The Nightclub consists of two separate job tracks: The dancer and the DJ. As their names suggest, the dancer job dances, and the DJ job spins discs.

Very few sims will make their first million working in a nightclub, but it is a fresh challenge, and due to its interactive nature, offers a diversion from bashing out gnome after gnome from lumps of wood.

To begin working at the nightclub, you need to either read the daily newspaper, or "Look for a job" on a computer.

You will be offered various positions. Simply click "Yes" to accept the job; if it's not the job you were looking for, hit "No" and look again.

You will receive a confirmation message on the screen when you accept a job, and details in your message box which you can refer back to if necessary at a later date.

Your new job title and achievements will also be found in your sim's bio. As you advance through the ranks, your title changes. The requirements for promotion can be found later in this document.

Using the telephone to 'call work' will give you all the information that you need about your job.

It is possible to have one of the morning and one of the evening jobs, but not two of each as you obviously can't be in two places at once.

I usually begin to 'green up' at around 5 PM sim time, so I am all clean, ready and refreshed to go to work when the cab arrives. The higher your motives, the more likely you are to complete the shift and still be able to stand.

If your motives hit red at any time during your work, you will stop working. This will, of course, incur a penalty - so make sure you are green before you start work, and use the time between rounds if there are other players to social and green up as best you can. There are no greening facilities available once you arrive at work.

Both nightclub jobs start at 8 PM sim time.

If you are at home, a car will come for you automatically after 7 PM If you are not at home, you will need to call for a cab between 7 PM and 8 PM from the telephone (not the pay phone out front) of the property that you are in at the time. But don't leave that property, otherwise you will have to call again.

If you would rather not wait, a "Call Cab" pie menu option will appear on the telephone after 7 PM This will bring your work car rushing to your curbside. If, however, too many people are attempting to get to work at the same time, you will get a message informing you of traffic congestion; if this appears, simply call again.

You will notice the taxi icon appear in the top left of your screen in your job queue. When you have finished whatever you are doing, you will run to the car, change into the relevant uniform, and be whisked off to party the night away. If for any reason you do not wish to go to work, click on it quickly to cancel it. You will then need to call a cab manually when you are ready, otherwise you will receive an absence notice if you do not go to work.

At the first level, your work ride is a bit of an old wreck. Don't worry though, because as you work longer and advance through your levels, you will get better looking rides to work! You will also get some great outfits to wear that are not normally available elsewhere in the game. At level 10, you get whisked off to work in the luxury of a vintage Bentley, which of course befits your superstar status.

Remember that work is hard, and it's a long night ahead of you, so you will need to make sure that you are fully green before your cab arrives. Your cab will whisk you off to work automatically (unless you cancel the "Go to work" button that will appear in the top left of your screen as with other interactions), so make sure you are also available for when your time to go to work comes up. Disappearing off to work half-red in the middle of a pizza round is not likely to make you particularly popular either - and damages your chances of completing the evening's work successfully.

If you are the only roomie at home when you disappear off to work, your property will close. If you wish to remain open, make sure you arrange for another roomie to be home before you depart for work.

When you arrive at work, you may find other real players there to compete against or team up with. If there are none around at that time, the other dancer and DJ positions will be taken by NPC's. There are also 16 NPC "clubbers" who will dance on the dance floor. They will indicate who is providing the best evening's entertainment. It has also been known for the maid, gardener and repair man (out of uniform) to turn up off duty and boogie the night away. You may even see faces you recognize.

As with other job tracks, each level has its own design. This is the level 3 nightclub, "Luxopolis".

When you arrive after 8 PM, you have a 1 minute countdown before the round begins. Each round lasts approximately 5 minutes real-time. The shift completes at 4 am sim time, so each 'workday' lasts approximately 40 real minutes.

The DJ job track requires Creativity skill. As with all other money making activities within The Sims Online, your final payout is dependent on the skill your sim has. More skill, more money! However, to advance through the levels you also need friends. Friends get you everywhere, right?

When you arrive, grab a DJ booth, hit "Spin records", and wait for 8 PM to arrive. Taking your position in front of the DJ booth, you will see a selection of 4 groups of 12 buttons, numbered A-D and 1-4. These are the mix components, one each of drums, bass, synth and vox, to make a complete sound (or dreadful racket, depending on your mixing capabilities).

Each DJ round is 5 real minutes long, and there is a 30 second break between rounds. There are no greening facilities at the nightclub, sadly. But then again, you are there to work, and not lounge around (despite the job title).

When your job starts, the dance floor will fill with NPC dancers; if there are not enough real players at the nightclub you are in, NPC's will take the place of the other DJ booth and dance positions.

When the round begins, you automatically start with "A/1/1" on all 4 parts of the mix, and the NPC's will start dancing. Your job is to produce the best mix out of the four DJ's, and attract everyone on the floor to listen to your mix. During the round, you will notice the dance floor suddenly go white, and a colored bar will sweep across the floor towards the direction of one of the DJ booths. That indicates which player has had the best mix in that particular session. Shortly afterward, a colored bar will sweep diagonally, indicating that another session has begun.

So what is the best strategy? Actually, there is no foolproof method to success, because each round is completely different as to what the dancers want. Watch closely what the dancers on the floor are doing, and if nobody is enjoying your mix, change the buttons until they start to be drawn to your skills. When you have found a mix that draws the crowds, make subtle changes - perhaps flipping between "B/2/3" and "B/2/4", for example, to keep your mix fresh. You may have the best mix imaginable, but after a while even the best mix gets stale, and the NPC's will wander off to see what your competition is producing.

At the end of the round, the NPC dancers will file off the floor to chill for a bit before your next round, and you will be rewarded for your work. The pay is based on your skill, and how you scored on the different rounds.

The Nightclub Dancer job is very similar to the DJ job, except instead of mixing music, you're dancing to it. The main difference is that instead of the tracks mixer, you get the normal "dance floor" panel (except the "Dance to the music" button does not work), and your payout is based on your body skill. Take your position on the round podium in front of the DJ booths, and wait for the round to begin.

When the round begins, you will see the dance panel come up. Click on the moves to queue them up for your sim - but keep them queuing! The colors denote different groups of dance moves which fit together - but variety is the spice of life here. If you do not have any dance moves queued up, you will just stand there doing the soft shoe shuffle, looking rather silly.

As with the DJ job, the NPC's will be attracted over to watch you shaking your groove thang if you are doing what they like. When you have found a combination that they like, keep repeating it, but throw in the odd random move to keep your sequence fresh. After a while, your routine will become stale, boredom will set in, and off they wander to see what your competition is doing if you do not keep variety in your routine..

Here you can see our dancer seems to have caught the attention of almost half the crowd with her cool moves.........

However this poor NPC doesn't seem to have quite grasped the concept of 'entertainment', and nobody is paying any attention to him. I guess not everyone is capable of reaching the big time.

Look closely at what the NPC crowd is doing. If you see a lot of moonwalking and zombie moves going down on the dance floor, follow suit. If they like doing it, they'll like you doing it.

The dance podiums in front of the DJ booths come in four colors - red, yellow, blue, or green. You will notice that these are the same colors that the dance tiles flash. A DJ and dancer (either or both may be NPC's) make a 'team' of that color.

The color does not necessarily sweep in the direction of the team that is winning.

The titles are different, however the requirements are the same to be promoted to each level of the job. The DJ requires Creativity skill, and the Dancer requires Body skill.

There are actually two design variants of the "209 RSP" Club that appear randomly on the later levels.

As with the other job tracks, each level comes with a different car and a different uniform. Cars are identical to the Restaurant and Robot Factory job tracks.

Going to work with a friend

Using the "Where am I" button from the Sim Bio, you can 'stalk' a friend so you are able to work together as a DJ/dancer team, or rival teams, if you prefer. Otherwise you will go to a random job property. If there are no other sims working with you, NPC's will take the place of the other DJ's and dancers.

The combination of the performance of the DJ and dancer combined is what attracts the NPC's over to listen. You could be the best dancer in the world, but if your DJ has the mixing skills of a moldy grapefruit then you will never gain success. NPC players are always "averagely neutral" in their skills.

Working as a team with a DJ or dancer will increase your chances of success, and payout at the end of the round.

If you have a player on "ignore", they will not appear at the same work location as you.

Although friends who are not on the same work level as you cannot work with you or enter the nightclub itself, they can 'stalk' you to work, and stand outside on the sidewalk sending social interactions to you. This may be a useful technique if you need social and are working alone.

If you try to exit the workplace before your day's work is over, a message will appear making sure that you intended to leave early, and it wasn't an accidental mouse click.

If you do leave early, that day's shift will not count towards your next level promotion, and if you are in the middle of a round you will also forfeit that round's pay.

If you no longer wish to do the job, perhaps to try another, simply use the telephone and quit. Your employment status will no longer appear on your sim bio, but if you decide to start that job again, you will resume at the level you quit at. However, all rounds worked towards your next rank will be lost.

Photos by: tso2005, simmmyfan, Mr E, Deeta Cheleetah, and ajdown@jp