It's time your Sim stopped fiddling with the guitar (or the skillet ... or the paintbrush), and turned it into a living. Yes, Careers is the next big thing to hit The Sims Social, EA and Playfish's crown jewel on Facebook. Starting tomorrow, you'll be able to start your journey to becoming a career cook, artist or musician in a series of quests and tasks that will not only keep you at pace with your friends, but interact with them in new ways.

How will Careers pan out in the overall friendly competition between Sims?

Chris White: The Sims Social is all about playing with life through your Sim, and sometimes you can't help but be proud of the success your Sim achieves. Whether you have decorated the house of your dreams or you have WooHoo'd with multiple friends, The Sims Social enables you to share your experiences and accomplishments with your friends, which can in turn spark friendly competition.

That competition between Sims comes in the form of having exclusive, new items and clothes to showcase, and you'll be able to earn Simoleons faster than your friend by having a job. It offers a whole new way to measure your Sims success. In addition to House Values, the overall success of a Sim will also be measured in terms of career levels.

Aside from the different quests and aesthetics, are their any other factors that should influence a career choice, like special items?

Choosing a career brings a number of benefits. Not only do you get access to exclusive items related to your chosen career, but you can earn more money by interacting with related skill items in the game. For example, if you're a rock star you can earn more money from playing the guitar. This means that you can get rich quicker than your friends who haven't mastered a career.

When players choose a Career path, will they be locked into that choice? Why?

What's great is that you can change careers at any time. However, if you do change careers, you will lose the status of your most recent promotion. It's possible to regain this though, so you're not punished too heavily.

When players earn Career Points by pursuing their Career of choice, how will those be used?

Career Points are used within the career system itself. You need Career Points in order to complete a quest to be promoted to the next Career Level. Also, you can get double Career Points just for turning up to work on time. Imagine that in real life.

What can players expect from the quests and achievements in each Career track?

Completing the quests allows you to get promoted. When you get promoted you'll unlock exclusive new rewards, outfits and skill items, like a pro grill for celebrity chefs, a draftsman table for artists or a microphone for the rock stars.

Aside from the "keeping up with the Joneses" factor, how else will Careers spur social play?

You can unlock new joint interactions that you can perform on a skill-related item when visiting a friend or inviting a friend over. For example, you can sing together on the microphone.

Based on Vacation Homes and now Careers--both of which are available in The Sims proper--does Playfish look for feature parity between The Sims Social and its predecessors?

They draw inspiration from the larger The Sims universe, but The Sims Social is a different experience. In The Sims Social you control a single character, which you identify with more closely as a result.

Generally speaking, could Careers and future major updates bring lost players back into the fold?

The addition of careers is a game-changing feature for The Sims Social that gives you a whole new way to engage with your Sim, it deepens the level of personalization and creativity you can have in the game, expands your gameplay options and brings new ways to compete with your friends.