SnootySims has a compiled list of notes that were taken from the April issue of Games for Windows Magazine. Here are a couple of notes from their page:

— “The number of attribute bars has been reduced from eight to three, with one — a “stress versus fun” meter — standing out as the most essential. Sims still need to bathe, sleep, and eat, but the gauge presenting liters of urine versus free bladder space is hidden behind the curtain. ‘We’ve added one-off mechanics like the buffs in World of Warcraft… In our case, if [your Sim’s] out in the rain, he would have a debuff — we call them moodlets — that would just say that he’s soaked now and he’s miserable. Or if his mom dies, he’ll get a moodlet that makes him miserable. It’ll go away after a certain amount of time, or you can get rid of it. IF there’s a way to get rid of it.’ Moodlets range from simple things like “I’m thirsty!” with immediate psychological effects to “I just got a promotion!” that can grant a boost that carries for days.”

— “… your Sim will now walk out of your home and see and visit other Sims, other buildings, and other neighborhoods in real time. The world is changing and evolving around you, characters are going on with their lives, marrying, aging, and dying, as you proceed with your own life. And every action you take may have a ripple effect that spreads across the town and affects the lives of multiple generations.”

— “We’re going to be releasing world-building tools,” says Bell, “advanced tools definitely for the modding community. On TheSims3.com, there’ll be an exchange where you can download towns from other players.”…. Godat hints at how the exchange might operate: “People put hundreds of thousands of Half-Life maps out on the internet. The Web has a way of giving them a star rating, and people go and download the five-star maps– it’s the same kind of thing here. We know that people are gonna go and build new versions of our buildings. We can elevate these things through our connection to the community–find some way to tell a player that, ‘Yes, this building slows your game down.’ Find some other way to let them find the content that they’re really excited about and tell that story they want to tell. That’s what keeps it going for so many years.'”

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