March 19, 2008, we get a preview of The Sims 3.

I am an unabashed Sims fan. Every time I load a new expansion I get hooked all over again. Even when the expansions aren’t that good, or are just more of the same, the underlying game is beautiful in both its simplicity and its frenetic nature.

So what do we want to see in Sims 3?

The most recent Sims 2 expansion introduced the ability to have a few neighbors and friends age up with your Sim, so it’s a safe bet that this long desired feature will be fully implemented in some way.

Put pets in from the start. I love pets.

I love customizing houses, but it might be nice to have house templates. Say you want to build a Tudor or colonial house on an empty lot. Why not just select the style and plop it down? Maybe furniture could come in matched sets.

Time stops when Sims go to a community lot; when they get home it’s the same time it was when they left. But all their needs and biological urges have moved on because, while on the lot, time moved along at its usual pace. Could time just slow down on community lots, including all decay? That way you can spend the same about of game time at the lot without the peculiarity of rushing to make dinner before the night shift because you spent zero hours at the gardening shop.