Gamecenter SimsVille report

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SimsVille

By Glenn Rubenstein
May 12, 2000, 03:00 PM PT

On the heels of the widely successful PC title The Sims and this fall's Sims Livin' Large, Maxis is planning the standalone SimsVille on the PC for 2001. If SimCity was playing a god on a grand scale, and the Sims on a personal level, SimsVille is somewhere in between. In creating villages and populating them with people (yes, you can import your characters from The Sims), your goal in SimsVille will be to keep happiness and harmony amongst neighbors in a community.

Much like in SimCity, you will start out SimsVille by creating your own village. Once you are up and running with roads, stores, gathering places, and houses, you will move people in and go about setting up a community. Placing people with similar interests next to each other, you build happiness, and foster a sense of belonging in your neighborhood. From jobs to school, each character's life is heavily affected by his or her interaction with others.

Using a three-fourths, top-down 3D view, you will move around your city and can click any citizen you see moving about town. When you call up a person, a set of hyperlinks appears, linking him or her to his or her family members and friends. This gives the game a six-degrees-of-separation-type feel, as you soon realize that every person in the game knows everyone else, either directly or through association. While managing multiple families, stories are created, and your village takes on a history of its own as seasons pass.

Manage your village wisely, and everyone will remain happy. Do a poor job, and feuds will occur, wreaking havoc on your citizens. Depending on how you want to play, the game can be fun in a positive or negative way. Although the title being shown at E3 is only 20 percent complete, the game comes off as simple yet involving fun on the same level as the games it is drawing inspiration from. If the popularity of The Sims is any indication, SimsVille should appeal to a broad variety of people, and is looking to be one of the most anticipated titles for 2001.