Yes, my dear fellow Simmers, The Sims games has been around for 12 years now and I’m happy and proud to say I’ve been surrounded by the game since the first moment they hit the shelves. The time flies so fast and it’s really hard to believe that I’ve been playing this game for more than half of my life now. In fact, it’s a little depressing… Anyways, I’ll leave you with this cute iconography–just click the picture to enlarge.

How are you celebrating? Are you playing the game today, what’s been happening in your ‘hood or world? Let me know in the comments! As for me, I need a new computer (or at least a few parts) to make it work again. It will take a while to get there, but hopefully things will turn around for me as well.

Thank you EA Games for making this card! Isn’t it just super cute? Click to enlarge, download, print out and it’s ready to use. I think it’s really super cute. It’s like the perfect reunion of cutness : there’s the bunny, Plum & Bob, the pink flamingo and the gnome is in the waves swimming. I love this postcard!

BTW any idea why the HTML “title” tag states “Hello_Kitty_card”? Now that’s very interesting.

The date has been changed! We have upgraded this Super Secret Surprise event to “Super Secret Surprise! x2″ because we have even bigger news to announce! We will still share something on March 31st, but look forward to the new date.

Come to the official The Sims 3 Facebook’s fan page to hear about our big surprise! Trust us, it’s something BIG and you’ll definitely want to be here to be one of the first to hear the news. Any ideas what it might be?

I guess one thing will be a new expansion pack. Or could they announce two? Well, we already know there will be Generations and Pets.

Also, The Sims Medieval has already hit the shelves. Lucky you who got it, I don’t have money for it right now. However, I found some pretty cool pictures and unboxing photos to make me drool.

On another note, I’m collecting the “vintage” Sims games right now. I already bought The Sims 1 few months ago. Today I bought Vacation and Unleased — all in the original “big” boxes. Actually, the seller from eBay was selling more Sims games in one pack: The Sims Life Stories (which I never played, yay! — fully boxed), Living Large (unboxed), The Sims Deluxe (unboxed) and there was also Vacation prima game guide (plus Vacation and Unleased EPs, as I mentioned). All for 25 bucks with shipping (plus shipping to Slovakia, since I need to ship that from USA, but it won’t be more than 15 bucks anyways). That’s a great deal, isn’t it? I will still buy the other games with original boxes from someone else. Hopefully next month when I have more money. But I’m still happy with this!

So happy 11th birthday, Simmies!

See the rest of the photos at The Sims 3 Facebook fanpage.

I’m not usually into sentimental Sims music videos, but this one is made really good, so I thought I’d share.

I think I know what I’ll be eating for dinner today.

“In contrast with other game communities, the Sims community tends to require its members to act ‘nice’… in sharp contrast to the aggressiveness and competitiveness commonly found on message boards for other games. Which is not to say that Simmers in aggregate are actually, GENUINELY ‘nicer’… there’s as much backbiting and territoriality and infighting and drama as you find anywhere online… but amidst all of that, you see plenty of evidence of people orienting to a ‘niceness norm’.”

I broke down my toaser like a month ago and now I see it might happen for a reason. The toasts from my old toaster were kind of boring. It made toasts. Yeah, just ordinary toasts. I thought that toasts were always boring but then I found this: the Sims 3 toaster! Isn’t it just awesome? 

You want one for sure, right? Sorry, they’re not for sale. I was also not happy to find this. After all, my old toaster is broken and I still need a new one and this one would be just perfect! I can dream on. And be jealous of these folks in Germany where they ate The Sims 3 toasts.

Hint for EA Games: Release this toaster in your store and you’ll get rich. Hint for my readers: Visit my site much more, let me go kudos and maybe EA Games will invite me to their event – and I’ll be able to eat these delicious, oh so delicious, toasts. Don’t worry, I’d send you the bread-crumbs!

Why? Both are fans of the game, both play it, both buy the games and last but not least, both make really nice (and free!) advertisement for EA Games by creating/sharing/doing anything else. Also, it’s impossible to stop any of the sides – they just can’t put down their own fans, that would be too bad. 

I know that many file-sharers will now be dissapointed and probably angry (and I don’t blame them), but for some reason, I think that EA Games has made a nice point: you kids take care of your business, we have nothing to do with it whatsoever. For some reason, I think this is good.

I know it’s easy to say, but I just think that the community should unite again. There’s been too much of drama lately. But really, who cares? I don’t. I want to play the game and have some free pixels in it, that’s all. So let’s stop bitching and let’s try to find a solution that would be good for all of us. No, I’m not being too optimistic – but seeds of hate have never done anything good in the world yet. Nor in the Sims community.

By MaxoidDrea:

Sharing art online is a hobby that involves an investment of time, energy and money. Whether players choose to share their original artistic creations with the community is up to them: some custom content creators design work for a fee; some host their works on sites that organize, store and serve an enormous amount of content for subscribers; some artists request donations; and some artists allow all players to download their creations for free. These artists set their own terms for how they want to share their talents with the community at large. Those terms should be respected by other players.

What’s your opinion? Please, share your thought but be mindful.

“The Sims Label creates original entertainment experiences which are unique in the way they bring culture, interactivity and creativity together,” said Rod Humble. “It is a privilege to lead The Sims Label team as we look forward to new ways of surprising and delighting customers in this rapid growth time for interactive entertainment of all kinds.”

You can read some more about Rod Humble in the previous posts from S4S:

• The Sims 3: (Video) Interview with Rod Humble, Chat on TSR
• The Official Site Survey, Rod Humble’s Post at the BBS
• Few Lines about Mr. Humble and Introduction of The Sims 3

So, to celebrate the years of playing, I’ve made a list of signs that prove you’re a total Sim-Addict. Take it as a questionnaire – the more you check, the more addictive you are!

1. When you’re doing something, you think of what your Sims would do. Example: You’re going out and you’re thinking: should I go swimming or rather do yoga? Answer: Jody likes to swim a lot, so I’m going to swim, too.
2. You’re shopping and you find something that’s in your game. You start dancing around the thing saying: “Hey, I have than in my game! That’s really great! Do you think I should buy it… ?”
3. Grilled cheese suddenly becomes your favorite food. No comment for this.
4. If you have some skills at skinning, but not too much money to buy some special clothes for yourself, you make the clothes at least for your Sims. This way you’ll feel a little more confident and less frustrated that nobody has it.
5. When new expansion pack is announced, you must tell everyone. All your family relatives know it on the day you found out. And you don’t leave out the details.
6. You’re playing the game and suddenly realize that your computer is really slow for the game. From now on, all you think about is how to get money for a new one so your game would run faster and with higher details.
7. When you wake up late in the morning and hurry to school/work, you wish that you could change your clothes just like your Sims – just turn around – snap! – and that’s it!
8. When you have winter or Easter holidays, you also re-decorate houses of your Sims. After all, they deserve some nice vacation as well, don’t they?
9. You look at your house or any other building in your neighborhood and think – I must build this!
10. If you’re about to change something in your real life, you try it in the game first. You build a garden that should look good right behind your house or just print out a picture of your favorite Sim with nice haircut and go to hairdresser with it. It’s much easier to show him/her the haircut you want to have.
11. If possible, you have to try all Sim games that are available. Whether it’s a PSP version, Sims for Nintendo or for your iPod, you just must have all of them.
12. You burst into tears when your hard drive is broken and you know you have no backup. Too bad you’ll have to download a few gigabytes of custom content again!

What are your signs? Did I leave something out? Write it in the comments!

Credits for the picture: katelys from TSR

“Pleasantview is one of the most delightful neighbourhoods to live in, everybody is happy, the grass is always green, children are always well-mannered. But newcomer Andie starts to uncover the ‘real’ Pleasantview, for not only are Pleasantville full of cheating, lying, decieving, secret-ridden people like the Goths, Don Lothario and the struggling Newbies, but they are being ruled by a greater power. Andie is terrified to discover they are stuck in a video game being played by millions universally.”

Huh, sounds interesting to you? Well, I’m curious but also a bit confused – will the movie be animated or with real actors? If animated, then I can imagine it little more clearly. But can you imagine sisters Caliente, Don Lothario or the Goths played by real persons…

And there’s also one more important thing – will the characters speak in Simlish? Now that would be cool! Imagine a two hours long movie in gibberish. All Simmers would go crazy, wouldn’t they?

“The reason you dont see myself or many devs posting is we have a stunning community team here in The Sims label who send us your comments and strongly represent the community everyday. We need a community team because there are so many of you and we are so grateful you are here! Talking to millions of passionate creative Sims players is a huge challenge but I hope you agree the Maxoids here do a fine job.“

Well, I’d say they at least try. If you have something on your mind and you want to change something, now you have a good opportunity – take a survey from the official site. The posts will definitely be read and they might change something – for our own good.

Learn more on TheSims2.com

“You’d be surprised how singers like it.”

He also says that many artists use their own form of Simlish when composing songs and fill in real words later. Rappers seem to acclimatize to Simlish and many of them have great fun by adding secret messages, says Kauker. Some singers give shout-out to their friends by hiding their names in lyrics. Kauker says Maxis doesn’t mind as long as some words aren’t obvious. This ‘hiding tradition’ stared by Drew Carey, who appeared as a celebrity Sim in the House Party expansion and hid his friend’s name in his Simlish dialogue.

Recording tracks for Sims costs just as recording any other song. Some of the songs may get a second chance as the The Humble Brothers, a pair of music mixers and composers who worked on other games as well as projects in music industry (their big hit was ‘1stp Klosr’ featuring Linkin Park), plan to record selected tracks from Sims in English.

For The Sims 2 University were used so-called ‘emerging recording artists’. There were used real singers for second time – for the first time it was used in Urbz: Sims in the City for Xbox, where Black Eyed Peas were used. 11 new songs were written for College Rock station where you’ll meet with tracks by Dexter Freebish, Abra Moore, Charlotte Martin, Da Riffs and Steadman.

Each artist recorded one of their songs but changed the lyrics to nonsensical Simlish. And because of the fact words in Simlish don’t have any meaning, artists are free to use any sounds, any meaning (especially personal) as long as English and known words aren’t used.

Charlotte Martin, whose song ‘Beautiful Life’ was used for University, made sure all the words were consistent with their counterparts in English version, says this:

“It still had the same meaning, I just had to write in alien language.”

She also says that in rewriting the song it changed the way she thinks about lyrics, letting her come at her creation from a more technical standpoint, playing closer attention to syllables and rhythm. She isn’t a gamer even though she swears she’s going to try The Sims 2.

For songstress Abra Moore, whose song “Big Sky” was used in the game, says singing in Simlish gave her a new perspective on her music.

“It’s like jazz for me; I just take to it like a duck to water. It was very liberating creatively.”

However, Moore, who also speaks Italian and Spanish, said she took special care that none of her Simlish words ended up accidentally being curse words in foreign languages. The experience made such an impression on Moore that she said she’d consider recording a song in Sim-like scat on a future album. She perceives the emotional lyrics, divorced of a specific meaning, in almost a spiritual light. She’s fascinated that fans try to interpret the nonsensical lyrics.

“It represents the essence of human nature to take meaning from something that has no meaning.”

“The way we often teach foreign languages right now is somewhat akin to learning to ride a bike by formally studying gravity.”

He thinks that established learning-by-rote can’t have the effect of active learning. Mr. Purushotma’s informative paper on using The Sims to teach makes an excellent point about how games, with their slick presentation and wide appeal, are far more likely to hold the attention of adolescent learners that current interactive educational tools. Also, if people can learn simply by playing and doing what they enjoy then the lessons will have a greater impact, as he explains:

“For many adolescent language learners, the suggestion of playing an edutainment software title unfortunately conjures up images of simplistic space invader games, re-programmed to solicit foreign language vocabulary before being able to be able to shoot at a screen of sketchily drawn aliens. For students in a class only because of a mandated requirement, the temptation to forego all educational value for a modern software title instead designed solely to be entertaining is far too enticing. Upon a closer look, however, some of these same entertainment-focused titles possess much of the basic content desired in an educational title. For example, if we look at the number one selling game The Sims, we see a lot of the same content one might find in an introductory language textbook.”

In fact, I believe that The Sims is a great language tool. Since I’m not a native English speaker, I can say that The Sims has helped me to learn basic words properly without looking into dictionary for them – after all, every step you make with your Sims is quite obvious by using objects/interaction with other Sims. The Sims 2, now released in 22 languages might be even useful than one could think.

Simlish is a language that actually wasn’t made of existing languages as many of us might think. Creators experimented with Ukrainian (one of the original The Sims designers was a native speaker), Tagalog, the language of The Philippines, and Navajo, Indian language from America, inspired by code talkers of World War II. None of these languages were used even though they were studied.

It is sometimes called “grammelot” – a form of theatre invented by comics from the Commedia dell’Arte that has its origin in the European Culture in the XIVth century. Playwright Dario Fo created this sound-language from modern Italian phonemes and dead dialect from the Po region of Italy). But French and English grammelots were made by translations for foreign audiences.

Simlish almost could be compared with some other contemporary languages as Klington which was created for Star Trek, or Taelon, created for television show Earth: Final Conflict. Those fictional languages became real: they have their own syntax, grammar and its own dictionary. That means people can learn them. Simlish does have a small vocabulary of words that repeats in game, such as chumcha for pizza, nooboo for baby and sool-sool for goodbye, but they appear randomly; Simlish still doesn’t have conditions to be a real language – it doesn’t have a syntax and grammar.

After all the trying and studying of existing languages, the developers decided for improvisation, originated and performed by SF Bay Area professional actors Stephen Kearin and Gerri Lawor. There were chosen nine actors performing all the range words: baby, toddler, child, adult and elder. The auditions were held January through May 2003 with over 100 actors from SF and LA trying out. There was selected a highly talented cast and they were quickly get to work recording many full 8 hour days, recording voice to over a hundred animations a day, resulting in thousands of takes a day. With such a huge amount of voice data – 40,620 samples at the moment the pre- and post-production processes have been streamlined to get the voice into the game so it can be listened to, assessed and either re-recorded (in rare cases) or hacked (constructed out of similar-sounding files).

Simlish has also affected many singers who participated on making music for The Sims game. Want to know more about how they liked it? Then stay tuned for the second part of the article.