A lot of the interesting issues and dynamics within a city occur over things such as socio-economic issues or ethnic issues. But they require a much more elaborate model of human behavior.

In an online community, there's this kind of social economy between the community members. Some people have status because they make cool skins or that's a good website that's visited a lot, but there's no real gameplay there.

The new generation of consoles has as much power to do the kind of games that we do as the PC does.

Well, I think the camera freedom is something that we've resisted for a long time and feels like probably the biggest stretch. But it has some huge benefits.

Players like to know that they've discovered things that even the designers didn't know were in the game.

I think the idea of having a game based on reality is compelling right off the bat because everyone has some experience with the subject of the game.

Also, after people play these Sim games, it tends to change their perception of the world around them, so they see their city, house or family in a slightly different way after playing.