The Sims 3: Showtime – Living the Dream

Expanding a world of fantasies.

February 8, 2012

When kids say they want to be President or an astronaut, they only receive encouragement. To youth all options are open, but as the years wage war on their bodies and they come to realize their strengths and weaknesses, door after door closes on foolish aspirations.

But that's why games like The Sims 3 are so popular. They let you create an avatar or family of avatars, place them in an extravagant home and create lives for them that only exist in dreams. In the Sims a lonely accountant can become a sex-machine, a social reject can become immensely popular and anyone can live well outside their means. Quite simply, it serves as a place for fantasy fulfillment.

Every new piece of Sims content broadens the options for living out a fantasy life, and the upcoming Showtime expansion is no different. Along with all the career options from the previous Sims 3 content, players can now be a professional singer, acrobat and magician. Additionally, those who don't want to give up their day jobs can now "moonlight" as a DJ, buying their sim a turntable so they can eventually learn to rock parties and dance floors.

Your sims can live out their fantasies in their current towns, where new venues will be added for performing, or you can jump into an all new area called Starlight Shores. Starlight Shores still allows your sims to have typical jobs like fireman and office worker, but is full of venues to cater to your performer's needs.. Newly created sims will also have more options to tailor their personality and desires to that of a performer. For instance a goal might pop up to make a certain amount of cash doing street performances, or to impress a certain sim with their skills.

Progression in a performance career means putting yourself out there, and would-be stars have to deal with a lot of public scorn before they take off. An acrobat starts off as a mime or juggler. Your sim will screw up often, and screwing up often means negative mood modifiers if it occurs in public.

The best part of having a performance career, though, is that you get to craft your show. Your sim doesn't just disappear for part of the day so that you can earn a bit of cash, but instead has to audition at venues for timeslots. Once they've got a show booked, you then arrive on the date and set up your stage. This is where the builders out there will get their kicks, spending money to buy things like stage lights, props and more. If you find a set up you love you can save it, adapt it or just reuse it as you see fit.

Then there's the performance itself. Your sim will never be successful if they don't have a great routine, so a good act will adapt to the needs of the audience. Thought bubbles such as a suggestion for juggling might pop up over their heads during an acrobat's performance, so you can gain extra praise by delivering on their desires. It also makes the career more interactive, giving you a chance to change up an act at any point, even messing with minutiae such as the music that's playing.

Like every performer in real life, growing a successful career is the goal in Showtime. Your sim might start out singing on a street corner for tips, but if they keep hitting venues and building their skill they can eventually sell out arenas and play out to crowds of adoring fans, performing their greatest hits. As a singer you can even adapt your songs during a performance, throwing in extra choruses if the fans demand it.

Once you've got the love of your citizens, you can always expand your act into the worlds of other players. Through a new feature EA calls SimPort, you can connect with friends and exchange performers. Older social options are still present, but EA is especially proud of that you can experience SimPort, and a new "wall" system where you can exchange achievements and messages with other players, without ever leaving the game.

In many ways Showtime doesn't alter the core gameplay, instead focusing on offering an entire new world and more reasons to keep on playing your second life. And for many sims players, especially those who use it to lead lives they otherwise would never get to, that's probably more than enough.