Ever Wonder How Maxis Picks It's Pick?

Thursday, February 19, 2004 - 22:30

Maxis Kitty tells us how she selects the Maxis Pick each week.

Tell Me About It!


Maxiskitty’s Definitive Guide to the Maxis Pick!

Ahhh, the Maxis Pick, the weekly bit of community literary genius that graces the bottom corner of the front page every week much to the delight of thousands of readers, the ultimate status mark an Sim Album can achieve. You might wonder, if you are in an inquisitive state of mind, out of all the thousands of Sim albums out there in the wide world of the Sim exchange, how MaxisKitty manages to pick the best one… consistently…every time.

Well the truth is inquiring friends; MaxisKitty is in fact a robot. Yes, it is true, she is a machine created by Maxis much like ServoPro. Except rather then scrubbing scum of virtual people, she skims the exchanges for clever stories. Elaborately programmed algorithms created by Maxis’ top talent allow her to dissect each and every album to its base elements to determine if it will provide maximum “funination” to each and every Sim fan.

As a special treat today Maxis is allowing the players a one time sneak peek into the MaxisKittyPro Maxis Pick Routine.

Ready?

--> Run MaxisKittyPro Album Pick Routine.

Search for Albums:
MaxisKittyPro scours the Community Showcase section of the Sim Bulletin Boards for the latest stories, looking for ones with a creative premise. Generally an interesting description of a story will catch her eye, sometimes it’s a creative title.

--> If genius story found then stop go to Read Mode.

If MaxisKittyPro cannot find a suitable album within the Community Showcase, she then moves on to the full exchange listing searching by highest viewed, skipping a few hundred to find albums that a number of players have liked but may not have seen as many readings as the most popular albums. She will also search through Sim Pages to find albums that other good writers link to with a review.

--> If genius story found then stop go to Read Mode.

Read Mode:
MaxisKittyPro enters read mode. Each and every perspective story is carefully analyzed. Top criteria for a Maxis Pick story include creativity, engaging dialog and characters, writing style and humor when appropriate. MaxisKittyPro loves all genres but she especially loves topical stories, including current events and themes.

--> If genius story passes Read Mode then stop go to Publishing Mode.

Sadly, sometimes MaxisKittyPro finds an album that would be perfect to highlight as the Maxis Pick but for some reason she stumbles in its publishing routine. Generally such issues arise when MaxisKittyPro runs across naughty language in the middle of a perfectly written, fantastically engaging story! Remember, it may fit the character to speak that way, but swearing is a breaking point in the Maxis Pick Routine.

--> If genius story fails Read Mode then stop return to Search Mode.

Publishing Mode:
Once the perfect album has been chosen, MaxisKittyPro proceeds to publishing. She writes up a catching description and electronically sends all the data to MaxisMojoPro, the program in charge of running the SimDay routine. MaxisKittyPro then switches routines until the next week.

--> If Published then Sleep.

--> End Program.
See the Maxis Picks!

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