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SimCity Societies

If you've been a gamer for any length of time, then chances are you've played at least some version of SimCity. Designer Will Wright's venerable series was first released in 1989, and since then the city-building simulation has seen ports to a number of platforms, from handheld systems to various consoles. Despite the widespread commercial success, the PC release of a SimCity title is always the seminal release; other versions are pared down for marketing or technical reasons. But by drawing on the power and versatility of the modern PC, SimCity had become too complex for a mainstream audience. Enter SimCity Societies (published by Electronic Arts and developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment), which shifts the game's focus from infrastructure to people, while retaining the best of the management components that a SimCity game is known for.

Almost universally, PC gamers share a hatred for change that borders on fanatical. This is a group of consumers who are known to be critical of most minute gameplay changes. What will they think of a complete reworking of a favorite franchise? To add to the skepticism surrounding EA's official June 12 announcement of SimCity Societies, Will Wright and his team at EA/Maxis aren't developing the game (they're a bit busy finishing up another title you may have heard of - Spore). Instead, Tilted Mill Entertainment (Caesar IV, Children of the Nile) have been tapped to develop the game that will take the SimCity franchise in a new direction.

Where previous SimCity games centered on public works development and large-scale zoning and engineering decisions, SimCity Societies brings the focus to the citizens. More precisely, gameplay revolves around six Social Energies, which are influenced by a city's residents. Gone is the utility and asset micromanagement of SimCities past; instead, a city will expand in a direction dictated by the mixture of social energies. Individual building placement is possible, and directly influences the meta-attitude of a city's residents (referred to, unsurprisingly, as Sims). The game's social aspect - influencing residents' emotions over objective planning - seems borrowed from the money-minting Sims franchise as well.

The ability to individually place specific buildings in SimCity Societies replaces the zoning paradigm. Rather than partition off zones, you'll place specific buildings. Building a successful business district might entail plopping down a bank, police station, hospital and some office buildings. In close proximity, these buildings complement each other, providing a working synergy that management consultants love to gush about. Some buildings will spawn specialist Sims - for instance, a criminal – which will influence the city's social energies in some fashion.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: New Gameplay and Graphics

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