But, in the end, if you don't get passing grades, you can get expelled. Others might spend more time socializing and choose to cram at the last minute. The dedicated student will study frequently, complete all assignments, go to lectures regularly, and take advantage of tutors. KH: There are many strategies for getting passing grades. GS: How will studying work? Do you have to devote a certain amount of time to doing homework? Can you enlist tutors (like you enlist parents to help you in the regular game)? If your grades slip, do you get kicked out of school? These careers will have higher skill and friend requirements than the career tracks that shipped with the base game, which makes the extra time you get in college critical. We are adding four new career tracks to the game that are available only if your sim has a college degree. If you earn a degree with honors, it will help you in your career even more. KH: You can choose a major, which will affect your career options and success, assuming you earn a degree. GS: Aside from the usual partying, what are your ultimate goals at college? Can you choose a degree, and will that help you get a better job after school? Can you improve your character's skills faster by going to school? But a single sim won't necessarily be able to experience all that college has to offer, so we anticipate that players will bring multiple sims to college and play them in very different ways. KH: We expect the college experience for a single sim to last about double the length of the teen life span. Will you prolong the college life to get the most out of the expansion? GS: How long will the college experience last? After all, aging is a big part of The Sims 2, and the major life cycles last only about two game weeks each. You can make either sim's life, parent or child, progress by running the house (or dorm) he or she lives in. Time progresses for the sim who lives in the active house. KH: This will work similarly to having a child move into another house in the same neighborhood. Will the rest of the family "pause" while you play the teenager at college? Will you be able to switch back and forth between the college kid and the rest of the family easily? GS: How will the expansion fit into the regular The Sims 2 experience? Let's say you have a family with a teenager, and then the teenager hits college age. We also like that this is a fresh and new experience for The Sims, and something we think our core fans will be into. The Sims 2 affords us the opportunity to deliver on this experience. Kevin Hogan: We've wanted to send our sims to college for a while-ever since the first The Sims, actually-but the technology didn't really support what we wanted to do. GameSpot: So, what was the appeal of college as the first expansion pack for The Sims 2?
The franchise has already driven sales of more than 41 million units.įor additional insight into The Sims 2 University's gameplay, we spoke with the game's lead producer, Kevin Hogan. Sinjin Bain, an executive producer at Maxis, readied the industry for additional add-ons: "This title is also the first in a line of expansion packs that will address our players' desires, further develop The Sims 2 franchise, and continually expand the world of The Sims." As the name suggests, University lets gamers enroll their sims in college, where they can attend classes, settle into a dorm room, party like it's 1999 (if they choose), and generally live out the life of an everyday virtual college student. The Sims 2 University is due from EA's Maxis Studios sometime in March 2005. The first "in a line" of add-ons for the recently released sequel was announced over the weekend. With seven top-selling expansion packs released over the past four years to support the original The Sims product, it won't surprise anyone that the game's sequel, The Sims 2, is about to get its own library of expansion packs.