I’m SimGuruSnelson, aka Sarah Emily Nelson, one of the producers on The Sims 3 Showtime development team. We are very excited to reveal the newest expansion pack this week and have been reading all the activity on the forums. Thank you for all of your comments and questions!

We want to address a few of your questions today, and next week we will follow up with our first in-depth interview with Senior Designer, Aaron Conners. He will delve into more details about the features in The Sims 3 Showtime and answer even more of your questions.

The Sims 3 Showtime provides new careers for your Sims - Singer, Acrobat and Magician. There’s also a fun new skill object, the DJ Booth, which allows your Sims to moonlight as a DJ while your Sim is on their fantastic climb to stardom. You’ll be able to tell all-new stories in the new town of Starlight Shores where your Sims will be able to interact with new neighbors and discover a world full of new houses, objects, venues and custom stages. We are also introducing new social tools and a new achievement system, which you are free to opt in or out of at any time.

One of the new features we’re excited about in The Sims 3 Showtime is the capability of in-game messaging, so that you can communicate with your Simmer friends while you’re playing. If you prefer not to have this connected experience, then it’s easy enough to turn off this messaging.

We’re also adding a new achievement system where players can take on special challenges and as they accomplish each achievement, they will be awarded badges that will be shown off on their new player profile page.

Can you get your Sims to smooch 5 times by Valentine’s Day? Can you get your Sim to sell 50 albums, in the first week of Showtime? Players will have hundreds of achievements to accomplish from day one, but stay tuned as new achievements will be presented to The Sims 3 community even after Showtime is released.

SimPort is another major new connected feature introduced in Showtime. This allows players the ability to send their star Sim performers on tour to perform special shows in their friends’ towns. You can also invite your friends to send their Sims to perform for you. You can customize the stage in your venue with special themed backgrounds, props, lights and special effects before your friend's Sim arrives to make sure their performance is a hit with the other Sims who live in your town.

During the performance you can cheer (or jeer) your friend’s Sim while they perform and even throw stuff on stage—from flowers to rotten lettuce! The last thing you throw will go home with them and end up in their inventory!

SimPort is a complimentary experience that in no way diminishes the stories you can tell about your Sims rise to fame, should you choose not to participate. There are special rewards, however, for those who send their Sims on tour through SimPort, such as unlocking new stage props, backgrounds and costumes to make even more unique stories possible for your Sims. It is Showtime after all!

All of the social tools and associated gameplay is optional. If you want to share your Sims with your friends, that’s great! But, you certainly don’t need to, if it’s just not your thing.

Also, these features are an enhancement and expansion upon many of the online features that you’re likely already using in your The Sims 3 game, such as The Store, Memories, and the Community MyPage. Great care was taken to make sure that the systems are completely secure and adhere to strict privacy and security guidelines. There is no risk that your game will be affected by untested user created content or compromised data that could contain bugs or viruses. Sims who visit your town via SimPort will default to the traits, clothes, and objects that you have locally in your game.

The Sims 3 Showtime is all about performance, with new careers and content that lead players into telling a variety of different stories about their Sims’ rise to fame. The game is loaded with new objects, music, original songs and CAS pieces that give you the options to play in a variety of different ways. You can share those experiences and stories with your friends by posting to their Player Wall, both in-game and on the web, and by sending your Sims to do special performances in their worlds. It’s all up to you!

We want to create new ways for you to play – and play together – but it’s up to you to decide what is the most fun. And remember, you can only share with your friends, and it will be up to you to choose them, and up to you how (or even if) you want to interact with them.

Stay tuned for the designer interview with Aaron Conners next week. Thanks again for keeping the forums active and keep your questions coming. As always, we appreciate your support!

Keep Simming!
SimGuru Snelson

The Sims 3 Showtime provides new careers for your Sims - Singer, Acrobat and Magician. There’s also a fun new skill object, the DJ Booth, which allows your Sims to moonlight as a DJ while your Sim is on their fantastic climb to stardom. You’ll be able to tell all-new stories in the new town of Starlight Shores where your Sims will be able to interact with new neighbors and discover a world full of new houses, objects, venues and custom stages.

During the performance you can cheer (or jeer) your friend’s Sim while they perform and even throw stuff on stage—from flowers to rotten lettuce! The last thing you throw will go home with them and end up in their inventory!

The Sims 3 Showtime is all about performance, with new careers and content that lead players into telling a variety of different stories about their Sims’ rise to fame. The game is loaded with new objects, music, original songs and CAS pieces that give you the options to play in a variety of different ways.