Previewed by Atari on 12/9/02

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Developer Q & A

One of the Online Community Representatives was able to hog-tie Executive Producer and Vice President Gordon Walton for a quick Q&A session with WomenGamers. (Thanks Tigger!)

1. Who is your target audience? Why do you think this game will appeal to them?

Gordon Walton: Our primary target audience is Sims fans who would like to play with other Sims fans. In addition, we believe this game has the potential to appeal to a wider audience of people that use the internet for online socializing. We have a world familiar to Sims players that is populated with tens of thousands of other players who are socializing and entertaining each other in all kinds of ways. Just like the original Sims, this game is open-ended, and very easy to learn. Our game is non-violent and quite social. Over half our Sims customers are women and we expect The Sims Online to have a similar majority of female players.

If you want to join our test you should order the free disks (no shipping charges in the USA and Canada) at this link: https://secure.dotcomdist.com/maxemail.htm. Interested people should order these immediately since our test ends soon. Or if you have broadband you can download it free at these links:

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/110000/114584.shtml
http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=1640
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/misc/dlx/sims/index.html

2. The game depends on players to create and mold the world, but the objects used to build the cities are currently static merchandise that anyone can buy with enough money. Is there any plans for crafting to be introduced to the game?

Gordon Walton: We don't plan to add crafting at this time. We are adding many other economic features, such as dynamic availability and pricing of objects, secure trading, asynchronous sales (stores) and much more. On the creativity question, soon we will add custom content, where players will be able to introduce content into the game similar to what we allowed in The Sims 1.0. Many of these design elements are already laid out in some detail on our player website.

3. Will seasonal products be made available (such as Christmas trees or Easter baskets) for home decoration?

Gordon Walton: We do have a New Year's Eve object coming that should be fun. Next year we will begin to do this for various holidays. Right now we just want to make the game as solid as possible for launch, which then allows us to add new content much more aggressively.

4. How often do you plan to introduce new content into the game?

Gordon Walton: As quickly as possible! We have hundreds of objects that just need some additional testing and tuning before being added into the game for a start. For details on this and other designs, our player website message boards in an area called "Backstage" has current and future designs laid out. You have to be a play tester (and later a subscriber) to get to these boards though.

5. Will you continue to have a beta server online to test the new content before it goes live to production? If so, will it be an internal beta server or can the public participate in it as well?

Gordon Walton: We have a test server available to our subscribers where we will test new features and changes.

6. One of the differences between the single player Sims games and the MMORPG is that in the single player version, you had less control over your character. With the additional control comes certain responsibilities (such as telling your Sim to eat and sleep when he or she is hungry or tired). Are there plans to allow an "auto-pilot" command in the future so that your Sim can attend to his/her needs when they get too low?

Gordon Walton: The most basic and unique benefit of this game is that The Sims are Real. We don't see adding an autopilot to our Sims in The Sims Online. We want the people behind each Sim present to interact with the other people in the world after all.

7. I hear that some players are trying to make in-game political statements against the McDonalds advertising campaign. How are you responding to these players? How do you see this affecting future endorsements?

Gordon Walton: Actually, we haven't really seen this happen in the game. The players all have a choice on whether they will own or frequent a McDonalds food object or one of the other ones in the game. Personally I don't know if people object to the in-game advertising or the sponsor, but I think this is something that is perfect for The Sims Online virtual environment and good for the future development of the online gaming medium.

8. What steps are you taking to help foster the community? Will there be special in-game events or contests?

Gordon Walton: We will be adding larger groupings of players within the game through clubs and neighborhoods after launch. We have already seen a huge percentage of our players participating on our website forums. One of our future additions is something we call "eye in the sky," which is a big events capability. Our goal is to let over 1,000 players tune into a single property and participate as an audience (including a clapping and booing). This will allow us to do unprecedented events in a virtual world, while also letting the most creative players entertain hundreds of their fellow Sims Online players.

9. Characters make money by using certain tools (such as a typewriter) to write a story and then sell it. The selling price is currently based on your skill alone. Are there any plans to make the economy more dynamic to reflect supply and demand? If not, is this something you may consider in the future?

Gordon Walton: Actually the selling price is based upon your skill and how many other people are working on a similar object on the same property. There are also many other ways to make money, including the visitor bonus, which pays lot owners and roommates according to how many visitors they have over the course of the day. We have lots of plans to make the economy more dynamic, varied and interesting. It is a major focus for our team during our first year after launch.

10. What steps can a player take if they are being harassed in the game?

Gordon Walton: The first thing to do is use the tools available to you as a player, which are more powerful in TSO than in other online games. In many ways, you are the moderator of your own game experience. You can ignore a player permanently, you can kick them off your own property and you can permanently ban them from your property. This way you never have to deal with people who behave inappropriately more than once. We also have a way to report players that continue to harass you or who have an inappropriate name, property description, etc... Our customer service representatives have records of the things you saw and heard available to them when a report occurs and can ensure proper action is taken. Truthfully though, statistically this type of activity is really small, though we do appreciate other players helping us identify and remove antisocial elements from TSO.

11. What percentage of the beta testers were female?

Gordon Walton: Over half our Sims customers are female and we expect that to be true for TSO after launch. Currently in our test over 43% of testers are female.

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