Q&A: Sims 3 Executive Producer

Y!: What about negative traits?

Traits are going to let you make the people and the place however you like. If you wanted to make Sims that are dysfunctional and make a town that's a total disaster, you can do that. "Kleptomaniac" Sims will steal from people's homes. "Inappropriate" ones will do gross things in front of other Sims. Paranoid means they don't trust anybody, and will be constantly fearful.

Not only do traits change your Sims' behavior, they change the kind of goals they get. So a Sim who's evil would have the goal of seeing the demise of their boss. If you can architect the death of their boss, you'll make that Sim really happy.

You can combine up to five traits in any way you like to create really distinctive people. Combine that with the ability to make unique appearances, and we're putting players in the position where they can literally create any person they can imagine, and guide their life through the game.

Y!: We hear you've taken away the motive bars this time. Is that true?

BB: Your Sims still have needs, but they tell you about them in very different ways, and they're less critical to the core game. We want to put you in the position where you're thinking about what you want to do with your Sims, as opposed to what you need to do.

When you're playing the game, the main piece of information about your Sim that you care about is their mood. So you have one bar that represents their total accumulated happiness. Different things in the game can influence their mood, like having a rude guest come over, or having your first kiss, or enjoying a great meal. The core needs of The Sims are still there, but we're using these "moodlets" to describe more of the details of your Sim's life, and to have those result in definite benefits for the player.

Y!: What career tracks do you have in mind?

BB: The specific careers are similar to ones we've had in The Sims 2, but the careers and skills are more character-defining. So playing a character who's aspiring to be a chef is very different to playing one who's following the military career. Depending on which career you choose, you'll have different opportunities that'll come up and give you short-term goals to perform for your career that are relevant to where your Sim is in their career. They'll give each career its own feel.

In the past Sims games, your character went off to work, and then they came home. You couldn't really influence what happened out there. Now you can get involved by fulfilling these opportunities for your Sim, and help them get ahead in their career. Those careers will lead them to be able to do things that other Sims can't - so the chef will be able to cook unique meals.

Y!: Do you have any specific online functionality planned at this point?

BB: Our online strategy focuses on the desire that fans have to share content with each other. We'll have an all-new web site that'll be the home for the new Sims Exchange, with an easier path for people to upload and download content. We have more tools in the game for people to make user-generated content, and people will be able to share more kinds of assets than ever before. That's really the heart of the online strategy - it's all about content sharing. You'll be seeing more about how that works in the coming months.

Y!: Are you planning console versions, or just PC at the moment?

BB: Right now we're just focused on making this the best game we possibly can.

Y!: And the release date?

BB: 2009. We haven't firmed up our date yet.