Will they survive by following their own, free will? Join our exciting contest; predict their situation on Day50! Rules to be released April 14th 2002.

This Monday a major science project opens in Simmerville neighbourhood. 8 Sims will live in 1 house for 50 days. And you are invited to predict their situation at the end of Day50!

The Sim Science is a newly established group of dedicated scientists from all corners of SimCity. Two of their founders are known as devoted Simmerville residents, namely Mrs Ursull S. Swims and Mr Simbille Ballong. Mrs Swims is best known for her medical research focusing on babies and children, while Mr. Ballong is busy with environment and the social aspects of community building. Together with 7 other SimCity scientists they have planned a science project called "The Sim Watch", coming to Simmerville this Monday, April 15th 2002.

The house where this all will take place has already been built on Simbille Ballong's lot (SimmerLane #4), while Simbille is resenting in central SimCity during the project, along with the Sim Science team, watching the 8 test persons' social development. Mr Ballong will return to Simmerville in about 50 days.

The project
So what is "The Sim Watch" all about? 8 adult Sims, 4 women and 4 men, will move into a house, and affected by nothing but their own free will, they will form roles, interactions, relations and interests. The Sim Science team will watch them through hidden cams, and the team will compare the social results with their expectations and theories. Their goal is to discover social patterns of Sims' nature, and to learn more about Simmish relations.

None of the 8 participating Sims have ever met before. They are chosen from a tall pile of applications from science students who volunteered for being a test object as the first step on their science career. They have been undergoing tests, and the final 8 individuals' personality is extreme in one way or the other; extremely neat, extremely lazy, extremely shy or playful, etc. Their profile and the social interactions will be analysed and reported  by the team of scientists every 5 days.

Can you predict Day50?
There is also a gaming aspect to this all, as Sims living in any SimCity neighbourhood can send in their guesses on what the situation will be like in 50 days. The winner will be invited to participate in the next Sim Watch round. Contest details will be published on Social Services' web page this weekend.

- It is not expected that any of the 8 will establish very warm relations, like falling in love, says Mr Ballong. - The project is lasting for only 50 days, and each participant will have to relate non-stop to and socialize with 7 different Sims, meaning we can't expect them to focus long enough on the one person they might like the best. We realize there might be chaos due to 8 different motives and although most of the rooms have two entrances, there will be many occasions when they will be blocked from getting to the spot they want. So the results of this project will not show us a natural process, because it is not normal that 8 adults live together. Nevertheless we expect to learn a lot from watching their activities closely.

Simmerville residents can visit the Sim Watch house
The participants will be busy, if not isolated, for the first two days, in order to improve their cooking and mechanical skills to help them surviving on their own. During these two days they will have no phone, neither will they have access to any fun or games except reading books and playing basket ball.

On Day3 the remaining rooms of the house will be opened, fully equipped with TV, swimming pool, hot tub, bar, music, games, computers and more. From day 3 the participants will no longer have to study unless they want, everything will be left to their free will, and neighbours will most likely be welcome to visit the Sim Watch house.

Although you can visit them, and the participants also will be allowed to visit other households of Simmerville, the scientists warn you that these people will leave Simmerville as soon as the project has closed, meaning that establishing very close relations with them might be totally wasted. None of the 8 Sims will have to work, the Sims Science Foundation will support them with money for paying bills and getting all the food they need. In other words - their worries will be limited to their social contacts and housekeeping. But they will of course have to pay the household's bills themselves, or they might get into trouble...

Lack of beds and extra stress
Will there be any planned factors to provocate conflicts or stress?

- Not really, we expect the stressful situations to appear all by themselves. Downstairs they have a double set of toilets and showers, upstairs there is 1 wc and 1 bath tub, and from Day3 there will be a hot tub in the yard plus a swimming pool in the gym. As long as they keep the dining table clean all 8 can get seated for any meal, and there are is an additional dining set on the terrace upstairs for bbq. We don't expect any of those tables to be totally clean at any time, cause know that some of the participants are extreme slobs.

Also - there are 8 beds, but that includes one double bed, meaning they will lack one bed, unless two of these 8 persons get together well enough to share the double bed which is not very realistic. A person sleeping on a sofa will most likely be disturbed by the others, so this might result in some stress. Sleeping at totally different hours will of course eliminate this possible challenge. We don't even know if the participants will stick to one bed all through the project, or switch every night. Sims can be affected by their habits and routines even if the choice is a 2nd best, meaning a Sim who sleeps on a sofa for 2 nights might choose to sleep on that coach also the 3rd night, even if there are available beds.

On Day5 a repair man will visit them, and on Day7 we will send in a gardener, and from Day10-20 and again Day 30-40 the household will be told to hire a maid, which we expect will be very useful to them. Out of 8, 5 persons are totally slobs, and only 1 is extremely neat, while 2 are quite neat. No maid has volunteered for this job yet, it will probably be a horrible job.

No winners, no exclution
Unlike the TV show "Big Brother", none of the Sims involved with "The Sim Watch" will be excluded from the project, unless they get hurt physically or mentally, or if they fight or die. There will be no winners and no regular broadcasting, but the Sim Science team will report to the Simmerville Web every 5 Sim days.

This Sunday, you will find all 8 participants' presentations here on Simmerville Web, together with details on how you can predict the situation on Day50. Keep an eye on Social Services' section here on the Simmerville Web site also in the future, all news and reports concerning "The Sim Watch" will be linked from Social Services' main page.