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In just a few months, your channel will celebrate its first birthday! You have managed to gain more than 9000 subscribers in that short period of time. What do you think has been the key to gaining such popularity? When I started my YouTube channel almost a year ago, I set goal for myself to reach 1,000 subscribers (or hoe I call my subscribers, “Springsters”) by my first year on YouTube. By this time, I wasn’t expecting to surpass my goal of 1K. The time I’ve been YouTube, I learned that the key to success is to have originality and creativity in your own way. My motto for me is ‘always stay true to yourself’. Why did you decided to open a YouTube channel about The Sims? I’ve decided to start a YouTube channel about The Sims because ever since I was little around the age of 6 I’ve always wanted to do something that had to deal with art. Art allowed me to express my feelings in any shape or form. Since I had the Sims, I’ve felt that the game has allowed me to play with life and tell stories the way I wanted to. When did you start playing The Sims? How did you discover the existence of the game? I started playing The Sims when I was five years old in the year 2001. I discovered The Sims one day I went to the electronics section of a store. I have been always obsessed with gaming - since I was three! I know I was young, but you got to start somewhere, don’t you? What type of Sims player are you? I could say that I’m more of a Lets Player who likes to tell stories and add some drama to make them more interesting, as well to keep my viewers engaged. Which videos do you enjoy the most recording? I mainly enjoy recording my Let’s Plays because I love telling stories to make my series more interesting to the best of my ability.

Hello Dan! How and when did you discover The Sims community and decided to take part in it? Hello! Thanks for having me for this interview. I have been playing The Sims games since around 2001 but I first stumbled upon the community in 2004/2005 when I signed up for TheSims2.com. From there I used to lurk about and read things. However, I didn’t become an active community member until 2011 when I joined SimPrograms. From the four games of The Sims saga (TS1- TS4), which one is your favorite and why? I absolutely love The Sims 4 and think it’s much better than The Sims 3, but I think The Sims 2 is my favourite Sims saga because of the memories I have of playing the game, the amount of time I invested into it and of course its expansion packs… I love Open for Business! But I do think that once The Sims 4 has finished development and we have all expansion packs that could become my favourite. Beyond Sims was before known as SimPrograms (founded by Jud Hudson), where you started as a content writer in 2011. A year later, TheBlackScorpion stepped down and you became its owner. What can you remember from that moment? Well, it was my birthday! I remember that! My memory is pretty hazy and I don’t remember much else apart from that and the fact that I was excited to be able to continue running the site and take it in my own direction. I am very grateful as running BeyondSims has allowed me to meet so many people, express my passion for The Sims/Maxis games and attend events to find out information about upcoming games for Simmers! Let’s talk about the Simmers Meetup, an event that last year united many Simmers from all over the world. How did you come up with this great idea and can you share with us your best memories from that day? Myself, Maaike, Rachael and a few others were going to meet in London for the day. Then it turned into us hosting a ‘Sims Meet & Greet’, which we eventually turned into ‘Simmers Meetup’. We invited the community to join us in Hyde Park and we were overwhelmed by the amount of people who shown up! It was fantastic to see so many people. My favourite thing was being able to meet people that you speak to on Twitter and put a face to their name, and talk about The Sims all day! The date for the Simmers Meetup 2015 has already been announced: 1st August. Could you tell us a bit of information about this year’s event? Sure! The Simmers Meetup 2015 is bigger and better than ever before. New for 2015, we have a cozy venue, refreshments, EA pods to play The Sims 4 and many more surprises. We conducted a survey after the 2014 event to find out what people liked and what we could improve, so we are really focusing on what attendees want to see at the event this year. A lot of work went into selecting 1st August as the date for the Meetup, and we think we made the right choice as many couldn’t attend in May 2014 due to exams. We’re really excited and think everyone will have a blast.

How did you discover The Sims? I discovered The Sims thanks to my dad who saw how enthusiastic I was about computers and started to buy me videogames. What did inspire you to join the Sim community? The fact that people also had fun playing at home like I did and then my best friend showed me the El Rubius’s Youtube channel… OMG! Until that moment I hadn’t seen it before. She then proposed the idea that we created a Youtube channel too but it was not until I had more free time that I finally did it. As we all know, having a Youtube channel is very time-consuming. How do combine it with your everyday life? I try to go to bed early in order I can wake up early (around 8 a.m.) to make the videos and have the afternoon free to go out, just as if it were a job. Could you tell us a bit about some of your future plans you have in mind for your YT channel? Ufff I made a lot of plans for my YT channel that I am really looking forwards to but preparing them takes lots of time and at the same time I have to upload videos daily so these plans are more long than short-term. One of them is upload a weekly vlog about me, challenges and various subjects with which we can all have fun. What’s your favorite game from The Sims saga? It’s difficult to choose only one as I’m not the kind of person that only likes to pick one. But as I’ve been asked to do so, I would say The Sims Hot Date. It’s something we haven’t seen in the later games of The Sims: the chemistry between sims, the engagement rings the waiters served at restaurants for a surprise proposal, the Gypsy Matchmaker, etc. In next place in the ranking we would find The Sims 3 Island Paradise. Being able to dive and all the water interactions were something new that have never been before included in the game. I must also say that The Sims 2 University was too a game that had me playing lots of hours. And lastly, I also liked the games that included magic and new creatures.

What do you normally do for a living? I simply take care of my family and when I have some free time I create things for The Sims. What inspired you to create custom content? With The Sims 2, thanks to a girl named Merche I discovered Simbrella’s forum. They hosted decoration contests; there was a good atmosphere and all kinds of meshes available for those who were registered. When decorating the houses that I was going to submit to the contests, I missed having elements to my taste. I learned then how to recolor objects with a tutorial from that same forum. From this point onwards there is just one step if you have appetite of creating. Have you done something like this before? No, I’ve never done something similar to this. I knew nothing about 3D-modelling programs. Have you thought of making a website of your own to upload all your content? Well, in fact I have already done this before working with TSR. When The Sims 2 was around, I bought the domain simcontrol and Pau (a friend and The Sims fan) built the website. There you could find all my creations, but there was a moment when I could no longer bear with all the work the forum required, the meshes and the real life problems. That’s why I decided to close the forum and transfer the domain and my creations to my blog “Cosas de Pilar” (Pilar’s things) which is now Simcontrol. Has somebody taught you how to make Custom Content? Regarding my creations, my teachers have been tutorials. Little by little things started to work though with occasional temper tantrums and kicking of legs - I have broken some keyboards already jajajajaja.

“Creative, perfectionist and someone who likes to help other, as you will see reflected in his work. But, above all and since the beginnings, Alfonso is a simmer at heart.” This is how Elvira, who together with Alfonso administrates pekesims.com, described his colleague. Surely she is one of the simmers who knows him better, though after this interview we hope to know a bit more about Alfonso and his experiences in the Sims world. We know you love designing and building with The Sims. Which type of constructions you enjoy most making? Undoubtedly I enjoy creating all types of houses. One day I may create a modern and minimalist mansion and another day I just build a charming house full of old furniture with an overdone decoration. I suppose creating houses of all styles for all players is where the equilibrium lies. It’s great to build and see how little by little the idea you had is taking shape, I really like it! From all of the creations you’ve made so far, which one you would pick as the best one? I can say with absolute certainty Metsä, the last world I created for The Sims 3. From the modeling of the terrain to the smallest details in a Sim’s biography, I enjoyed every second I spent creating Metsä. I took me months of hard work to create it, but the final result was worth it. The Sims 4 Building mode has brought tons of new tools that have made building much easier and user-friendly, but, is there some element you miss from The Sims 3? I miss being able to edit the terrain. Although it was a tool I didn’t use much in The Sims 3, I miss it. I don’t know the reasons why they took it out, but I hope in the future they include it again. I also miss the Create a Style tool though not as much as I thought I would, but there are times where I think “Right how it would do well”. Apart from building, do you like to create sims? Strangely enough, it was not until The Sims 4 arrived that I liked to create sims. Before I hated the CAS - I found it boring. But now The Sims 4 CAS it’s so easy to handle and entertaining that it has made me go in and create sims simply for the pleasure of doing so. I love to trying to recreate real people. I can spend hours and not get bored, not even a little bit. From July 28th to August 1st, Sims creators from all corners of the world met in the Electronic Arts studios in Redwood City, California, where they had the chance to try The Sims 4 exclusively before anyone else. To this event, commonly referred as Creator’s Camp, only a few fortunate simmers had the honor to attend it, and amongst them was Alfonso, the only member from the Spanish community. Simmers at the Creators Camp 2014 | Photo via @Alalasims How would you describe your experience at Creator’s Camp? It was a very enriching experience. I met people from all over the world which are passionate for The Sims - that was something you could sense. The atmosphere was great and we certainly learnt a lot from each other. Did the event go as you had imagined it would? Not at all! I was very nervous as I didn’t know what or who to expect at my arrival. But it has been more than a simple Sims event - it’s been a fantastic opportunity to meet people and make new friends. There were at times where The Sims took a second place and we simply just sat around and chat, told stories, laughed... From what you experienced, what surprised you the most? EA’s campus definitely! I knew it was a good place to work at but, wow! It’s made up of various buildings, surrounded by gardens full of trees, connected by cobbled walkways. They have all kinds of facilities: a gym for employees, a huge cafeteria...even a Starbucks just for them! In the Maxis building, for example, in the entrance the lamp was a giant plumb bob. There are also temporary exhibitions about EA games (when I was there it was about Plants vs. Zombies). It’s a place where it must be a joy to work, even with all the stress I’m sure working on the gaming industry brings. Finally, do you have any funny anecdote from the journey? Oh I have lots! I remember the 4 days we spent there, TheSimSupply, EnglishSimmer and I nearly died of cold. Our computers where located just below the air-conditioning duct and we were literally shivering while we were playing. But even so, we didn’t lift our hand from the mouse no matter how cold it was hahahaha. I also remember I couldn’t stop laughing with TheNumberswoman, from The Sims Resource. It was an event full of laughter, we had a great time.

Get to know a bit more one of the most-known Youtubers of the Spanish Sims Community. Taking advantage that we both attended The Sims 4 Get to Work event, we interviewed him in person in the outsides of the EA studios in Madrid. We had a great time recording the interview, full of laughter and good moments. How did you started in The Sims world? I’ve known the game since The Sims 1. At the age of seven, thanks to one of my parents’ friends, more specifically his son who had the same age as me. I started playing The Sims. He loved computers and so it was him who introduced me to The Sims world. Since then I haven’t stopped playing - not even a year. What do you remember with more nostalgia of your first games? What I remember the most is how innovative it was since the game had no end – it was basically playing a life. I think it was that, the novelty. The fact that it was a game that had no end, a new concept. In addition, the games never ended. For me, playing a life was the best part. What do you think about the new Sims 4 expansion pack “Get to Work”? Based on what I’ve seen and tried a short while ago, I think people are going to love it. It comes fully packed with novelties, although we already knew this regarding businesses and active careers, but it’s not like we have seen it so far – it’s different. I have really liked it. Since you are a veteran Sims player, which aspects of the game would you improve in future editions? More than in improving, I think they should focus first on the optimization and efficiency of the game. In the future, when we have lots of expansion and content packs, we don’t want to suffer again what happened to us with The Sims 3. That was so exasperating! That’s why I think they should focus on this. I would also like that they included a different means of transport but taking profit of what already exists like the steamboat or the tram. I think it would be good that we could actually use them in the future. Although they say that the means of transport in The Sims 4 are different, and it’s true, but even so I still miss the cars. Profiting from the fact that they have included the boat and the tram, well why not adapt them so they could be actually used. Another aspect I would love is The Sims 2 cinematic. I was a fan of this and the stories with its characters. They kept you wanting to continue with the story. It would be nice they focused and improved this aspect.