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SimCity Societies

SimCity Societies is a city-building simulation computer game of Electronic Arts (EA) and is part of the Sim games series. The game was developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment and was released worldwide on 13 November 2007.^[1]

1 Announcement
2 Gameplay
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links

Announcement Edit

On June 5 2007, Tilted Mill Entertainment, creator of Caesar IV, announced that it would be developing SimCity Societies instead of Maxis, which had created all preceding titles.^[2] Rob Humble, head of EA's Sims Division, indicated that EA representatives had asked Tilted Mill to create the game at E3.^[3] Fans reacted poorly on the official forums of the developer towards this game. Responses directly from the developers attempted to ease some concerns.^[4]

Gameplay Edit

File:SimCity Societies screenshot 1.jpg

A city showing the day and night cycle within the game.

While previous mainstream SimCity titles could be best described as mayordom, or "God" simulators, SimCity Societies is different, as foreshadowed by the previews and statements from the developers,^[5] by being a 'social engineering simulator' rather than a city-building simulator. Public works do not play a part in the game, and transportation networks have been simplified to dirt roads, paved roads, subways and bus stops. Players do not build zones, a key element of past SimCity games, instead they have the ability to directly place individual buildings, something not seen in previous editions, and similar to Monte Cristo's game City Life. There are also six "social energies" which allow players to learn about the characteristics of the citizens. The six energies are productivity, prosperity, creativity, spirituality, authority, and knowledge.^[6] The city will look, and act, in accordance with the energies the players choose. Players may focus on satisfying one, several, or all of the energies. An improved version of the reward system introduced in SimCity 3000 has been included in the game.^[7] The game is "fully customizable" and allows the players to customize individual buildings, decorations, citizens and game rules.^[8] Prior to its release, when mentioning the depth to which the game will allow customization a Tilted Mill representative stated that those who were proficient in C# and XML will have easy access to every asset of the game and that basic tools would be provided for building editing.^[9]

ReceptionEdit

Template:Sectstub SimCity Societies received mixed reviews, gaming websites like GameSpot and IGN^[10] criticized the changes. GameSpot called this version of SimCity a "lackluster spin-off" and citied that the game was “way too easy” and the frame rate was mediocre even on higher-end machines.^[11] However, GameZone praised the game for taking the simulation franchise in a "bright and bold direction".^[12]