http://thesims3.ea.com/images/en/logos.jpg*Update*  – Arrrggghhhh!!!! Just found out that the trial isn’t actually CAS nor part of the game…It’s SimSideKick 🙁 🙁 🙁 Although it’s great that we’re still getting something Sims 3 related, it’s a huge letdown the way New York Times worded that article into sounding like we’ll be playing part of the game on Friday!

I don’t think it gets any better than being a Sims fan.  I just got thru reading this article over at the New York Times.  If, and IF they are reporting correctly, they stated that we’ll be seeing a free trial (OMG!) of The Sims 3 at the official website, http://www.thesims3.com.  I hope this is the case, that’d be so awesome…I may have to call in sick for work on Friday 😛

Not only that, but they are also introducing little gadgets to market the game – SimFinder and SimSideKick!

Electronic Arts executives wanted the marketing campaign to showcase the new features of The Sims 3, and to get people who might not play the game to understand what it was about.

The focus of the marketing is online, and beginning Friday, Electronic Arts will begin offering three ways for consumers to play with Sims characters on the Web.

There will be a free trial available at Sims3.com and at the Sims 3 fan page on Facebook, meant for people who have never played the game before.

Another option, called SimFriend, lets visitors to the Web site pick a Sim pen pal from among 120 characters, and that pen pal will send e-mail messages. For example, a Sim might send a message asking what type of dinner she should cook for her boyfriend, and the fan picks from options like “Cook an elegant meal.” The e-mail chain would continue, tailored to the Sim’s personality and skills.

“If the Sim happens to be a kleptomaniac chef, the response you get back might be, ‘Thanks, I went and stole food today,’ when what you’re expecting is ‘Thanks, I just had lunch,’ ” said John Buchanan, senior director of worldwide marketing for the Sims line at Electronic Arts.

The third option is called SimSidekick. A fans chooses from 6 characters on the Web site, and an image of the character that is chosen floats on top of the browser as the fan moves around the Web.

The character has site-specific responses to sites that Electronic Arts has chosen, like MTV.com, YouTube, and Twitter. On Twitter, for instance, where the mascot is a bird, a flock of bluebirds descends on the character, and, depending on its personality, the character will jump, wave his or her hands, or respond in some other way.

On other sites, the SimSidekick software looks for the category of the Web site, like travel or news, and the character responds appropriately, acting like a sports fanatic on a site like ESPN.com, or looking like he’s searching for something on Google.com.

Read the whole she-bang over at The New York Times!