When EA and Maxis released the highly anticipated people simulator The Sims 2 last year, they opened the door to a new wave of expansion packs that will let your sims experience whole new adventures. The first of these, The Sims 2 University, is headed our way this spring. As you can probably guess from its name, this expansion will let your young sims (the expansion will introduce a new young adult age to fit between the current teenage and adult ages) go off to college to experience all the ups and downs of university life. This includes life in the dorms, studying, partying, fraternity pranks, and, of course, the part-time college job. In this edition of our designer diaries, the folks at Maxis fill us in on some of the new places that you'll be able to explore in The Sims 2 University, as well as the odd jobs that your sims can do to earn much-needed spending money. And finally, they tell us about some of the new furnishings and themes we can expect in this expansion pack.

College Jobs

　　Designer, Maxis

　　Hey there, all you great fans! We're busy as bees here putting the finishing touches on the university campuses, getting them all ready for your sims to start taking them over! It's so exciting right now, we can hardly wait to unveil what we've got in store for you! The universities are really taking shape, and playing the game has a fantastic college feel, with bustling dorms, chic hangout spots, and crazy new activities.

　　We thought we'd give you a glimpse of what's new in The Sims 2 University beyond just skins and music. To start with, there are some great new locations for your sims so they can experience college to its fullest. For example, sims with a creative bent can drop by a music lounge, get together with their pals, and use guitars, basses, and drum sets to form bands so they can rock out. While this is fun, it can even be a way for your sim to make some extra dough, which is much needed as your cash-strapped college sims get ready for their next party with friends. Jamming with your band is only one of many new "odd jobs" sims can get on campus. At the gym, sims with a well-developed body skill can turn a simoleon or two by being another sim's personal trainer on the new weight machines and treadmills. This is a great opportunity to be social with other sims while keeping off the infamous freshman 15 pounds. At the library, sims with high GPAs can be tutors for their fellow students...for nice fees, of course. Lots of nightspots have hip juice bars where your sim can not only pull up a stool with friends and chill out with a cold drink, but also actually have a cool part-time job as a bartender to earn a few simoleans by whipping up those juice drinks for everyone on campus.

　　Gym rats can now get jobs as personal trainers.

　　Another amazing new item that we are so excited about is the new pool table. Because what is college without a pool table??!! Be it in the dorms or in a frat house, your sims are going to love to play pool. Plus, if they really know how to shoot stick, they can even earn a pretty penny or two by hustling other students. Watch out, though, because although the money can be good, you might get hustled yourself by betting against someone else who's a real shark!

　　We all know what fuels college: coffee! In addition to being able to hang out with friends at the espresso shop while cramming for exams together, your sims can step behind that bean machine and pull some espressos for their fellow students, conveniently refilling their bank accounts at the same time.

　　We've found that delivering a real college feel also means adding many great furnishings, walls, and floors to that frat, dorm, or quiet off-campus hangout. We're introducing several new styles in The Sims 2 University. First, there's the new frat style, which features torn leather couches, ratty chairs, beat-up fridges, and dingy linoleum to really give you a chance to re-create the authentic frat basement, complete with Greek letters. Endless toga parties await as you create the ultimate frat palace where your sim can truly become the big sim on campus! Plus, we're also including what we're calling the groovy collection, a wild trip back to the '60s and '70s, where the forms were crazy and psychedelic. This trippy feel is great for wild lounges or bars, or even for outrageous homes. Last but not least, there's the medieval collection, with giant dungeon doors, heavy stone walls, and iron candelabras that are perfect for decorating a secret society.

　　Your sims can form a band and jam.

　　Building this pack has turned out to be a great adventure for us, and as we see it all coming together in front of our eyes, we're just getting more and more excited every day. We're having such a great time playing with this first expansion pack for The Sims 2 that sometimes it doesn't feel like work; it feels more like a trip down memory lane...especially as we were reminiscing about hanging around the juice barrel! So start getting your young sims ready for a whole new part of their lives while we put the finishing touches on the game. It won't be long now!