Since its release, the Sims games have dominated computer game sales and have won the hearts and addiction of many. The No. 1 PC franchise in history celebrated its 10th birthday this year and has crossed over the world of consoles and handheld devices. Azure Bowie and George Pigula go behind the scenes of the Sims to talk about its appeal and its evolution.
Excerpts:
Q: What are your roles at EA Games and in the Sims franchise?
Azure Bowie: I’m the assistant project manager for the Sims 3 Console and I’ve been with EA for about four years now. I started as a college intern and then I transferred over to work full-time for the Sims team. I’ve worked on projects such as the Sims 2 Expansions, the original My Sims games, all the way up to the Sims 3 games and some of those expansion packs too. My most reject project is working with the console.
George Pigula: I’m an assistant producer within the Sims. Lately I’ve been working on the console — Xbox and PS3 — mainly the online features but other areas of the games as well. I’ve been with EA for about seven years. I started working summers in my college career and came here afterwards.
Q: What drew you specifically to the Sims franchise when you started out as producer and marketing manager?
AB: I remember I was talking to the dean at my school and I was having a hard time finding internships that I was really excited about. She gave me the best advice, which was to look at my hobbies and start applying to those companies. I’ve played the Sims since I was in middle school. It had never really entered my mind to go into the video game industry, but I wrote a letter and did some interviews, and I’ve really loved it ever since.
GP: For me, I started out just working a summer job in order to just pay for school. I was actually planning to go into business management elsewhere, but after working at EA and experiencing other corporate culture outside of EA, I found out that I much preferred the culture here. I’ve always had great passion for games of all types, and toward the end of my college career, an opportunity came up in the Sims, and it was the opposite of the current games I was working on, so I really jumped at the chance to go and experience a new type of game. I’d played the Sims before, but I knew they had a really great fan base, and I was excited to go on a project that already had a fan base like that.
Q: What effects do you think consoles will have for the game?
AB: When we were creating the console game, we were really excited to have the chance to put the Sims 3 on to the HD console because for the first time, we could actually take the game that people have been loving and put it on the HD console, so when you play it, it is the Sims 3. In addition to that, we also wanted to add some features that we thought console players specifically would really enjoy. Sometimes, they want to get to the good stuff quicker and jump into the game quickly and accomplish something, so we gave them some systems that enabled them to do that. Karma powers, for instance: you can mess with your Sims in a way that you’ve never been able to before. You can inflict a fire storm on your Sims or you can even bless them with the best day ever. So those kinds of things where console players can directly impact the lives of their Sims that we’ve added to the console game.
Q: Was the wait to move everything to the consoles now because you wanted the HD?
GP: This is the first console generation where the consoles themselves are really beefed up and powerful enough to handle a game like the Sims. There are also a lot of people who want to play the Sims who don’t own a PC or really game on them. We wanted to make sure that fans who moved off and only have these consoles still get a chance to experience the great game we made.
Q: What do you think makes the game so addictive?
AB: I’ve been playing the Sims since I was in middle school and I just never stopped. Even though I work on the projects now, I still play when I go home. I’m very much addicted to the Sims. What keeps me coming back is that I can play and still be surprised by the game. I can pop the game into my 360 right now and can play it in a completely different way than I’ve been able to before. And it really is about your creativity and the stories you want to tell.
GP: There’s just a lot of different ways for people to play. I could sit down next to Azure and play, and I guarantee we would probably play completely different than each other, and we’d still have a great experience. The Sims is an awesome game because it lends itself to so many different kinds of playing. Some people love to go in and built or create outfits and Sims. They get a kick out of creating their favorite movie stars and singers. And there are people who go in and want to tell a great story. I play different than a lot of people because I always play one or two Sims, and I like to skill up, and I ran into a coworker who plays 6 Sims at a time, which I thought was mindboggling. It’s games like that appeal to so many people and make it so addicting.
Q: What’s the story behind Simlish, the language used by the Sims?
AB: Simlish is one of my favorite stories to talk about because it’s so interesting. When the creators of the very first Sims game was trying to figure out what language the Sims should speak, they looked at a bunch of different things including Navajo and other obscure languages because they wanted it to be something that the players could create their own stories and the game wasn’t telling you specifically what your Sims were saying, that you could create that kind of background story in your own mind. Because of that, they kind of landed on, “Well, let’s create our own language because that way no one can really research back and find out exactly what the Sims are saying. The fun thing about Simlish is that it’s really organic, and they use the same words to say certain things over and over, and the community has kind of put meanings on some of these words. It kind of grows on its own. And there are actually voice actors who come in and do all of the voices for the Sims.
Q: What have you learned over time in dealing with this franchise? How have you tried to keep that up?
GP: Because of the fans, we can’t do enough. Our fans want so much, and we listen to them. People want to tell so many stories with the Sims. We listen to all of those ideas and we try to get them out as fast as we can, but at the same time, we want to make quality products for the fans so they stay with us.