When roly-poly unfunny funnyman Drew Carey was transformed into a character from The Sims on his self-titled sitcom, it was yet another indication of the game’s global popularity.

Maxis created the two-minute sequence especially for Carey after seeing references on the show, including the familiar dialogue boxes. Also in the works for the uncannily addictive franchise is a cable TV sitcom next year about a live-action family moving into the virtual world of The Sims. High-concept stuff, particularly the opportunity for creative users of The Sims Online to fashion one new character per episode. Female porn star is a safe bet.

• Hands-on gameplay experiences from the upcoming massively multiplayer online games from Westwood, Maxis, and EA.COM.
• Special sessions with the development teams of upcoming and new EA games. Be the first to see what’s coming!
• Get the scoop directly from the creative forces behind these games with Q&A sessions featuring special guest speakers such as: Will Wright (Creator, The SIMS™); Gordon "Tyrant" Walton (VP and Executive Producer, The SIMS ONLINE™); Brett Sperry (Founder of Westwood and Chief Creative Officer) and many others.

Mr. Haddock, an artist in Phoenix, Arizona, was intrigued by its ((The Sims’)) promotional material. He created his Screenshots series by using Photoshop to give a Sims-style isometric view of well-known and sometimes violent images or events. Mr. Haddock’s work has been shown in galleries in Seattle and at Arizona State University as well as in the “BitStreams” exhibition at the Whitney last spring.

Mr. Wright described the images inspired by his video game as “cool in a creepy way”; the curator of the Whitney show, Lawrence Rinder, said they provoked reflection on the roles of violence, entertainment and memory in society. The artist himself said the Sims was the ideal vehicle for exploring intellectual rights and copyright issues.

Maxis announced today that Simsville has been canceled. The latest in their popular Sim line of games, it was scheduled for release in 2002. It wasn’t up to the standards of Maxis, according to a spokesperson for Maxis, who also stated that despite this, the team did a great job and is being reassigned to other products like The Sims Online and other future projects.

Simsville was to be a game somewhere between The Sims and SimCity, where you place individual homes, businesses, roads and city structures. Simsville was to retain some of the voyeurism of the Sims with more of the planning of SimCity. It was designed to explore outside of the Sims’ houses, but with a product like the upcoming expansion The Sims Hot Date, they’re already offering some of that functionality. Simsville also was to have some more “adult” content in the form of crime, liquor stores, and general seediness.

Thank you for your interest in SimsVille.

Maxis and the SimsVille team have decided to suspend development of SimsVille. Everyone working on the project will be moving to other projects at Maxis. This includes The Sims Online and some other games in development that have yet to be announced. We’re excited to take what we’ve learned from SimsVille and put it towards the making of great new games for you.

Once again, thanks for your support.

Well, the whole reason we came up with the idea for SimsVille was the feedback from The Sims players, who were asking to see the lives of their Sims outside the house. They were sick of being stuck indoors, and while that aspect of The Sims is still fun, players wanted to know what goes on in their Sims’ lives outside the house. The Sims: Hot Date lets players do everything they’ve been asking for, like hang out at the bar, have a picnic downtown, go shopping, and so on. After a while, we found that it was simply more fun than what we had in SimsVille.