The Sims Wiki:Newsletter/March 2012

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Changes in the Wiki Spring cleaning came a little earlier this year! By DanPin and MTDM, editors

Although February is the shortest month in the year (with a total of 29 days, since this is a leap year), it was a month where a lot happened in here. And this issue will be really short - because we've been really busy.

Firstly, we had the premiere of the new newsletter, which we hope you read. Then, a visual redesign came along. It featured several changes to the main page, headers and the sidebar. The staleness of Featured Content continues and the infamous Wikia Chat feature activated in this Wiki last year was disabled after the Community agreed so. Requests for Administratorship (RfAs) are now open long-term, and one of these reporters is the Wiki's newest administrator.

Lunar Lakes was also released in February and a review can be found in this edition. This month also marks the release of The Sims 3: Showtime, along with its dreaded social features.

The Newsletter team hopes you have a terrific time reading this issue!

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Poll
By DanPin, editor What do you think of Showtime's new social features? They look too much like Facebook. SimPort is okay. They are horrible! Meh. I don't have an opinion. Social features? Those exist now?

Horoscopes
By MTDM, editor

Wiki Short News
By WoganHemlock, writer of the Wogan's Rants column
 * Amendments were made to the Inactive Administrator Policy.
 * RoseGui was nominated for bureaucrat - vote here.
 * DanPin was made an administrator.
 * Chat was deactivated.
 * Adminship requests were opened - if you think you qualify, go here and nominate yourself.

The Sims Short News
By ThomasWikia, guest writer
 * A patch, known as Patch 31, has been released on February 29th.
 * The "My Page" for all accounts in the 'The Sims 3'' official website was updated to a new look on February 27th. It has new social features and a new achievement system.
 * Another live chat was announced for Showtime to show the new social features and it was broadcasted on February 23rd at 10:00am Pacific Standard Time.
 * Electronic Arts announced Lunar Lakes on February 11th. A live chat was also announced on the same date and it was broadcasted on February 14th at 10:00am Pacific Standard Time. It was released on February 16th in The Sims 3 Store.
 * Hidden Springs was released outside The Sims 3 Store, now available in game shops worldwide.
 * The Sims FreePlay was released for Android devices (smartphones and tablets) on February 15th.
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Review: Lunar Lakes
By DanPin, editor Lunar Lakes was released last month and it features the Sims in a never-seen-before scenario where they are trapped in a different planet, with new kinds of vegetation, new Sims and new rabbit holes. Just like Andronikos' last month's review of Barnacle Bay, I will talk about each parameter and rate it in a scale of one to five.

Pre-made Sims
Since Lunar Lakes' storyline is set a few generations after the crew of The Perigee (the spaceship) crashed on that planet, we do not find any new Sims who are alive. However, most pre-made Sims have the same last names as several families from games from The Sims 3 era, and a descendant of the Specter family. This is a refreshing thing, opposed to completely new families we would find in previous neighborhoods, like Hidden Springs, Bridgeport or Appaloosa Plains.
 * Rating: [[File:5 celebrity stars.png]]

Layout
The roads in Lunar Lakes are good. There is the central colony, where most of the population resides and the rabbit holes, a small residential area a little away from the center and the mountain area, which takes a little while to get there. On the other hand, there isn't a big availability of empty lots aren't that much, so if you want to place bars, lounges, discos, consignment stores and other lots like those, you'll have to tear houses down.
 * Rating: [[File:3 celebrity stars.png]]

Houses
We can finally find unique houses in a The Sims 3 era world. Since Lunar Lakes is in another planet, laws of physics may not apply there (as stated in a producer's walkthrough video) and they are very futuristic. However, the starter homes are a bit cramped.
 * Rating: [[File:4 celebrity stars.png]]

Cost and Advertising
When it was announced, Simmers started talking about Lunar Lakes like crazy, and EA used that fact to lure Facebook users to "like" their pages, and they would reveal new information after a milestone. Also, if you don't want to spend a lot of money, I've got some bad news. At the time of writing, Lunar Lakes costs 2,450 SimPoints (over 20USD) - which is A LOT.
 * Rating: [[File:2 Celebrity stars.png]]

Other content included
If you are in a regular world, like Sunset Valley, Riverview or Twinbrook, the futuristic clothes would appear odd in those ugly randomly-generated townies created by the game. However, don't be saddened by this. The new furniture is acceptable and the Tree of Prosperity is amazing.
 * Rating: [[File:3 celebrity stars.png]]

Verdict
If you like science fiction, then this world is perfect for you. However, this world isn't a must-have - but it's pretty good in my opinion.
 * Overall Rating: [[File:4 celebrity stars.png]]

Wogan's Rants: EA and their new types of games
By WoganHemlock, columnist So, EA has announced a new SimCity game a few days ago. I have good memories of SimCity, I played it for god knows how long and ruled my city and become rich like you would not believe. Basically, screw the environment and opinions, get money. It was a good game, because it was such a simple premise. Ruling a city, and not having multiplayer and a bunch of 12 year olds headshotting you all day erry day. So, I'm kind of sad when I hear about all the advancements and other stuff EA has been making lately with multiplayer and 3D graphics. For me, it was just a simple game which was the most fun for me.

And now SimCity is a multiplayer. I'm not sure how this will even work out. A simulation game with multiplayer? It sounds a bit... meh. I'm sure that everyone will be all over it, and be all like "Shut up and take my money!!1!" just cause of these memories and things.

If you have actually been bothered listening to this nonsense rant about SimCity 5 (wouldn't it be 6, Societies was 5 - that game sucked btw), you'll have probably worked out that the charm of the games lied in their sheer simplicity, as well as their complexity. Sim games were so successful because they were new, and a simple yet effective concept. All this multiplayer stuff taints the whole simple premise of the games.

Tl;dr? It's only 3 paragraphs, just read it. Long story short, EA is trying to make the games things they are not. If you actually read all of this repetitive rambling you probably don't even care about you deserve a cookie and are much more patient than myself.

Next Edition...
In April, we will cover some of Showtime's new features, some tips and many more! Until then...

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON SIMMING


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