I want to thank all of you who took the time to ask questions and to thank Grant Rodiek, Associate Producer for The Sims 3 for his answers.

What do you think is the biggest improvement that Sims 3 brings?

I’d say unique Sims, the neighborhood, and the creative tools.
With our new personality traits and deep skill building, not to mention our incredible Create-a-Sim experience, no two Sims will be alike – if you want it that way, of course.
The neighborhood is a first for The Sims franchise in that players can go anywhere in town without a load screen to hold you back. It makes the game seamless and far more enjoyable.
Finally, our developers have really made our creative tools far superior to any other Sims game. The aforementioned Create-a-Sim lets you make anyone you can imagine. Build/Buy is better and easier to use than ever. But the coolest feature is our Create-a-Style tool that lets you change the pattern or color on any piece of clothing or furniture in the game. The possibilities are literally limitless and so easy to use.

Since it’s been announced that the Sims in Sims 3 can “take care of themselves”, do you think that Sims 3 is moving closer to a pure game than a simulation or do you think that Sims 3 still walks that fine line like previous titles in the franchise have?

We’ve definitely tried to infuse more “game” elements so that under the surface there is a rich, deep strategy game. But at the end of the day, we’re still a game that focuses on the stories of your Sims, their lives, and how they live them.

There is a lot of buzz right now about Sims 3 not hitting its Feb ‘09 release date. Is this just in the UK market or will the US market be affected as well by the “evaluating the launch window” statement?

The Sims 3 will launch simultaneously worldwide on PC, Mac, iPhone and iPod touch June 2, 2009.

What got left on the cutting room floor that you really wish could have been included?

We’ve been working on The Sims 3 for quite some time. A large percentage of us came from The Sims 2, The Sims 2 expansion packs, SimCity – needless to say we know The Sims! We looked to our past projects to pick and choose the best features for The Sims 3 and we’re quite pleased with what will ship with the game.

Since we all know that “minimum system requirements” are just a bare bones estimation of what it takes to get the game to load [and not necessarily what will get the game to function well] what are the specs on the system on which you run Sims 3?

We’ve developed The Sims 3 to work on a wide range of PCs. If the players have the min spec at least, they’ll be able to enjoy our game.

Are there empty lots available in the game so that players can build custom houses from the ground up? – Jan

Yes!

Is canning and wine making available in the game? – Jan

We don’t have canning, but gardeners can grow excellent fruits and vegetables (and a few special things) to sell at the local supermarket, use to complete Opportunities, or even just as ingredients when cooking at home. We also have rewarding careers and lifetime wishes in the game like becoming a five star chef.

Are there any plans for an online component to Sims 3? – Lost Without Sims Online

The Sims is an offline, single player game that has significant community features for sharing, story telling, and more. The Sims has always been a very personal game experience, almost like a diary for some people, so while we admire and learn from features in online games, the Sims is fundamentally different.

Will Sims be able to do laundry? – Melissa

No, but there are a number of other household chores Sims can participate in such as gardening, making themselves a snack and tidying up.

Can you edit familial relationships of existing Sims? I.e. make neighbors related - Julia M.

You can have Sims get married, but once genetics are set, they are set in stone. There is a lot of flexibility for making interesting families in our game.

Is it possible to have your Sims have their pictures taken and then hang them on the house walls? – Frenchy

Your Sims can take photos with their cellphone and then hang the pictures on the wall. Also, highly skilled painters can paint portraits of friends and family. You can even sell these to be seen in the local art gallery!

Any new interactions for pregnant Sims? – Mike

One of my favorite things about pregnancy in The Sims 3 is that there are so many more little things that impact conception and pregnancy. For example, if the pregnant Sim is in a good mood leading up to the birth then there are higher chances that the baby will be born with positive traits. Ultimately it was still about balancing gameplay and realism and making sure that as a life moment it is a rewarding experience.

Are you still able to create babies? – Katie

Yes!

Any ideas on expansions that might become available for Sims 3 like a “superhero expansion”? – AJ

Right now we are focusing on making The Sims 3 the best game to date from The Sims studio.

Do the NPCs age alongside the player created characters or can multiple generations of a family have the same maid? – Jason

The town is alive and growing with your characters. Everyone ages and moves along with your character. So, the families maid will grow old and die just like the rest of the family.

Will there by aliens in Sims 3? – Jason

No, but we do have playable ghosts!

Will there be any car accidents or other disasters? – George-Ilias

While Sims need to have some sense of danger (burglary, fire, electrocution), things like car accidents are a little too real. It’s hard to keep them funny and humorous like the other unfortunate things that plague unlucky Sims.

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I was asked to play with the new Creature Creator for Spore and enter into a contest to win $15,000 for my favorite charity.

The way the whole deal works is you go to SporeVote.com and view everyone’s creatures; there’s a short bio of everyone and a video of their creation.

Then, you vote on which creature you like best.

Simple as that.

I’m not sure when Avery will be up on the site but hopefully it won’t be too long.

You can download the Creature Creator on the 17th though there are “leaked” copies out there if you do some looking around.

Post from: Sims Gamer

I just realized that I haven’t done a formal introduction and that makes me look like a bit of a looser.

Hi. My name is Amy and that picture above this rambling mess is my family. Well, kind of. The animals and husband are right but my daughter is actually only 15 months old. However, I didn’t feel like dealing with a toddler Sim when I created this lovely family.

I’ve been playing The Sims since the original Sims and have all of the expansions…though I’m really not quite sure what happened to all of them.

Sims 2 was a big step and I can’t believe that I used to love the original Sims so much.

I’m split on what my favorite Sims 2 expansion is.

University is pretty freakin’ cool since it allows you to live [or relive] your college days but I also really like Nightlife because of the cars. And then of course is Pets and Seasons. I really just can’t choose. Though some expansions have been “better” than others, each has added a new layer of play.

I got Bon Voyage yesterday [I know I'm late to the party] and I’m excited to see what new things it has to offer. You’ll notice that the clothes that the family is wearing are from Vacation.

My plans for Sim Gamer are this. I want to increase the downloadable content. I love finding really great custom items and Sims and I also love to share them. Of course, Sims news is a must, but news doesn’t happen everyday with this game. So, I’ll report it as I find it. The Architectural Challenge is kind of up in the air right now. I’m waiting on news about it myself, so you’ll know something when I do.

Each Wednesday, I participate in “Wordless Wednesday”. It’s a great way to bring new people to the site and if you guys have some stuff that you’d like for me to showcase of Wednesdays, drop me an email and I’ll happily oblige.

That’s about it folks.

Are there anythings that you would like to see more of?

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This really cool picture came from Mareen Fischinger. Go check out her Flickr site to see other nifty pictures.

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I’m such a sucker for a pair of great Sims that have a great story to go with them.

Their story is a very simple tale of tragic romance: the two lived happily in London, during the year 1850. The young man by the name of Victor fell in love with his childhood friend, the innocent Victoria, and he proposed to her, preaching to her of his eternal love for her.

Don’t you love ‘em already?

If you want to get these love birds, head on over here. [There are more screenshots too.]

Post from: Sims Gamer

According to Will Wright, in his interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Sims “was referred to as “The Toilet game”. It was the game where you clean the toilet. We had a product review meeting at Maxis where we had to decide whether we’d publish this thing or not…and the executive said “No, let’s do [something else]”.”

Apparently Wright was one of the few people who realized just how great The Sims could be and because of that was one of the few who went to bat for the game.

Though Sims tested poorly with some age groups [14 year old boys] it’s main fan base is women – a whopping 60 %. And those women have bought The Sims and its various offshoots like it’s going out of style – snatching up somewhere around 90 million copies of the simulation game.

Since its “toilet game” start, The Sims has spawned 7 expansions as well as Sims 2, with its five expansions. [and counting]

I’m sure those kinds of numbers make Wright very, very happy that he fought for such an unlikely game.

Post from: Sims Gamer