims fanbase?

The Sims 3 players will have unprecedented freedom to customize the look of their game. A player with creative aspirations and no technical training or knowledge can make changes to the look of just about everything in their Sims life, right in the game. We call the technology Create A Style. In the past, fans made their creations outside of the game and then shared them on the exchange. We wanted to give the power that our artists have to the players.

The process of getting creations online is easier than ever. The Sims 3 launcher helps you install and manage custom content so that you don’t have to hunt around for directories or anything like that.

Finally, The Sims 3 community is completely new and there are some incredible tools, including a web-based video editing tool so that players can make movies from the videos they capture in the game.

21.As in The Sims 2, throwing parties is all the rage in The Sims 3. What are the different party types available depending on your career?

There are new party types in The Sims 3, but there are also some pretty cool locations to party with your friends. If you want to call your friends down to the beach and set up an afternoon BBQ, you can do that. Break out your guitar, turn on the radio, call up some friends and chill out. If you’re a rising politician, you can throw campaign fundraisers to build up your campaign fund as well.

22.Please give us an update on the game. What aspects is the team working on at the moment?

A lot of our time is spent playing and perfecting the open, living neighborhood and all of the gameplay that takes place there. In The Sims 3, we’re opening up the other half of life that players have always wanted to explore. What happens when you’re not stuck at home? It’s been a huge undertaking for us, but we’re very happy with the way it’s working out.

One example of the work we’re doing is the AI behind the people who live in your town. You control a household of Sims, but all of the other Sims in your town live and develop as you play. It takes an impressive amount of tuning to make this work just right. I think that people are used to seeing lots of other characters in a game world, but they’ve never seen a game world where every character is being motivated by unique personality traits and motives like The Sims 3. Another thing we’re working on is a feature called Create A Style which allows players to customize just about everything, from clothing to furniture to cars. We want players to be able to change the game like our artists can. The interface is really powerful and we want to make it perfect.

23.We're sure The Sims 2 community was very vocal about what it wanted from a sequel. What were the most popular requests that fans made for The Sims 3?

We're all fans of The Sims, and a lot of our team worked on The Sims and The Sims 2, so player feedback is built into our team.  We also spend a lot of time interacting with members of The Sims community around the world.  I don't think the game would be what it is without The Sims community.  Fans have always wanted more interaction with a community of Sims. If you think about it, The Sims is the most detailed depiction of contemporary life to be presented in a work of fiction, but half of life was missing. In The Sims 3, we’ll let you explore the other half of life that happens when you are not at home.

24.We understand that the game features a continuous neighborhood and no loading times, but there won't be multiple neighborhoods as in The Sims 2. Tell us a bit about this decision. How will it change what different players do with the game once they get it in their hands?

There is one neighborhood, and it is pretty amazing. We’ve been working exclusively on this one neighborhood, Sunset Valley for the last few years. There have been many versions of it. Some ideas were scrapped, while others survived for a while until we had a better idea. This town is bigger and richer than anything we’ve made before. We really wanted to make something that would blow people away, and we wanted to do more with the town than we have in the past.

No two towns will ever be the same after one generation in The Sims 3. As I mentioned, every Sim has complete AI throughout their life. You’ll see people grow up, go to school, fall in love, get married, get jobs, move out, have families, grow old and pass away. It’s also possible to change all of the Sims in your town, so you can fill the town with whoever you like…celebrities, yourself, your friends, characters from your favorite show, favorite band or sports team, or anyone you can imagine!

25.As players create their Sims, they will now be able to select five personality traits that will help define their dispositions. How will this new system let players create characters with more-defined personalities...and more importantly, how will it do a better job of letting players re-create the personalities of themselves, their friends, or their favorite celebrities? What are some extreme personalities we'll see in The Sims 3?

There are over 70 personality traits that players can choose from. When you choose traits they are represented as a simple word that you might use to describe someone you know, so it’s easy to understand what they will do in the game. What makes traits so powerful is that they can change the game in profound ways. You’ll see different behaviors, interactions, advantages and goals depending on the traits that your Sims have. Just to name a few examples of more extreme traits, you can let your Sims be Insane, Evil, Kleptomaniac, Paranoid, Brave, Hates Kids, Genius and more...

Just like people, The Sims have wishes. Some of their wishes are really big and we call those Lifetime Wishes. A Lifetime Wish is a really big achievement like becoming a rock star, raising a huge family, getting rich or becoming an astronaut. Along the way to achieving your lifetime wish, you’ll fulfill smaller wishes. As you fulfill a Sim’s wishes, you earn points that can be used to purchase special Traits and reward objects that are generally hilarious and awesome. There really is no way to fail in the game, but you can make some really funny things happen if you want to cause trouble for your Sims.

27.How much dedication does it take to reach the pinnacle of your respective career ladder? Are there any shortcuts to the top?

If you play your cards right, you might be able to get to the top of more than one career in a lifetime, but it would take a lot of hard work and your Sim would need the right traits. Workaholic Sims will be happy if they live at the office, so that might be a good way to go. There are definitely some shortcuts, and your Sims will get Opportunities from time to time that give them a boost.

28.Plenty of open-ended moral choices will pop up in The Sims 3, like giving you the choice to skim off the top of campaign contributions in the political career. Give us some more examples of these moral choices depending on your career. What are the consequences of such decisions?

The game is full of moral choices. Some of them are presented to the player as career Opportunities. I don’t want to give too much away on this subject. A lot of the moral choices in the game come from the social simulator, and this is where the game becomes so compelling. A lot of players use the game to explore moral questions in their own lives. It’s sort of a “what if” simulator…

29.What can you tell us about the community features and sharing options players can use to build and share with their friends and with the larger Sims fanbase?

The Sims 3 players will have unprecedented freedom to customize the look of their game. A player with creative aspirations and no technical training or knowledge can make changes to the look of just about everything in their Sims life, right in the game. We call the technology Create A -a-Style. In the past, fans made their creations outside of the game and then shared them on the exchange. We wanted to give the power that our artists have to the players.

The process of getting creations online is easier than ever. The Sims 3 launcher helps you install and manage custom content so that you don’t have to hunt around for directories or anything like that.

Finally, The Sims 3 community is completely new and there are some incredible tools, including a web-based video editing tool so that players can make movies from the videos they capture in the game.

30.As in The Sims 2, throwing parties is all the rage in The Sims 3. What are the different party types available depending on your career?

There are new party types in The Sims 3, but there are also some pretty cool locations to party with your friends. If you want to call your friends down to the beach and set up an afternoon BBQ, you can do that. Break out your guitar, turn on the radio, call up some friends and chill out. If you’re a rising politician, you can throw campaign fundraisers to build up your campaign fund as well.

The expansion's final locale is a mountaintop campsite complete with a wise old hermit you probably shouldn't let the children hang around. The mountains do strange things to a man. You'd probably be better off with the Ninja or the pirate corpses.

The expansion will feature new activities like glass-bottom boat tours (more pirate corpses, only bloated), meditation, building sand castles, and a variety of other interesting things you should probably go do yourself but don't have the time and/or money to do. Living vicariously through little fake people is going to be so much better come September. Until then, chew on this press release.

SIMS FANS EMBARK ON EXOTIC TRAVELS AS EA ANNOUNCES THE SIMS 2 BON VOYAGE Fans of the Popular Video Game Series Escape to Exciting Destinations with their Sims Chertsey, UK — July 26, 2007 — Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that fans of the popular video game franchise, The Sims™ 2, can whisk their Sims away on exciting trips to discover exotic locations, including the Far East, Rustic Mountaintops - even a Tropical Island! The Sims 2 Bon Voyage will allow fans to travel with their Sims on a variety of magnificent vacations featuring a myriad of all-new activities when the expansion pack launches this year.

Whether your Sims are relaxing on a lush tropical island in a luxury suite, camping with the family on a pristine mountaintop, or exploring the culture of the Far East, they'll enjoy new activities to relax and rejuvenate. From building sand castles and catching rays to meditating in the Zen garden after a visit to the pool, players can quickly transform their Sims from bumbling tourists to savvy international travelers. Sims will also learn new customs including local greetings and traditional dances to take home and teach to their friends. With The Sims 2 Bon Voyage, players can send their Sims packing for the trip of a lifetime!

As your Sims travel, they'll interact and learn from a variety of real and mythical locals including the wise old hermit, fire dancers — even Big Foot! Like all true vacationers, your Sims will be able to decorate their homes with unique souvenirs from their trips that are available only at destinations within The Sims 2 Bon Voyage. They can even buy unique jewelry to wear or take home as gifts! Fall in love with the hula dance lei from your Sims tropical beach vacation? Bring it back and flaunt to the neighbors! Love the moves your Sim mastered doing the Slap Dance at the rustic lodge? Teach fellow Sims the tricks of the trade back at home. What your Sims learn and collect, is up to you!

"The Sims 2 Bon Voyage brings so many new experiences and locations to the game, there's almost no end to the surprises that fans and their Sims are going to discover as they travel to each of the three exotic travel destinations. It's a perfect break from the everyday home routine!" said Vice President and Studio Head of The Sims Division, Rod Humble. "Every member of the family should be able to find activities that suit them—Mom can get a massage at the spa, Dad can practice Tai Chi in the Zen Garden, kids can explore the ruins of our largest object yet - the Pirate Ship! With The Sims 2 Bon Voyage, you can take your Sims - even your family - on the trip of a lifetime!"

The Sims 2 Bon Voyage will ship in Europe and across the US in early September as a PC expansion pack* that builds on the original The Sims 2 PC game experience.

KEY FEATURES
• Travel to Three Exotic Destinations: Each location offers unique landscapes and local residents, such as the Fire Dancer and Ninja, for your Sims to meet and learn from. Try local cuisine and admire cultural landmarks as your Sims explore these new locales.
• Send Your Sims on Tours: Glass bottom boat rides, adventurous van tours, and other excursions are fun new activities for your Sims, but there may be some surprises in store!
• Buy or Find Unique Items: Shop for rare items found only on your Sims' travels, including unique jewelry they can wear or take home as gifts. Stumble upon hidden locations, collect shells on the beach, or dig up treasure.
• Stay at New Travel Accommodations: Splurge on a luxury suite for your Sims or choose a cozy cabin. Your Sims will enjoy the comfort of room service, get pampered at the spa, and more.

* Requires The Sims 2, The Sims 2 Special DVD Edition , The Sims 2 Holiday Edition or The Sims 2 Deluxe for PC to play.

Think about it for a tick: The Sims franchise is the best-selling game series ever. The Sims family has outsold any other game by something like a factor of ten. Ish. Over 55m copies sold, and that's last year's data - I can only guess at what the figures are now.

The Sims is huge. Do you ever wonder who's behind all these purchases? I wish I had an answer for you, because I wonder all the time. Look at the US top ten from two weeks ago:

During the week of April 16-22, the number-one finisher [The Sims: Family Fun Stuff] from the previous week stayed on top. In its second week of release, the Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff pack once again outsold its nearest competitor, the acclaimed role-playing game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. That put it three slots ahead of the Sims 2: Open for Business expansion pack (fourth) and four slots ahead of the original Sims 2 (fifth).

The Sims 2 - vanilla style - is still number 5 in the top 10 PC games. The mind boggles: it's almost two years old already, and it's still at number 5. Now , everyone knows that The Sims is supremely popular with female gamers. This is clearly a factor behind its staggering performance, but it must be noted, if The Sims were only mostly selling to girls then surely it would only do as well as a game mostly selling to boys.

No, The Sims must be performing so well because it appeals to both males and females together, and the aggregate sales means it stomps its rivals by a factor of Y. It's quite a staggering performance, and just goes to show what a game can do if it appeals to a broader market.

Last question. Why have I never met a chap who'll admit to playing The Sims? Are you a bloke with a secret Sims habit? The figures say there must be millions of you out there. Who are you?

The Sims Outsells Everything [GameSpot UK]

Party girl Bijou Philips *hearts* Will Wright's games. The friend of Paris Hilton and hippy rock spawn, Philips told Stuff Magazine that she sims for kicks. "I play The Sims. I've gotten every single expansion pack for The Sims 2, and I'm obsessed," says the former model, who started snorting coke in her early teens. "I sit online for hours downloading wallpapers and crystal spray paint - I just go nuts. I can sit and design houses and make families forever. I'd rather do that than anything else." Sure beats rehab.

More Here [GameSetWatch]

Passionate Sims fans took to the net Sunday night, creating digi knock-offs of some of the hot fashions from the Academy Awards Red Carpet. By Monday morning some of the Red Carpet clothes were the top downloads on the Sims 2 community site.

Check out the jump for more virtual vogue.

Full selection of Sims games and accessories [Amazon]

The Sims 2

Bless her! Bonnie at Heroine-Sheik just wrote an entry called "Friends and Lovers (in The Sims 2)." From Ms. Ruberg's piece: "Every person you 'socialize' with first becomes your friend, then levels up to be your lover. Is this just a version of human relationships that s been oversimplified for the sake of simple gameplay?" The idea of friends leveling up into lovers made me crack a grin, if not for the wording, but also for the reality.

Friends and Lovers (in The Sims 2) [Heroine-Sheik]