Twitter is huge! Oprah is on, Ashton has surpassed 2 million users and many people [including me] use it daily as a way to connect with friends and get the latest news and gossip.

Twitter is also a great way to find out what’s happening in the Sims world.

To help keep you guys expand your Sims knowledge, I’ve put together a list of the top 10 people on Twitter who you should be following.

In no particular order:

#1 ME! @SimsGamer

#2 The Sims 2

#3 The Sims 3

#4 Snooty Sims

#5 Planet the Sims

# 6 Sims Galore

#7 Sims 3 Hunters

# 8 Infinite Sims

#9 Sims Domination

#10 Sims 3 Website

Electronic Arts’ Sims studio announced that The Sims 3 (the latest installment in The Sims series) has reached gold status. It is scheduled for distribution in stores and online beginning on June 2, 2009 for $49.99 for Mac, PC, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Fans will also be able to buy The Sims 3 Collector’s Edition for $69.99. This special edition includes the full game, a strategy guide, a collectable 2GB The Sims Plumbob USB drive, and in-game European sports car for your Sims to use.

In The Sims 3, you have more options than ever before to create and play with unique, life-like Sims. Customize your Sims’ appearances and choose up to five traits to create individual personalities. New goal-oriented game-play enables you to choose which short or long-term objectives you want your Sims to pursue. You can choose to make them happy or not! You can also create and edit your own movies by capturing game-play moments or selecting from a library of clips. Then join The Sims 3 online community where you can show off all your creations, get free bonus content, hear the latest news and more!

The game is rated T for Teen. To learn more about The Sims 3, head to TheSims3.com.

Guest post by Kori Ellis

The Sims 3 Screenshots - IGN.com

By Guest Blogger Rico Mossesgeld, The Gadget Blog

The Sims franchise is going strong at over a million copies sold worldwide, a figure no doubt driven by the release of Sims 2 and all those expansion packs. According to Mike Hickey, an analyst at Janco Partners, The Sims 3 will add at least 4 million more to that tally in 2009.

Image: Sims

The basis for the estimate? Well it seems that since The Sims 2 sold 3.5 mil back in 2004 (has it been that long?), the anticipation will probably drive more demand for the third incarnation of the series.

Hickey did emphasize “a demographic transition toward newer entertainment forms like Nintendo’s Wii and DS”. Which is layman’s speak for “these consoles may probably affect sales of the game, it’s not clear how though”. The analyst also raised the spectre of piracy hurting the games sales, while remaining mum on the effects of EAs planned digital distribution system.

As someone who’s never bought any Sims title for himself, I’m glad that I was always behind the curve. Buying all those compilations—which bundle a large number of Sims expansion packs into one manageable price—has always been kind on my wallet. I expect to buy a Sims “Gold Edition” release, once EA declares The Sims 4 as coming soon.

Maybe I was the only one who wasn’t wondering how the Sims 3 would be protected [from hackers and warez people]?

Image|a.drian

I assumed that when I got my copy of Sims 3 from EA that it would have an annoying long code to enter just like all of the other Sims games that I’ve installed.

Sure Sims 3 is supposed to be THE game and is supposed to be the cool that cool is based on and all of that but it’s not like I expected it to come wrapped in barbed wire and have a body guard. [Though how cool would that be?!]

Anyway, I guess there have been enough questions to get The Sims people’s attention since Rod Humble posted a letter on Sims3 detailing what sort of protections they would be implementing.

I wonder if I can get a body guard with the first expansion?

Text from letter:

Hello everyone I wanted to share news with you regarding our copy protection plans for The Sims 3.

We’ll have more information for you as we get closer to launch about everything we’ll have to offer on TheSims3.com and The Sims 3 Store, but we have heard your requests over the past months and here is our plan for The Sims 3.

The game will have disc-based copy protection - there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed.

We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.

We’re really excited to bring you the game for the PC and Mac starting June 2, 2009. The extra time we’ve taken to polish the game has resulted in an even better game experience for you to enjoy and we can’t wait for you to see for yourself!

Thanks for your passion and your loyalty.
Rod Humble