The King of Sims

BOOGIE DOWN: A screenshot from a party in Sims 3.

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Rod Humble, the head of EA's gigantic Sims label, has a secret: he wants to move to New Zealand.

His brother lived in New Zealand for a while and has told him a lot about the country. And hearing I was Kiwi, he said: "New Zealand? I have got an ambition to end up in New Zealand one day. It's got a nice symmetry to it: the first third of my life in Europe, the second third in America and then NZ. I want the quiet."

Talking about the recent release of The Sims 3 game on Windows PC and Apple Mac, Humble says he has been working with The Sims for nearly five years and it is a genre that not many other game companies have tried to copy.

"No-one has really tried to clone The Sims because we can take it to different and unusual places. Over the years, we've evolved the game, all the time adding creativity tools. The Sims 3 is another leap, using everything we've used over the past few years. It's a hard game for most developers to understand and get their hand around.

"The secret source of the The Sims is that within EA we're a really diverse development studio, and that shows. Also technically, the game is hard to build. When you are programming things like path finding for people, they have to look like people - although The Sims have had a history of looking a little awkward when they're turning - they still look like people.

"To get a person moving in a corridor and sitting realistically is hard, but then you give the player the ability to change the world on the fly and that takes it to a technical level that is really hard.

"We also like to add and add customisation and add more editors over time. Now with Sims 3, players have a seamless world to change and you can change things in real time, which is adding another layer of technical challenges.

"I just boggle at it because I know what's under the hood and am amazed that it all works."

What does Humble think makes the franchise so successful?

"There are a few things. If I was to describe a game and you'd never played, and I said you can make a house, a world, any person you want, and live a life any way you want, I think you'd be pretty impressed. I can't imagine a more appealing fantasy than doing whatever you want in a world that you control." Seamless visualisation

While The Sims 3 is visually a step up from previous versions of the game, there are other differences, says Humble. "The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 was a little loft of a house and if you wanted to visit anyone else there was a loading screen.

"With The Sims 3, it's a seamless world. You can look out the windows and see neighbours living out their lives. You see children playing in the yard, you can visit the beach and there are no loading screens. It's a massive leap in terms of a simulator, as each and every person in the town is being simulated and are living out their lives.

"Plus, we've added a series of opportunities and dreams and promises - kind of like a role-playing thing - and added a lot of in-depth game play to appeal to hardcore gamers. Then there is the advanced customising options. Our users like to build their own stuff and show it to their friends."

Although he's generally been involved in producing The Sims games, Humble appears as a Non Player Character in an expansion pack for The Sims 2, Free Time.

"It wasn't my idea and I objected at the time. It didn't feel right.

"At the time there were threads on The Sims forums - we've got a community of about 5 million people that visit each day - and one of the top threads was Top 10 Ways To Kill Rod Humble. Another was Top 10 Ways To Have Sex with Rod Humble." Forum members later created mutant children and started a forum called Top 10 Ugliest Kids You Can Have With Rod Humble.

"It was very disturbing," he says. Before he started working with The Sims, Humble had been involved with Sony Online's Everquest studio, and before that worked on some other online games. He now heads EA's Play label, which focuses on causal titles and attracting new gamers.

Humble admits the hardest part for him after a Sims game is finished is waiting for game reviews to appear.

"The darkest moment for me is before the first reviews hit. Every game that I put out, I believe it's 100, a 10 out of 10, and then I'm always disappointed when people don't agree with me and it's not maximum scores from every person.

"But with Sims 3, I was really happy. All the reviews were good. Also, seeing people play was really good as you never want to disappoint them. Their reaction was a big sigh of relief so now I can be happy."

"The Sims attracts people who wouldn't have normally played video games," says Humble. "It's amazing how balanced it is between both genders - we usually start off with slight majority of male, then end it slight majority of female.

"We allow players to do whatever they want. That goes to careers or relationships and is really interactive storytelling. The lack of language helps - ironically because you don't hear the Sims speaking, it really helps people tell their own stories.

"Internally, we've referred to the Sims as 'hamsters with jobs', and it's an idea that it's half a pet, half a person simulator. We sort of keep that balance that you're part looking down on them, but part playing as them."

* Sims 3 is out now.

- © Fairfax NZ News