others visited the player's parks. Postcards could be sent by email, and the service offered a chat feature. The chat service had a function to report abusive players, who would have their connection terminated. Players could also be blackmarked. An account was required to use Theme Park World Online. Development Theme Park World was announced (as Theme Park 2) in April 1999. Many Bullfrog personnel had wanted to produce an updated version of Theme Park. Producer Jeff Gamon said that and that players wanted to ride rides they created and Bullfrog built on the original game's success using the latest technology. Gamon also said that Theme Park World would be less objective-based and more open-ended than the previous Theme games. Early in development, there were 12 artists, who were led by Darran Thomas before he left Bullfrog with Jeremy Longley and Glenn Corpes to found Lost Toys. The game used a 3D engine to eliminate the need for a 3D accelerator card, and an advanced behavioural artificial intelligence system (programmed by Ben Board) that gave visitors different behavioural traits. Board said that the most important feature was the queuing behaviour, and that he spent a while making it look interesting when visitors were in long queues. Many management features of the original game were retained, but some, such as supply ordering and competition with other parks, were removed. Staff would no longer get strike action because it was considered confusing and annoying. Theme Park World originally used the Populous: The Beginning engine, but it was "limiting", and a new one was built. Most of the development team were from Mindscape: they were brought to Bullfrog to complete Dark Omen. After Theme Resort was cancelled, its team joined the people from Mindscape to develop Theme Park 2. As of October 1999, development of the PlayStation version was two months behind the PC version, and there was a greater emphasis placed on the minigames to compensate for its lack of internet connectivity. The internet connectivity and the ability to ride rides were developed in response to criticism of the original game's repetitiveness. In August 1999, Theme Park World was renamed as Sim Theme Park for North America, and was released as part of Maxis' (a sister company of Bullfrog) Sim line. The renaming was to make the game easy to recognise by all types of gamer. Bullfrog General Manager Bruce McMillan said