Electronic Arts is going to use three new ways to let players enter the sims world on the web! Make them hang around your browser, send you an e-mail just to see how things are going, and even enter your iPhone.

Starting Friday (5/15/09) new players will be able to download a free trial available at Sims3.com and at the Sims 3 fan page on Facebook.

SimFriend is a new feature that players can use by going to the website and selecting 1 of 120 different sims and making them your pen pal.  The SimFriend will then e-mail you randomly with questions and chat in conjunction with the sim's personality traits.  The player can select from multiple answers in response, and the e-mail chain would continue on.

The third program is called SimSidekick. A player can choose from 6 characters at Sims3.com, and the chosen character floats on top of the browser your navigating online with.  To top it all off the SimSidekick will respond to certain websites such as MTV.com, YouTube, and Twitter.  Each SimSidekick will respond differently to each website depending on their personality

On the release date of Sims 3, sim citizens will be crawling all over the web on Electronic Arts selected websites like VH1.com or MTV.com. Moving around text and graphics, and causing all sorts of havoc.  Their is currently an iPhone sampler program for the Sims 3 that you can download and the full game will be available June 2^nd (also for iTouch and Macintosh).

It's like having little gremlins enter your computer and entertain you at all hours of the day. So keep an eye out, because these little people could be popping up anywhere and everywhere!

Source: New York Times