Related posts:

1. Don’t act like an @$$ in any EA forum, you could be banned from your games
2. Official SimPrograms forum launches!
3. “EA forum banning is a huge misunderstanding”

We all remember this post below on how EA used the artwork from a fan for their tenth anniversary newsletter and didn’t give the author (Alex from SimGoodies) any credit… Well after a month of waiting, EA finally responds to Alex and yes, they admit they used his artwork “accidentally” after assuming it was created by EA.  For this whole mess, EA (in this case, represented by Ulf Thor of EA Sweden) will be removing the graphic from the newsletter and sending him a free Sims 3 Fatboy, retailing at $229!  Congratulations Alex, I am glad I was able to help you

His email response is below:

Well, well, well…How should I begin this story.  After doing some research, I’ve came to conclusion that one (or possibly multiple) of the artists from The Sims Team is a thief and well, pretty much lazy.  I hate to call them out on this but all indications proved they have stolen the the artwork from Alex of SimGoodies to use in their January newsletter.

Lets start from the beginning.  On January 16th SimGoodies created a wallpaper using the renders that the Sims Team released – no harm in that, because thats why the renders are put out there – to use for fansites and graphics.  You can view his wallpaper below:

Now take a look at EA’s header for their January newsletter which was issued on February 4th:

*Update* – Cidade dos Sims directed me to his version of the newsletter that their local EA region sent out – this time with Marcela’s arm not lifted up – the exact same as Alex’s wallpaper.

The only difference you can spot is Marcela – the thief.  Her arm is raised in the air for the newsletter picture.  But wait, something isn’t right.  Here is her render.  Did they use a different one perhaps?  Copy the above newsletter image into your paint program and zoom in.  Look at her right arm and the area around her neck.  Does it look like an edit to you?  It sure does to me!  Her joint where her arm connects to her body looks off!

Not only that, but I had to ask Alex for proof.  I needed solid evidence to prove that he came up with the background.  Sure, the dates are valid…but I needed to see the actual PSD file with the layers in tact.  He gave me the PSD file and I had a look.  Here is the breakdown, first with my PaintShop Pro screen showing off the PSD file and then separate images showing their layers (I resized each layer so it can’t be used for other purposes and to protect his work):

Now after speaking with Alex I found out more information.  He used a template graphic for the confetti which can be viewed here.  The fireworks – just brushes in Photoshop.  So yeah, the ball is in Alex’s court.  Why did EA decide to use his artwork for their newsletter?  Isn’t that what they have graphics artists for?  Not only that but they didn’t even ask him or give him the honor of it being used.  Nope, it looks like they ripped it and added a few small changes.

But wait, there is more!  It appears the artist had a second lazy streak.  Instead of designing their own celebration background they used the following artprint!

Their background at the official Sims 3 site:

Was taken from this clipart:

Care to answer, EA?  This is just pitiful, extremely lazy and a horrible way to treat your fans.

Related posts:

1. Lazy Game Reviews – The Sims 3 World Adventures
2. Other projects from ‘The Sims Team’
3. Interview with Machimima Artist – Decorgal

Want to embed one of the widgets onto your fansite or social networking site?  Feel free to grab the code over at the creator’s website, Cidade dos Sims!

Related posts:

1. The Sims 3 Countdown timer webapp for iPhones
2. Program section launches for Spore – presenting “Spore Countdown Timer” for Mac computers
3. 1/15/09 – 6 new wallpapers from Cidade dos Sims

Source:  Chart-Track

Note:  The Sims 3 High End Loft Stuff is still hanging on to the #1 spot in the budget price listing

Related posts:

1. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending March 6, 2010
2. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 20, 2010
3. UK: Top 20 PC Games Chart ending February 27, 2010

Anyways, I didn’t put much thought into this week’s poll.  Just your generic “What career will you decide to choose when you get The Sims 3 Ambitions” question.  So lets hear them…You already know mine!

Related posts:

1. 11/1/09 – Poll results & new poll
2. 1/31/10 – Poll results & new poll
3. 10/3/09 – Poll results & new poll

The Game Developers Conference 2010 Program Addendum offers a short description of every lecture during the week, except for the one titled “Metaphysics of Game Design” by “Phaedrus.”  All it says for that mysterious lecture is “Do not miss this session!”  However, word got out that it was secretly Will Wright and a giant line formed outside the room right before it began.  Some people were even hoping Phaedrus was the name of a new secret game Will Wright was announcing.  It turned out that Will Wright was using a secret name because he wasn’t sure if he’d have time to give the lecture, and he wasn’t even sure what he was going to talk about when he signed up.

When Will Wright doesn’t know what he’s going to talk about, he talks about everything in the universe from why we forget our infancies to the history of rocket mail.  This read is only recommended for our nerdiest readers (it’s probably not half as interesting or funny without his fast-paced slideshow and comic timing anyway).

VGChartz – Highlights from Will Wright’s presentation

Will Wright is a fantastic speaker, but his ideas come fast and dense. Synthesyzing and analyzing his talk was incredibly intimidating and a significant challenge. This writeup — moreso than any of my others from this year’s GDC — contains a liberal amount of my own interpretation, due in large part to the fact that I had a hard time keeping up with him while taking notes on the session. But to be completely honest, this subject matter is really inspiring, and I frankly couldn’t help but examine patterns, correlations, and perspectives.

ThirdHelix – Will Wright GDC 2010 impressions

At the Game Developers Conference, which just wrapped up yesterday, many attendees wondered about one of the final sessions held at the show. Little was known about it, except its title, “Metaphysics of Game Design,” and its speaker, someone called “Phaedrus.”

It turned out that the mysterious session was being headed by none other than SimCity and Spore creator Will Wright.

“I am not Phaedrus,” Wright said, as he made his way to center stage amid thunderous applause. He said that the reason the panel was under a pseudonym was because he wasn’t entirely sure he could attend the conference.

Wright then proceeded to give a presentation on his ideas of the underlying principles of game design, imbued with humor, Star Trek references and his trademark profundity. Take a look a few select slides from the presentation, which may or may not leave you scratching your head:

1UP – Will Wright Makes Surprise Lecture at GDC, Includes Horses, Hello Kitty and M&Ms

While many see social gaming as the next big thing, Will Wright — famed creator of SimCity, The Sims and Spore — warned GDC attendees that expectations for the genre are unrealistic. “What people tend to do is apply a power curve to this,” Wright explained using the above diagram. “And so when you make an extrapolation based upon that, you’re really way off, when in fact, what we were really looking at was an S-curve.”

“It gets a lot of attention, of course, because investors, when they’re looking to invest in something, they’re looking to invest in the steep part of this curve. And so that’s why there’s so much business interest in this sort of platform,” Wright hypothesized.

Joystiq – Wright predicts social gaming will grow to 25% of the market

Wright’s 70-minute session touched on a range of topics, from past successes to the crossover of the games and movie industries and social gaming platforms. The one thing he wouldn’t be drawn on, however, was his current work at Super Fun Club. He addressed this matter early on in his presentation, saying, “I can’t talk about anything yet…but soon.”

Talking about his inspirations, Wright specifically referenced Nintendo’s Advance Wars on the DS as the game that he’s played “probably more than any other.” Every morning, he sits down with Advance Wars and a cup of coffee, and spends 15 minutes spinning up his brain.

The relationship between players and game makers was perhaps the largest theme in Wright’s session, and he fed back some of the findings from his previous games. “Players are inherently narcissistic–we’d see that players would spend hours creating themselves in The Sims,” he said. He joked numerous times that he was essentially a drug dealer, as the end result of his work was to stimulate players’ “hormones, endorphins, and neurotransmitters”.

GameSpot – Will Wright “Game design is a lot like dealing drugs

Will Wright was the mystery guest for GDC’s final panel. The creator of the SIMs franchise, Spore and too many other games, Wright now plays in his Stupid Fun Club studio. His was an astounding rant that followed the job of moulding a totally engrossing game playing experience. The Game makers mixing the creation of the virtual life character, and all it’s traits, into the lives of those who play the game. He called this the ‘Metaphysics of Game Development.’

The relationship between players and game makers was perhaps the largest theme in Wright’s session. “In Sims, players are inherently narcissistic. We’d see that players would spend hours creating themselves in The Sims,” said Wright. Several times he referred to himself as a drug dealer, dealing out “hormones and endorphins, and trying to hit those neurotransmitters”.

CGSociety – Will Wright’s speech

“I’m working on a lot of secret projects I can’t talk about yet, but soon,” said Wright of his current work at Stupid Fun Club. While Wright had no specific product to talk about, he did dazzle the audience with a fast-moving multimedia presentation focusing on the rising rate of technological advancement and growing degree of interconnectivity across all entertainment platforms.

He touched on how after Nintendo’s Wii we’ve seen an increase of variety of platforms and approaches to gaming targeting many different demographics. “For the first time, we’re jumping the generational divide. [The Nintendo Wii] was an approachable platform, it was very different, and it was focused in a very different way. I think we had this kind of established trajectory that we were on, and over the last five years or so, it’s tremendous the diversity. All these platforms are exploding before our eyes very rapidly.”

The emergence of social networking sites, the potential of services like OnLive, and gaming on mobile devices like the iPhone are a few of the popular alternatives he mentioned in addition to traditional forms of gaming, such as on consoles. Yet despite the broad spectrum of possibilities for gaming, the industry is still vulnerable, with its share of casualties particularly in the form of recent studio closures.

IGN – Surprise – it’s Will Wright at GDC 2010!

Related posts:

1. Will Wright’s “secret” appearance at GDC 2010
2. Gamasutra – Will Wright Peels Back Layers Of Entertainment, Games (GDC 2010)
3. Kotaku – Barbie Doll Destroyer Will Wright Visits Engage Expo 2010

During his talk, Wright essentially deconstructed not only the games industry, but the role of entertainment in general. When viewing the industry, he’s not necessarily coming up with a definitive answer to problems, but acting more as an observer, and acting upon the observations that he makes. “Perspectives are more valuable than solutions,” Wright said.

From Wright’s perspective, games are already strengthening their ties with player’s social habits and brains in general. “We’re going to start moving deeper into the brain, into the perceptual realm,” he said. “…I think that games will be able to absorb what we’re doing, then evolve to fit us.”

In this way, real and virtual worlds are becoming less distinct. Wright said he feels like as the two continue to blend together, in recent years, there is less of a tendency to draw a line between the two. “I think the value that we place in these worlds is changing,” he said.

Overlap is also occurring in the entertainment industry, which is traditionally separated into a few primary silos like film, books and movies. “The interesting stuff is [happening] in the intersections of these established fields,” Wright said.

article here

Related posts:

1. Variety – Will Wright speaks on the ‘entertainment designer’ at Siggraph 2009
2. Gamasutra – SIGGRAPH: Wright Talks Perception And ‘Entertaining The Hive Mind’
3. The Sims Creator and Video Games Giant Will Wright Joins MDM Advisory Board

Wright kicked off by discussing how he left Electronic Arts last year to set up his own company. “From there I became an independent game designer with the Stupid Fun Club, and when I told my mother she of course reminded me that means unemployed,” he said.

“Games still have this cultural baggage. Most people think of a game designer as being kind of like a drug pusher, so I guess I’m a drug pusher – an unemployed drug pusher.”

Wright then recalled the furore over the nudity patch for The Sims 2, telling the audience, “The height of my professional career was when Jack Thompson called me a child pornographer. I took that as a medal of honour.

“Actually, that makes me now an unemployed child pornographer,” he added.

Gotta love Will.  And of course, the douche known as Jack Thompson (long story, but check his wikipedia entry if you are unfamiliar with him).  I’ll keep an eye out if his video pops up online and will post it as soon as it is available!

Related posts:

1. Variety – Will Wright speaks on the ‘entertainment designer’ at Siggraph 2009
2. Second Thoughts – Catching up with Will Wright after Engage! Expo 2010
3. GDC 2010 – Will Wright shares his thoughts on the Nintendo Wii

Richard Evans is an AI Specialist working at EA/Maxis on the Sims franchise, so it would make sense that he had some unreleased materials floating around his computer. As he was preparing his laptop (while plugged into the audience facing screens) the entire room got a look at the folder shortcuts on his personal machine.

While he was loading his PowerPoint slides, I was frantically reading folder names to try and see anything interesting. Well, there was. A folder entitled “Sims 3 DS” was nestled in between a few nondescript folders (SimpleSocializing and Tester).

Via N-Sider posted on GoNintendo

Related posts:

1. Spore Creatures demo offered from the Nintendo Channel!
2. EA comments on the Sims 3 leak
3. Spore Creatures box art for Nintendo DS

BONUS CONTENT: Register your game to get access to exclusive online content such as private eye cases, hairs, widgets for the inventing bench and sculptures to create with the sculpting station.

Here’s the full fact sheet below:

Become Fearless Heroes and Ace Entrepreneurs
As the second expansion pack to The Sims™ 3, the best-selling PC game of 2009*, The Sims 3 Ambitions allows you to pursue a variety of exciting paths and careers in your Sims’ lives that in turn affect your overall gameplay experience and neighborhood. While on the job, you have direct control over your Sims’ work and can choose how they spend their days. Decide whether your Sim will be the brave town hero or cause loads of mischief among their neighbors. Make your Sim save the day as a brave firefighter, change the town as a leading architect, or live on the edge as a ghost hunter. Choose the path of a stylist and explore the new tattoo system to make over your Sim neighbors in fashionable or catastrophic ways.

Will your Sim find success as a billionaire high-tech inventor or eke out a living as a bumbling mad scientist? Will they uncover secrets as a private investigator by dusting for prints or will they rough up suspects for information? For the first time, you are in charge of how your Sims’ career progresses and you decide if they will work for good or evil, pursue creative endeavors or technical affairs, climb to the top quickly, or be a slacker. The future of a Sims’ success or failure is entirely in your hands.

Features

• VARIETY: Be a hero or mess with the neighbors as a firefighter, private investigator, doctor, ghost hunter and more!
• CONTROL: For the first time ever, you control your Sims’ actions and interactions while they’re on the job.
• IMPACT: Your Sims’ on-the-job choices now change their town and affect other Sims. Modify the town’s structure as an architect or set neighborhood fashions as a stylist.
• NEW ACTIVITIES: Master the arts of inventing, sculpting and tattooing using your skills to earn Simoleons and advance your lifetime happiness.
• BONUS CONTENT: Register your game to get access to exclusive online content such as private eye cases, hairs, widgets for the inventing bench and sculptures to create with the sculpting station.

Specifications
Publisher: Electronic Arts Inc.
Developer: The Sims Studio
Ship Date: June 1, 2010 (PC/MAC)
Category: Simulation/Strategy

Related posts:

1. Official PR – EA announces The Sims 3 Ambitions expansion pack!
2. The Sims 3 updated fact sheet with new date (June 2, 2009)
3. France fact sheet for The Sims 3 World Adventures!

Coming right off of the huge custom working “Magic Wand” from Mod The Sims, a fan known as JordooSims put together a huge collection of over 50 items (61MB total) items for a fan-made mini-expansion called ‘The Sims 3 It’s Magic!“  Inspired by the magic wand, Jordo has included hats, objects, wings, wearable wand, makeup and much, much more.  These items are converted in package format ready to be placed inside your game.

Please note that this fake mini expansion contains objects not made by Jordoo, but rather just a huge collection to make it easier for magic fans to download at once!  Here are a few screens below:

Download the pack here

Thanks to JordooSims for sending me an email about this!

Related posts:

1. Magic Now in the Sims 3 / New Custom Skill
2. Rumour: Sims 2 – 8th expansion pack details?
3. It’s (almost) official: Sims 2 Apartment Life is the 8th Expansion Pack!

Here at EA Play, we’ve got a great family of people who are super passionate about making (and playing) video games.  We thought it might be kinda fun to introduce you to some of the real people who work here and make games for a living.  Each month, we’ll share a short profile of one of our coworkers so you can get to know the people behind the games.

First up?  Us!  The EA Play Twitter feed is run by Lauren and Rachel.  We’re no corporate robots—just two girls who love to talk about video games!  Get to know us a little bit more by checking out our profiles below, and feel free to give us a DM or @reply to say hi and introduce yourself to us too!

read about them at the EA Play Blog

Related posts:

1. ‘Sims’ creator lets people play god with Spore
2. Public Static – Spore Islands Cheats, Tips, and Tricks
3. The Sims Carnival – Press Release, now open to public

Thanks to reader Mati for the tip!

Related posts:

1. The Sims 3 Ambitions – Dutch cover (High-quality)
2. The Sims 3 Ambitions – German cover (high-quality)
3. The Sims 3 Ambitions – Dutch cover (Low-quality)

Here are two pics from his current business card from Stupid Fun Club that a developer picked up at the 2010 Games Developer Conference last night.

Related posts:

1. Will Wright explains why John Carmack (DOOM Creator) rocks
2. The Sims 2 Best of Business Collection now available!
3. New-comers and current members, please read!

I must be one of those rare gamers that never played Doom, so I can’t say I am familiar with John Carmack.  Regardless there are millions of folks out there who agree he should be established as one of the greatest developers in the industry.  In the above video, Will Wright presents the lifetime achievement award to John last night at the 2010 Games Developer Conference awards show.

Via Kotaku

Related posts:

1. Spore™ and The Sims Creator Will Wright Selected as a SIGGRAPH 2009 Keynote Speaker
2. Will Wright contributes to McCain, Riccitiello to Obama
3. The Sims Creator and Video Games Giant Will Wright Joins MDM Advisory Board

Related posts:

1. The Sims 3 Ambitions…is real!
2. The Sims 3 Ambitions – first pics (big size)
3. Gaming Lives – The Sims 3 Ambitions revealed (new details)

From SimsDomination

Related posts:

1. The Sims 3 Ambitions – German cover (Low-quality)
2. The Sims 3 Ambitions – Dutch cover (High-quality)
3. The Sims 3 Ambitions – Polish cover (high-quality)

Related posts:

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2. The Sims DJ – iPod review
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Several of the active jobs have been designed to allow your Sim to still progress while you’re busy with a different Sim elsewhere. For example, a Private Investigator can do low level police work or stakeouts while he isn’t working on an active case. The Firefighter is not always fighting fires so there are times where you can let him hang out and socialize at the Fire Station or work out when you aren’t controlling him. Both the Stylist and Architectural Design jobs will take you into a mode that will pause the game, but if you don’t want to do that you can still have your Sim research their field on the drafting table. Every career has responsibilities and its own active jobs. Each active job will require your full attention, but there are still options that allow your Sim to progress and level up while not controlling them. The most efficient progression will be with you controlling them but the balance is up to you. Similar to how World Adventures worked, it will be a challenge to control more than one Sim with multiple active jobs but we’ve offered many other avenues to help make it easier, and it can be done.

Thanks to Greg for passing along this link!

Related posts:

1. Gaming Lives – The Sims 3 Ambitions revealed (new details)
2. Not-so-new Sims 3 Blog post: Careers and Opportunities
3. Q&A with producer Grant Rodiek on The Sims 3 Ambitions

The Wand:
The wand can be found under Hobbies/Skills. The wand cost $100. As of now, the mesh is not recolor able, but hopefully that will change in the near future. The mesh was created by Flabaliki.

The Skill:
To obtain a skill in magic one must A) Buy a wand and B) Put the wand in your Inventory and then C) Use the practice magic interaction on any mirror. The skill comes with two statistics and two challenges

Statistics:

• Good Spells Cast
• Evil Spells Cast

Challenges:

• Master Wizard
• Master Wizards are fond of friendship and can help all of their friends in their needs. 50 spells devoted to friends help one along the way to become a Master Wizard. Master Wizards obtain the power of resurrection.
• Warlock
• Warlocks choose the way of the dark arts. They specialize in casting dark and evil spells. They have dedicated at least 50 spells to such arts. Warlocks obtain the power of Mind Control.

The Animation:
As custom animations are not really possible yet, this is not a new animation. However it is pretty close to looking like the real thing. Sorry for the hand grip being a little off, but it is unavoidable because it is not a new animation.

Interactions:
Mischief…

• Dirty Object: Level 1
• Set Fire: Level 2 (can only occur on current household’s lot)
• Delete Object: Level 3

Bless With…

• Creativity: Level 4
• Irresistability: Level 5
• Fast Learning: Level 6
• Observance: Level 7
• Fertitility: Level 8
• Long Life: Level 9

Kill by…

• Electricution: Level 10
• Old Age: Level 10
• Fire: Level 10
• Starvation: Level 10

Master Wizard Interactions

• Resurrect (can either resurrect ghosts that are visible, or click on their urn stones to resurrect. Resurrected Sims will return their previous household, unless it not longer exists in which case a new one will be created and they will move to a random lot. Sometimes, if the original household does not exists they will be stuck there and be homeless. Twallan’s Story Progression mod should help)

Warlock Interactions
Mind Control…

• Get Raise
• Make Friends (and of course you cannot make anyone like yourself)
• Make Enemies (and of course you cannot make anyone enemies of yourself)

Is this/Does it require a Core Mod?
Absolutely Not! I do my best to stay away from them so that everyone is able to download and enjoy it!

Help! I can’t get it into my Inventory or something else doesn’t work!
This mod has been tested by at least 5 different people with all different versions and expansions with the game. This mod should not conflict with anything so it most likely is a problem in your framework. If you do all of the following and then delete your caches and restart the game and it still doesn’t work then you are aloud to post.

Related posts:

1. “The Sims 3 It’s Magic” fan-made mini expansion pack
2. Magic lovers, guess what will be featured in The Sims 2 Apartment Life?!
3. A Virtual Lesbian Life – Love and Magic in The Sims 2: Apartment Life