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What's worse than living in the desert surrounded by whackos, half-breed aliens, and the potential risk of being abducted, probed, and dropped back into the desert surrounded by all those "people?"

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The Sims 2 - SimIGN, part 1

A sim-month in the life of the Dan, Steve, Tom, Tal, and Jimmy. Jimmy? Who the hell is Jimmy?

What's worse than living in the desert surrounded by whackos, half-breed aliens, and the potential risk of being abducted, probed, and dropped back into the desert surrounded by all those "people?" When the people you share a house with are the guys working on the PC channel of IGN. Yuck. It certainly seems like a disaster in the making and it certainly started off that way when myself (Dan), Steve, Tom, Tal, and Jimmy moved into Strangetown, a little burg out in the desert with some strange inhabitants and a history of alien abductions. Heck, there's even a crashed spacecraft and bizarre stonehenge type of rock formation in the surrounds. It wasn't long before our fearsome five met some of the neighbors, and the honeymoon was over almost immediately.

First off, seeing as we're a group of five all planning on living together, I decided that it would be best to construct a house from scratch, using only a plot of land and some creativity. Unfortunately I am not that creative, nor am I a good planner. Before long, the crew moved into a severely under equipped house. Not only did it not have paint on any of the walls, partially carpeted floors, and one lonely window, but it also was built sans roof. The amenities inside the house were equally as sad. A crappy toilet and shower, five twin sized beds, a microwave, and a couch were all that was to be found for the poor lost group of idiots destined for mediocrity. No entertainment. No mirrors. No good. So sorry guys, but your architect is a dumbass.

At least the only way to move was up. And so we began the process of growing as individuals and a group. Our first move was to ostracize Jimmy from the rest of us. Frankly, I don't know who the hell he is and why he was added into this mess. He's freakish looking and not very nice. From the get go he was on the outside, not only in conversation, but also in housing. A tiny room out back was his holding pen at night. Jimmy didn't seem to mind too much. He just wandered around giving everyone the thumbs up and cheeseball two hand points at every pass. All told, I suppose that's better than Steve's habit of scratching his armpit every few steps.

Within a Sim hour of moving into the new digs and seeing the shambles their lives had become, the first visitors arrived. One of them was even a "visitor." Green, big black eyes, sunken nasal cavity. Yikes. He didn't really get along with anyone except for myself, and that was marginal. My expression should say it all. It wasn't long before the animosity really started flying around our guests that had so easily invited themselves over to our lovely home. The alien wasn't even close to the worst. Another old lady with white hair actually managed to come off badly to every single person in the household, going far enough to make Tom cry. But then again, he's quite the baby.

Then the real fun started when Steve decided to make some food in the microwave, which quickly burst into flame. Everyone freaked out until the fireman arrived. Thankfully there was a fire alarm installed or this would have been a very short feature. The fire was quickly stopped and the guests quickly beat a retreat back to their own freakish lives, having had enough of ours.

From then on, life became a bit more normal. Everyone grabbed up a job. I went the athlete route, though seeing the immense amount of humor in that decision, switched tracks to business. Steve, being a knowledge loving sim turned to science. Tal was given the politics career due to his love of popularity... which is kind of ironic. Tom managed to weasel a job as a golf caddy on the slacker career path so he could spend his time trying to woo the ladies. I emphasize trying in that statement. And Jimmy... well, he found his way into a life of crime.

Unfortunately, no one could expect any promotions in the first few days. Everyone was unhappy, dirty, smelly, hungry, full of pee, and generally a mess. The first bit of money was immediately spent on a stereo to increase the peace. It worked for the most part. Although I lost count of the time that Tom tried to sidle up next to some girl that wandered by and get his freak on... and was rejected. Tal and Jimmy were getting more of the freak on than Tom. It's a disturbing image that I can't seem to wash from my mind.

The first week of living in Strangetown moved on. No one was really getting what they wanted, but the quality of living began to slowly improve as the cash money trickled into the house. The first order of business was putting a roof on the house and adding some light fixtures. At the next paycheck, the inside of the house was suddenly decorated with paint, wallpaper, and carpet.

That's when things really started taking off. Tal, Steve, and myself were all promoted and earned bonuses. Jimmy followed quickly behind while Tom languished in his slacker career as a caddy, even managing to get a golfer struck by lightning. The extra money allowed the purchase of a TV, stove, chessboard, and easel as well as a back deck for eventual lounging.

Meanwhile, the house, as "nice" as it was becoming, was disintegrating with dirt and nastiness. The toilet, which hadn't been cleaned since moving in, looked like it housed primordial ooze. Waves of stench flow from the bowl in a disgusting green cloud. Why none of these slackers will clean it is beyond me. Instead, they just keep using it and abusing it. At the end of the week, it was even clogged, flooding the floor and undoubtedly wetting the asses of everyone that sits upon its evil surface. But still it is not clean.

Instead of cleaning the toilet, it looks as though Jimmy has started peeing in the shower, something I was unaware was even possible. I wouldn't have known except that Jimmy's bladder rating was being relieved in the middle of "washing" himself. Meanwhile, Tom, like a four year old too busy playing to notice, waited too long to use the bathroom and was forced to wet not only himself, but also the carpet, leaving a puddle on the ground that would go uncleaned for three days.

The one good thing is that people in the house are getting along better at this point. Aside from Tom and Jimmy that is. Tom seems to enjoy laughing at Jimmy about this and that. I have a feeling Tom is just trying to make up for his severe inadequacy with the ladies. Even after some practice in the mirror getting his moves up to par, Tom's batting a big .000 with the fairer sex. Perhaps when he stops being a slacker and starts earning money something will happen.

As we leave our sims after their first week of existence in The Sims 2, we can't help but reflect on their early ineptitude, rude behavior and lack of social skills (aside from my somehow managing to convince a girl she should be my friend). We can only look forward to the following sim-weeks, which will be played out over the rest of this real week to be culminated by a fantastic explanation of why everything happened and what could potentially have happened had I taken more control over each of their lives, which I might still do a little bit.

Over the course of the week, I'll be looking to further upgrade the quality of living for the fat five, including the addition of a telescope which will hopefully result in Steve's abduction, a love tub, a piano, a group game, and perhaps even some bigger beds so our bachelors can take on the female population. Tal's sim seems to be up on throwing a party and the house may be in for a redesign should these guys manage to make enough money and clean the toilet. Keep checking back the rest of this week for updates on their... our progress in Strangetown.

"Possibilities in this game are tremendously large," said Wright. "Also there's a much higher percentage of weirdness."

What's Going On?

Revising original Sims

Electronic Arts creates new version of popular game

by Matthew Yi, Chronicle Staff Writer

Dina is a young woman who is attracted to Mortimer, a rich older man.

Living down the street from her is Don, a dashing bachelor who is engaged to Mortimer's socially awkward daughter, but who has trouble keeping his focus on just one woman.

Then there is Brandi at the other end of town. She's a single mom struggling to raise two boys.

It may sound like a daytime TV soap opera, but it's actually Sims 2, the sequel to the most popular PC video game ever.

After months of delays, Electronic Arts in Redwood City is finally getting set to deliver the title, a game that allows the player to create characters and control their lives -- everything from choosing a spouse and a career to what to eat for dinner and when to go to the bathroom.

The new title has a host of improvements including detailed 3-D graphics, better artificial intelligence and a new movie-making feature that allows the gamer to record character interactions in this life-simulating game.

"It's a shot in the dark," said Will Wright, the video game icon who created the original Sims and who helped with the sequel, referring to the movie-making feature. "It's one of those things that is not quite there yet ... but it's a cool feature, and I'd like to see what people do with it."

The first Sims has been a phenomenon. Not only have millions of people played the game, but scores of fans have put up Web sites offering for free their own custom-designed wallpaper, clothes, chairs, tables and other virtual objects to be added into the game.

Wright said he wasn't sure how well the first Sims would do in stores when it hit the shelves four years ago.

"We weren't sure what people would do with it," said Wright, who originally thought about naming the game Doll House. "We didn't really understand Sims well enough. But it was remarkable how much people were reading themselves into the game."

Neil Young, general manager of EA's Maxis Studio which oversees the Sims franchise, said that when his firm was getting ready to release the first Sims in 2000, it expected to sell 158,000 copies, a respectable number for a PC game.

Instead, "We've done nearly 40 million Sims, including (six) expansion packs," he said.

Young estimated that figure represents about 6 to 10 percent of the entire PC video game software market.

He wouldn't say what EA's estimates are for Sims 2, but there has been plenty of hype and anticipation for the sequel, which is scheduled to hit store shelves on Sept. 17.

It will have plenty of competition. PC game Doom 3 is already out, and Half-Life 2 will be available this month. Also coming this fall are console games Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Gran Turismo 4.

The new PC titles should help the PC game market, which -- unlike the console game segment -- shrank from $1.4 billion in 2001 to $1.22 billion last year, said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities.

But he estimates that even with the big titles this year, the PC gaming market should be about the same as last year.

Still, Sims 2 is a big deal for EA, which is likely to sell 2 million to 2.5 million copies this holiday season, said Pachter, who doesn't own EA shares and whose firm doesn't have a banking business with the game publisher.

EA says it isn't worried about the competition because, unlike the shooting, racing or strategic games that attract the typical 18- to 34-year- old males who dominate the market, the Sims franchise has attracted a significant number of women and what the industry calls casual gamers.

"A lot of hard-core gamers bought the first Sims and played it for a while, but ... it was their wives and girlfriends who ended up playing more," Wright said. "This time ... we didn't want to lose the core Sims audience ... (but) we need to reacquire the hard-core gamers. We need to give them a much deeper strategic game play."

That's where Sims 2's new features come into play.

While the new game is still based on making sure that the basic needs of the characters are met, such as getting enough food, sleep and fun, EA has added another layer of humanity: desire to fulfill lifelong dreams.

The new game has an additional panel on the bottom of the screen that shows a character's four wants and three fears. These can be anything from wanting to meet new friends to getting a job promotion. Fears can range from illness to the death of a spouse.

Depending on the situation at the moment, different wants and fears will pop up, and a gamer, if he or she chooses, can make sure the characters achieve those desires.

Furthermore, a character's wants and fears are also dictated by his or her aspirations.

For example, a character whose aspiration is to raise a family will want to get married, have kids and spend as much time as possible with his spouse and children. Then there are characters bent on gaining knowledge, friends, romance or money.

Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Sims 2, said aspirations, wants and fears are meant to attract traditional mission-oriented gamers.

Adding that new layer to the game delayed the game's release six months, said Young, the general manager.

Some of the other major upgrades in Sims 2 include characters that look more realistic and are smarter. For example, if one character gets into a fight with another, they won't get along so easily the next time they meet.

Also, the characters in the new game age over time. Couples can have babies that inherit both their looks and personalities.

"Possibilities in this game are tremendously large," said Wright. "Also there's a much higher percentage of weirdness."

For example, one neighborhood has an alien family that just moved in, and there will be alien abductions.

While Sims 2 has managed to keep its teen rating, the company has added more risque situations, such as "Woohoo" -- a sexual encounter between two characters under the blanket in bed or underwater in a hot tub. As in the first version, there is no nudity, only pixilated body parts when a character jumps into the shower.

"It's important for us to have the teen rating, but you also don't want to make it vanilla," said Bradshaw. "It makes for a more interesting, realistic experience ... and we treat it humorously rather than salaciously."

Young said EA plans to follow up with a number of expansion packs. After the first Sims came out, EA was rolling out two expansion packs a year for a total of six. These smaller add-ons allowed characters to have pets, go out on dates and take vacations.

Young wouldn't say what the first Sims 2 expansion pack would look like, but added the plan is to have it out in the first quarter next year.

"It definitely is one of EA's top franchises," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at SoundView Technologies Group. "The initial numbers may not rival (EA's popular Madden football game), but over time, it has the potential to be one of the company's top titles."

THEN
The 2-D characters looked like paper dolls and had only basic needs such as eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom.

NOW
The 3-D characters are more realistic.
Improved artificial intelligence gives them memory.
They also have stronger emotional needs.

There's plenty of buzz around the The Sims 2 right now. Wondering what they're saying?

Go to The Sims 2 to Find Out More

Vanaf 11 september start Electronic Arts Benelux met ‘De Sims 2 On Tour’: een uniek rondreizend evenement dat in september en oktober door Nederland en België zal trekken.

De Sims 2 On Tour bestaat uit een mobiel Sims huis waarin twee ‘echte’ Sims verblijven. Fans krijgen zo de mogelijkheid om de game eens in levende lijve te ervaren.

Het mobiele Sims huis moet de bezoeker een unieke Sims ervaring bieden. Rondlopen in een echt Sims huis en contact leggen met Sims van vlees en bloed. Het huis heeft vier kamers die ingericht zijn in typische Sim-stijl. In ieder vertrek bevindt zich een Ambi Light TV waarop non-stop trailers, making of documentaires, en fragmenten uit de nieuwe game worden getoond. Twee acteurs nemen de rol van de Sims op zich, waarbij zij het gedrag en de taal (Simlish) van de figuren uit de computergame imiteren. Bezoekers krijgen van hen een uitgebreide uitleg over de nieuwe game.