Another e-mail from Lucy has arrived, which you can read entirely in the read more part. In the mail she describes how Maxis helps the paper industry by using lots of Post-it notes. The office is filled with them, and on every one of them there's a task for The Sims 2 that's to be done. If it's done, it will be stamped "done" in red. She also talks a bit about the new logo, which everybody is "very excited about" (like they are about everything really...). Also some slightly more details about the refreshed fansite kit have been given. It doesn't include only the new logo, but also new images and artwork, and even some desktop wallpapers. Two wallpapers have been given to us in several sizes (800x600, 1024x768 and 1680x1050) which you can put on your computer, so you'll never forget about The Sims 2. One of them is similar to what has been posted before with the launch of the UK Sims 2 website. The other one is a collage of many screenshots of The Sims 2. You can download them using the links below. Note that they're quite big (we've posted them in high quality), so it may take a while for them to load. To use them as wallpaper, right-click the image (once loaded) and choose to set it as wallpaper from the menu. To other webmasters: as usual, please do not hot-link to these images (or any other files or screenshots), but link to this article instead if you want to tell your visitors about it. Thank you.
 800x600 1024x768 1680x1050 |
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"Greetings, Sims fans!
"Here in the office, we have a wall that holds a dizzying array of post-it notes. Each post-it note represents a The Sims 2 task that needs to be completed. When one of these tasks has been successfully accomplished, somebody comes by with a large rubber stamp labeled "done" and stamps that note. Right now, that wall is awash in a sea of large, red "done" stamps. It's incredibly gratifying to have this visual reference of where we stand on our long road to completing The Sims 2. Everybody working on the project has devoted such a staggering amount of time, dedication and hard work to The Sims 2, and we all continue to devote the majority of our wakinig hours to the project. All this hard slogging through the dense underbrush of game development is to ensure that when we slap that final red "done" stamp on that last remaining post-it, The Sims 2 will be the definitive people simulation game when it's released on September 17th.
"In other The Sims 2 news, those of you with a keen eye for design may have noticed our brand new logo. We've incorporated new colors and a simpler, more streamlined design and layout, and I think it looks wonderful! You can see this new logo peppered throughout The Sims 2 website, and we're all really excited about it.
"While you're perusing our website, you may feel compelled to harness some of that anticipatory energy that just keeps building during the wait for the release of the game, and start your own Sims 2 website. We positively encourage that sort of behavior, and we've made it dang easy for you, with the release of the updated The Sims 2 fansite kit. It's loaded with new images and artwork, and we've also been able to secure some of the ultra-scarce time of one of our artists, to create some desktop wallpapers.
"So go ahead, create that fabulous web homage to The Sims 2, and then use our fansite listing pages (http://thesims2.ea.com/fansites.php) to drive traffic to the fruits of your labor. Otherwise, if you have neither the time nor inclination to develop a website, feel free spruce up your computer desktop with some new desktop wallpaper!
"Have fun"
DONELucy Bradshaw
The Sims 2 Executive Producer
Written at 19:29 on Saturday, 5 June 2004 by ChEeTaH.
