Valeria: Welcome to the Third The Sims Online House of Commons Chat!
Valeria: This chat will be in a moderated format. To ask a question of the Maxis Staff, please /msg or /query one of the question takers that are listed in the topic of the channel. These question takers will then present the questions to the Maxis development/community/programming team here with us this evening.
Valeria: Our question takers tonight are: [QT]Kiir, [QT]Lord-Xanthor, and [QT]Wolfgang. They are easily recognizable by the [QT] in front of their names.
Valeria: I will be your moderator tonight. I will post your question into the House of Commons chat channel and the team will answer those that they can.
Valeria: Please remember that your question may have been asked previously or may not be able to be answered in a public forum. Please do not message or query myself or anyone from Maxis as these questions will be ignored.
Valeria: While we are waiting for questions, let's give our guests a chance to briefly introduce themselves.

MaxisKyle: Hi! I'm Kyle, online community lead for The Sims Online. I live to serve. My mission is to answer all your questions and concerns, and be your advocate here at Maxis.
MaxisChris: Chris Trottier, designer. Bring those questions on!
MaxisJenna: Hi, I'm Jenna, designer. Nice to meet you :-)
ArtBob: Hi there. I'm Bob. Art lead on the Sims Online. Fire away!
MaxisAndrea: Hi I am Andrea, Asst. Producer.
MaxisAndrea: aka crowd warmer :)

McBee-R: When I played the Sims offline, I was hooked for a week, My sims life was more important than my real life for about a week, then I returned the game and Cursed the makers of it, aren't you a little bit worried that by making it Online you're just going to add gasoline to the Fire, people taking there Sims online life more serious than there own?
MaxisJenna: I like to think of playing TSO as being hooked on a good book
MaxisJenna: its an ever-evolving story with new characters every day
MaxisJenna: Personally, i play with lots of people i know in real0life as well as online friends...
MaxisJenna: so i don't really feel separated from real-life when i play

Sunrise909: Will we have love beds in TSO? and what limitations on behavior concerning profanity and "adult themes" on will be in place other than filtering?
MaxisChris: Name of the game in TSO is consensual... so there are lots of choices for people about what they want to be exposed to (or not)
MaxisChris: so to *really* answer the question... we've got some issues right now w/ residual nakedness... far too many people running around nekkid in the play test. once we get those worked out, love beds will be reintroduced...
MaxisChris: in a way that lets each person in the bed decide exactly what they do and don't want to do. :)

Ruburne: Do sims have personality points in TSO like in The Sims?
MaxisKyle: In The Sims Online, all Sims are controlled by real people.
MaxisKyle: Everything a Sim does is determined by what a player tells him or her to do.
MaxisKyle: So, instead of a Sim acting according to personality models, a Sim will do just what his or her player wants!
MaxisKyle: It's going to take more than a good meal and a trip to the washroom for you to get that marriage proposal accepted. ;)

Lione: It was stated that when a roommate was kicked out, his items will be his. Where will these items be placed?
MaxisJenna: That's not to say that friendships aren't important...
MaxisAndrea: If you are a roommate and kicked out of your property you will take your items with you.
MaxisAndrea: They will be carried in your inventory. Each player gets an inventory to store their objects.
MaxisAndrea: Make sure that you choose your roommates carefully.

trik-work: Can you kill or murder people in this game ?
MaxisChris: we will have death as a consequence to motive failure. this is still a game, after all, not just a place to chat. unclear how soon death will be in the game. maybe launch. maybe post.
MaxisChris: and once you're dead, you will need to find another player to bring you back to life.
MaxisChris: much like broken objects, the higher the skill of the reincarnator, the faster life comes back!
MaxisChris: post-ship, we will *never* introduce a non-consensual way to kill people. but we are interested in investigating ways for consensual feuds. that will depend what players ask for once we're Live. :)

Gallahan: How many users do you expect The Sims Online to have?
MaxisKyle: We expect each city in The Sims Online to have 10,000 players or more. We're still working to determine the technical limitations, but that's the scale of play we want.
MaxisKyle: There will be many cities at launch, and we'll keep adding them as players join. We're ready to grow quickly to give everyone a space to play in.
MaxisKyle: The Sims community is huge and friendly, so we expect lots of people to come join in to play with their friends. Maxis is making sure there's room for all.

Ruburne: I have a question on job objects. Let's say you own a pizza parlor with a couple of co-owners. Who gets the money when someone buys a pizza? The person who bought the pizza job object, whoever raids the cash register first, or is it automatically split amongst all the co-owners?
MaxisJenna: The person who owns the object gets a commission when a successful pizza is made.
MaxisJenna: But attracting people to your lot by owning a pizza object means that you are earning a "visitor bonus" which all the roommates will benefit from.

Turin-Tc: Will there be any kind of PvP fights in Sims Online?
ArtBob: Oh, boy... will there be fights!
ArtBob: Actually, we have added many, many new puppeteer interactions in TSO
ArtBob: there will be fighting, dancing, and just about everything in between
ArtBob: We had a great group of animators here working really hard on choreography and timing
ArtBob: I think you'll all be pleased
ArtBob: and... you might not get the outcome in your fight that you expected
MaxisChris: <channeling Tyrant> to be super clear, fighting will *not* kill people.

TheSimsWorld: When will third party objects be able to be used in TSO? Will it come in an update for the game?
ArtBob: ha ha
ArtBob: no no killing :)
MaxisChris: so just get that out of your head right now! ;)
MaxisKyle: The Sims community is built around creating and exchanging user-created content. That's great for a single-player game, because you can pick and choose what you want in your game.
MaxisKyle: However, in an online game, you're not playing by yourself any more. We have to make sure that what one person brings into the game doesn't ruin things for the other players.
MaxisKyle: You can see how tricky it is to do this right.
MaxisKyle: It's important to us to get this into The Sims Online, but we want to do it right and that takes time. So don't expect it right away, but we will find a way to do it.

Snake: How do you intend to keep the general "population" interested? Interactive events, etc?
MaxisChris: This is where we are very lucky. The Sims has an *incredibly talented and creative* fan base.
ArtBob: I'll agree to that, Chris!
MaxisChris: our focus is *hugely* on the side of putting as much creativity as possible in the player's hands
MaxisChris: so we're spending far more time developing tools for you all to create entertaining environments for each other than we are on creating pre-scripted experiences
MaxisChris: the more flexible we can make those tools, the more diverse environments there are.
MaxisChris: you guys are our ace in the hole!

andrewcool85: How big is the inventory?
MaxisAndrea: Inventory is set to 100 objects right now.
MaxisChris: Rather than placing a limit on inventory, we've decided to limit the total # of objects a player can own.
MaxisAndrea: but things might change for ship
MaxisChris: So objects that you have in inventory or in your property count toward the same total.
MaxisChris: This is a tunable value that will be set to ensure high performance and a satisfying play experience.
MaxisChris: You may also gain the ability to have more objects over time. :)

Cyanide357: How much starting cash will be available to a single player?
MaxisKyle: Starting money for a player will be enough to get you going. But the REAL money is in getting together with friends as roommates!
MaxisKyle: A piece of property has a certain cost. But if three of you are roommates, only one of you has to pay for the property -- the other two can spend all their money on architecture and objects.
MaxisKyle: So if you're looking to get ahead fast, remember: the more the merrier!

Halendar: say you make a bar out of your lot. Is it possible that sims on the lot to get in fist fights or be affected by virtual alcohol, so as not responding correctly to commands or something?
ArtBob: while you can have a bar in TSO, there is no official "alcohol" per se..
ArtBob: so "no" you can't get drunk
ArtBob: however
ArtBob: you can puppeteer just about any emotion or state of being that you like
ArtBob: where and when you choose to pick a fight in the game is up to you

Kimmy: Can you sell back items in the game for the same price you bought them for? If so, does this mean Stores will be pointless?
MaxisChris: As in the original Sims, objects depreciate as soon as you buy them.
MaxisChris: And then they continue to depreciated over time.
MaxisChris: In TSO, the older an object gets, the more likely it becomes to break.
MaxisChris: And repairing objects costs money (more or less depending on your mechanical skill).
MaxisChris: That said, buying used objects will be a *great* way for players to get ahold of an object they may otherwise be unable to afford...
MaxisChris: but they may have a little more maintenance on their hands as a result.

Edgar{TR}: Is there any specific objective to the game?
MaxisJenna: Wow.
MaxisJenna: So much to say
MaxisJenna: Like most Maxis games, there are lots of different objectives and not everyone is working towards the same goal
MaxisJenna: What is important to you might not be important to the next player, etc.
MaxisJenna: But as an example...
MaxisJenna: A specific objective might be to make it to the top of a "Top 100 List"
MaxisJenna: There are many different lists (Best Place to Make Money, Most Liked Sim, etc...)
MaxisJenna: Being at the top of these lists gets you noticed in the Sim World!
MaxisJenna: If stardom is your goal, then Top 100 lists are the way to go :-)

Mattt: Are towns on separate servers or can I liquidate everything I own and head over to my friend's town at any time?
MaxisKyle: Each of your Sims lives in his or her own city. You can't pack up and move to another city.
MaxisKyle: However, you can have two Sims, each in a different city, so that you can play with your friend in once city while still enjoying your "original Sim." (pardon the pun, ahem)
MaxisKyle: This is so that "young" cities, which are newly opened, aren't suddenly overtaken by "old money" moving in from a city that's been around a while.

Cosmoo: Where will you store objects if you have over 100? Banks?
MaxisChris: Okay, first off, scratch the number 100 from your head. *poof* still in tuning.
MaxisChris: but *whatever* that number is, you will never have more objects than that, so no need to store them.
MaxisChris: if you need more objects than that, your best route is truly to band together with other players
MaxisChris: roommates carry so many advantages in this game that we're already seeing huge roommate units in our play testing.
MaxisChris: which is sort of nice, because then you end up having people who cheer when you walk in ("Norm!")...

Mattt: Can you give us an approximate number of how many actions/emotes there are? Is there an evil laughter emote? Gwahaha!
ArtBob: how is "a lot" for an answer?
MaxisJenna: perfect
MaxisJenna: :-)
ArtBob: seriously... we do have an extraordinary amount of social interactions an puppeteer interactions in TSO
ArtBob: you can ask the animators
ArtBob: as for an evil laugh.... yes, we have one... HAAAHAAA

Kimmy: are there ways to advertise in TSO?
MaxisKyle: We've built our website to be a great companion to the game. Everyone posts as their Sims in the players-only section.
MaxisKyle: We have player-written news items, "roommates wanted" forums, discussion areas, players helping players....
MaxisKyle: Of course, you can also write a nice enticing description of your lot for people to see in-game too.
MaxisKyle: But since our game is pretty thread-friendly, you can actually play with (gasp!) your web browser open!
MaxisKyle: I know, groundbreaking stuff.
MaxisKyle: But hey, we're Maxis!
MaxisChris: Plus, properties on Top 100 lists get *free* in-game advertising. They show up as highlights on the city map when map filters are activated. :)
MaxisKyle: That's right!
MaxisKyle: These features actually work together too
MaxisKyle: If you see someone post about an interesting house on the website, you can search for them in game using the search tool.
MaxisKyle: You'll know who they are, since that's their name on the site!
MaxisKyle: and you can see their houses in the map filters too
MaxisKyle: so you know that they aren't kidding when they say "my Party Palace is THE place to meet!"

Valeria: Thank you everyone for taking the time to attend tonight's HOC and a special thank you to everyone at Maxis for being here to make it possible. As always we are grateful :)
MaxisJenna: Thanks everyone! See you online
MaxisKyle: Thanks for coming tonight, everyone! Stop by thesimsonline.com and sign up for the TSO newsletter. It's really packed with good stuff!
MaxisKyle: Besides, we work really hard to put it together, and it would be sad if it sat there on our web server...all alone...sniff....
ArtBob: Take Care, All!