What is your name?
Steve Bonham
What do you do for a living?
Civil Servant (Government)
How old are you?
32 at the last count
What Sims fan-site do you operate?
The Sims Resource (www.thesimsresource.com)
How did you go about creating it?
Within a week of getting online for the first time, I submitted a game file to a site that I created, and had the pleasure of seeing it posted online, and seeing that others were downloading and using it. It felt great!
Like everyone else, I soon had the desire to create a website of my own, and stumbled across The Sims while it was still in development. The Sims Resource first went online on August 1999, so that other people could have their creations posted in front of a wide audience, so that they too could feel the experience of sharing with others, what they had created.
The ethos of "Create & Share" is still the backbone of The Sims Resource today.
What's your role on the site?
As The Sims Resource has grown I have had to move away from the guy that does it all. We now have a great team that includes specialists in web design and programming, so my role now is managing the content and the community that has built around the site. I work with the team on new features, and ways to move forward in providing things that the game players need.
How long have you been playing the Sims games?
My first experience of Sim gaming was SimCity on my trusty Amstrad CPC464 many years back. I have followed the SimCity series ever since. Due to my early interest in The Sims I have obviously been here since the start.
What drew you to them?
SimCity is what I describe as a typical Maxis game. They really appeal to me with their management versus resource balance, undocumented and unexpected rewards as you progress through the game, and the ability to have time fly by while you get unhealthily involved in "just finishing this last project", which inevitably rolls into another, and another, and another…..
What is your favorite Expansion Pack?
Superstar was great; I had a lot of fun with that. But I believe Maxis really did save the best 'till last with the expansions, with Makin' Magic being my favorite by far.
Spells, Magic Town, Cooking and kids growing up are the obvious things to shout about, but Makin' Magic sparked a renewed interest in the game for me.
Do you play any other games, or types of games as fervently?
I was a huge fan of Counter Strike. My new found addiction is for Battlefield 1942 (I'm an EA Groupie). It's rather a sad fact that I'm rated in the top 2% of players worldwide. I guess that's an indication that I play a little too much.
Do you have any great Sims fan-site stories?
I mentioned earlier that I played Counter Strike. In our busy chat room it became clear that we had several people around the TSR community that played CS. So, we decided we could have some fun by creating a Clan within a busy CS community of The Sims players.
As you can imagine, our arrival in the CS community really wound up the serious gamers that saw The Sims as a girlie game. But you know, we actually had some pretty good players, and actually beating these guys now and then shamed them so much, we regularly received copious amounts of abuse before they quit from the servers in disgust!
What can visitors expect when they come to your site?
There are many great sites out there that distribute their own creations, and those of their staff. TSR is uniquely different. We encourage first time creators, and are not scared to showcase their work for them. As a result, you are going to find a wide variety of content (over 60,000 files) from newcomer creations, to very high quality design sets from our own Featured Artists. On top of the downloads we have great community features, all created to enhance the online community and build a bright and long-lasting future for our favorite game.
What are you most looking forward to about The Sims 2?
Having seen TS2 and the depth of game play that has been painstakingly enhanced, I really can't pinpoint any one thing that excites me more than another. But speaking as the creator of The Sims Resource, Custom Content is dear to my heart, and its clear that TS2 takes this to a whole new level. It's a really exciting time here at TSR now, as we start preparing to support the TS2 community in ways far more advanced than we do now.
Now that you've seen it, what do you think of EA? The Sims 2?
I've had dealings with EA before, having met many of the team at E3 and at EA London in the past, but I'm always impressed by their creativity and professionalism.
As for TS2, what can I say? Magazine reviews are going to have a hard time doing the game justice with 3 pages of content. I can't even scratch the surface here, but as I said when they pinned me down in front of a camera, (kicking and screaming to avoid being interviewed)… You think The Sims 1 is good; just wait and see what they have done with The Sims 2!
What do you think of the Create-A-Sim tool?
The Sim Creation Tool has clearly been developed with several user levels in mind. It can be as basic or as detailed as you like as although the interface is full of power buttons, unique Sims can be created very quickly and easily. This tool alone is going to prove content creators and game players many hours of enjoyment in the run up to the release of the game.
How'd you like meeting Will Wright?
Will who?
Any parting thoughts for the Community?
Things are going to change for the community in a big way. Maxis hosting is going to be great, but file sizes for Sims 2 content is going to be crippling for many. Creators are going to have a whole new learning curve too, so we are all starting over again in many ways.
It's a very exciting time, but it's also going to be hard work. Hang in there and support your favorite sites all you can. It's going to be a rough ride, but one I'm sure, that will be very satisfying and successful for the whole community as our game moves into the next generation.
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