How do you feel about the SCS announcement?

[Kemtri98 0]

It looks like Caesar IV (which I play) in a SimCity skin. I don't like the idea of taking away individual building funding, and that everything has to be plopped rather than grown. It really is as if they've taken Caesar and modded it a little to make it resemble SimCity. I really REALLY hope that the new game won't have the same execrable camera lag that makes Caesar IV nearly intolerable at times.

[adelq15 0]

well if no one like this new sim city, we should petition and fight for sim city 5 we deserve!!!

[Lambtropolis 0]

I'm actually pretty optimistic that some software company will jump on this now empty niche and turn out an advanced version of SC4 (basically SC5 but perhaps with another name) within the next 3-5 years. By then perhaps technology will have evolved to the point where realistic full 3D graphics are doable. And, at any rate, perhaps by then we'll have our own Simtropolis 1000 to fill the void.

[towtruck2007 0]

Hey everyone,

My quick thoughts,

I have been playing SC for years, only really got into the modding recently

I have always been open to new ideas, new games etc.

But always have thought, if it's not broken why fix it. Sure let's improve but...

...the new screenshots of Society look cheap and more like a 6 yr old's ABC game. 

Actually i think it looks very similiar to games like Roller coaster tycoon, Zoo tycoon

This game i think has become so sucessful due to the fact that the average user can create their own city, and create it with amazing detail.

I like the idea of Society though the current SC model should be kept

My thoughts

Towtruck

[McMurray02 55]

This was my response as posted on the official site:

After all of the hard work done by Maxis over the years to consistently produce a game of extraordinary quality and the community of passionate SimCity fans giving not only support, but going so far as to troubleshoot, and greatly enhance the game play, I find the announcement of SimCity Societies to be a very sad day in SimCity history.

The new direction of bringing the game back to its roots, making it more accessible to new players is a tough sell, that I might buy with a little more conviction that this could be a great product. Unfortunately, the screen shots, if indeed they are true to the new game, look to be several steps back. This is not just in terms of quality in graphics, but, the layout, the repeating buildings, the limited choices. It seems like all of the research, and endless nights of coding and the pure talent that the SimCity franchise has required is simply not present in this coming version. It seems as if all of the innovations to bring the franchise to the next level that the community has dreamed-up are all gone. Its as if we were never here in these forums and fan sites discussing how to improve the game.

There are several ways to improve the quality of the game while at the same time making the game more use-friendly, more approachable to new players. This, is not it. Its only a triumph of mediocrity. Its sadly nothing more than a diversion until the next real version comes to be. I do hope that if this game is a flop, that its not because the fan base isn't excited about playing the best game ever, but simply because this just wasn't it. And I hope that as a response to the flop, EA, and Maxis can both bring the game back to the standards that we expect, the standards, that we pay our hard earned dollars for.

Having said that, I hope that this franchise is successful in the future. I think there is still a lot to learn and explore here. SimCity Society may be the stumbling block that this franchise has needed to really awaken the potential of this game.

To all of my fellow SimCity fans, this may be a sad time indeed, but hold your head up high, do not forget the passion you once had for this game. Let us lay down our swords of judgement until the game is released. Remember, the pen may be mightier than the sword, but the dollar is mightier than the pen. If you are truly dissapointed, then I encourage you to not buy this game. If you must buy this game to merely add it to you collection, wait until the price drops. Otherwise, if the game has a sudden increase in quality between now and the release date, and it it gets great reviews, then certainly I encourage you to do so otherwise.

Best Regaurds,
McMurray02

[meowza 230]

ditto @ mcmurray02

[silverbeacher 0]

The thing that i find bewildering, is if EA wants to make the game more "reachable" to new players, why they can't incorporate a scaled feature on difficulty. (NOT like whats in SC4 which basically is just funds and growth rate changes) For example, I'm sure many have at least a passing familiarity with Gal Civ II: DA (the expansion to GCIIL) which in many ways was more than an expansion if not almost a new game. One thing that developer Brad Wardell managed to do is that if you have a high-enough end computer (such as dual-core) you could dramatically increase the AI ability of your opponents, thus making the game highly challenging to those that were willing to take on that effort. BUT likewise, the game offered and was made in a way that more casual users could easily pick up game play and still have a reasonably challenging or productive game experience.

So that on higher difficulties certain options and and actions would be enabled. E.g. the lowest end difficulty would be most similar to the original SimCity in that it wouldn't be as important in desirability, land value, pollution, etc. A school that would have a 20-tile radius in Normal mode, may have a 60-tile radius in Very Easy; or other such features so as to minimize the micro-managemnent and in turn reality that many of us veterans enjoy but that newcomers may find a bit daunting.

I guess its just that many of things that both veterans would like done, and also what newcomers would like to see to the game to make it more accessible are both very easy to accomplish with only some minor tweaking.

[smirkazor 1]

This is the same with command and conquer tiberium wars, i was a great fan of command and conquer, but after this new release from EA i am no longer. and this will be the same with societies, it will be a big let down and you will play it once and never go back, same with c&c.

Why cant these people just leave these brillaint games as they are and improve on them. this new direction will ruin everything maxis has done so much to accomplish and its all their fault by not being arsed to do it themselves. got nothing against the guys now making it now, i just wish it were maxis making this

[smirkazor 1]

Moderator Note: This is not a double post... this post was originally located in the wrong thread and it was moved here by request. The fact that the same user has two posts in a row is merely a coincidence. ~89

i cannot believe this is actually happening, i really am lost for words, when i first heard about everything just 10 mins ago one word did come to mind WHY!!!!!!!!!!! this has to be the worst news i've heard since.... since..... well this is the worst news ever. i cant believe maxis would just... throw away sc like a piece of garbage, to be honest i would rather wait till spore has been released and the sims got boring and maxis thought, hey lets make a kickass sc5 game everyones been waiting for with uber graphics and let people recreate real life places with curvy roads etc.. etc.... Thats the way i really wish it was going to go, by the looks of it, its going to be a total let-down and i fear i'm going to be put off the series forever

Maybe if this game was not part of the series, then yeh sure go for it, and have knoledge that maxis would indeed make a realistic urban simulator in the future.

This is a sad sad time for simcity. the dark age has cometh!!

This is just how i feel as a long time fan of the original franchise, i'm sure many others feel the same.

The screens do look cartoonish, which is very bad.

[Gridlock 9]

Well this been a bit more of a rollacoaster ride than a knee jerker for me, and im not ashamed to admit i puked at the first bend .  Everything i hoped , they might expand on in the next version , well they are actually taking it out ,haha as someone who trys to look at things logically it leaves me totally baffled. Smirkazor you say you learned about this 10 mins ago wasthat from the UK ea forums ?

[joexcooldude 1]

For all of this talk about trying to take the game "in a new direction" and getting a younger audience, they have managed to forget that SimCity 4 already did that. Even in my own case, I was a young 13 when I bought SC4. I was barely within the double digits when I first started playing the Simcity series. Its not that SimCity is not attracting younger players; its just that it attracts different players who want a challenging mental game, and the Simcity series has fielded this sub-genre. Blending SimCity and the Sims is not going to get higher sales, but just lose the sub-genre that took over a decade to develop. As I stated in a previous post, the need for zoning and city-growing is a necessity with this group of players, and removing it is only going to eradicate the immensely loyal fan base that cements Simcity as a important game series.

[powl 12]

Who ever really used the Sims feature in SC4?, who wanted to listen to one specific citicen what he had to say?

No one did. Everyone just wanted to build.

Why? Because this cute Sim world just didn't match with the heart of a dead serious planning and strategy game called SC4, didn't match with the target group of real SC fans.

The true fun of the game has always been the fact that it is so complex and tough and therefore loses a lot of people that are not willing to invest the time to get along with the game. That's why SC4 has always been a game genre of it's own. But more than else it has been realistic (And sometimes not, i know). So realistic, that real City Planners over the world used the game to explain coherences of urbanity... and more.

What brings to me the fact, that SC4 was one of the last games, that weren't just a game. Far more a serious simulation where the players were scientists.

Now, while SC4 was fully explored and further developed and filled with plenty of custom content, other games renewed themself for more than 2 or 3 times.

And now, years too late, SC5 is supposed to adapt to a more than common look, used in millions of games? That is just inappropriate! That is just the desperate approach of getting thousands of nonbuyers back in the game.

Who wants to raise SC to a next level, needs to come up with a unique look and a serious approach to what all SC4 maniacs missed out.

This is just the result of marketing people trying to make money!

[smirkazor 1]

Morning all, just woke up *yawn* well i just happened to think, oh lets see if therees any news on sc5 so i went on google and searched for it and wham like a ton of bricks i was crushed at the sight that sc5 was not going to be made, yet some different branched off series was to be developed, and NOT even by maxis!!!. I will not ever recognise this to be the next simcity as this does not follow suit to that of the previous series.

I did hope and HOPE maxis would be making a new simcity 5, but now i dont know what to hope for, because more likely maxis will never go back to simcity and merely just hand it over to some other developer so they dont have to bother about it anymore. 

I love to build really big cities, with interesting, complex and beutiful transportation networks, even though sc4 is great, it still lacks alot and has many limitations, sc needs to become more free, such as being able to build in any direction not just north, south, east, west, NE, NW, SE, SW, basically having more menouverablitity when creating a city and a easy to use builder to be able to create ANYTHING you want so that you could infact build where you live or anywhere in the world exactly into the game. That is my dream for the future, but by the looks of things, were falling backwards with the fact that we have lost our micromanagement as one aspect. 

I sure hope this doesnt become a CITY LIFE lookalike.

[Gridlock 9]

I agree powl , i always had sims turned off , if i wanted to interact with the sims in my city i would of bought the sims , i played sc4 just to build.Sometimes put sims to watch the traffic for a while .Never use my sim or u drive it , my advisors , not in normal gameplay. And now they going to concentrate more of the gameplay on the parts i dont use , just my luck

[danurve 1]

Greetings 

Although I have not posted here in a few months since End Game rumors of a new SimCity brought me back to visit Simtropolis. First, I'm glad to see the SC4 community still quite alive. 

Second, my "knee-jerk" reaction to Societies after reading through the disscussions and looking at the available screens to date; 

Now for those of you that enjoy pumkin seeds Im sure it will be a fun game in it's own. But it is nothing close to what I had hoped SC5 would be. Im certain to not be alone on that. 

I'm 45 so allow me to pass along one thing to the younger players; life is full of disapointments, deal with it and or move on. I think the worst thing the Simtropolis community could do is once the new game is released is to argue back and forth about which one is better etc. 

Well, I guess that's all I have to say. 

One more salute goes out to the modders that continued with SC4 and made that game. 

-=-=-=-

Hi my name is John, a former SC4 Crashaholic.

[Giligone 10]

This is like a cheap Disney sequel.

I feel so betrayed.

[jp walker 1]

Originally posted by: mcmurray02

SimCity Society may be the stumbling block that this franchise has needed to really awaken the potential of this game.

quote>

love this quote

if not for the user-made bats, mods, maps etc. i would have given-up playing sc4 years ago.

the user community for simcity is incredible! comparable to ANY other game, online or not. how can EA ignore the community requests, suggestions and all our support?!

for now let's just call SimCity Societies an 'extension' of the series. rememeber there have been simcopter, simant, ETC ETC that's all we are looking at with societies

i still believe we WILL see one more MAXIS-developed simcity once current projects are finished.

[Lambtropolis 0]

According to the EA press release today: "if players are feeling happy, they can build a Fun City filled with Ferris Wheels, Gingerbread Houses and Chocolate Factories!" Oh goody! What a disaster.

[nicoliani 3]

This is what EA does at it's best. Destroying and killing good games. Just like Sensible World Of Soccer failed because EA FIFA Soccer had the money and monopoly, they killed the creation of good soccer games and keeps on deliviring garbage each year of soccer. MAXIS where are youuuuuuu.

I was expecting a more advanced SC5, and this is the child garbage I get. Majkavi vasa

SC5 have not only killed SC5 it have also killed SC4. I just can't have a good time with it anymore.

Combined double post. ~ VT

[Gman55 0]

I wonder if the SimCity Societies collector's edition will come with a My Little Pony, Fairy Wand, and coupon for a Barbie doll.

[nicoliani 3]

Would SC fans play a new version of SIMS that would have a little similarities with Sim City? No we would stick with SC. So will SIMS fans find SC Societies interesting and play it. I don't think so. SIMS fans stick with SIMS. Societies will be a disaster for EA. Nobody will play it. I don't get how they think. It's just bad that the turned the back on their biggest fans. I really hope there will be a new developer very soon delivering what we want. Because I don't want anything with EA anymore.

[chocolate_city 93]

Lots a pretty cartoonish pictures... but not one of them has a freeway or a freeway interchange... talk about scaled down give me a serious break.... what major city doesn't have a freeway in it

[+Guest]

Anytime I've heard "taking the game in a new direction," "going back to the game's roots," or "making the game more accessible," those phrases have always and without exception carried another message. "Taking the game in a new direction" usually means, "we're following the direction of a larger profit margin." "Going back to the game's roots" usually means, "we'll be making drastic changes in an effort to reach a larger playerbase at the expense of current fans." And finally, "making the game more accessible" usually means, "removing all challenging complexity and dumbing everything down to meet the lowest common denominator."

From everything I've seen so far this looks like the difference between playing with real LEGO blocks and then switching to playing with kiddie DUPLO blocks. There are ways to add society and culture to SimCity and make the game more "accessible" without completely dismantling everything that current SimCity fans hold dear. As a player of SimCity since it's initial release in 1989 I'm sorry to say this is the first time I've ever been upset with the announcement of a new installment.

EDIT:  LOL  This is the first forum post I've made since I joined the site over 4 years ago.

[Dirktator 2,327]

Welcome, Jedi Merr, always nice to see a lurker pulled out into the light at last...

[The_Dalai_Llama 15]

Originally posted by: Jedi Merr LOL  This is the first forum post I've made since I joined the site over 4 years ago.quote>

 

Well you made it a good one, you've got the Dirktator^TM Seal of Approval.

I've noticed we're not alone in the disappointing knee-jerk reaction department.  We know Tilted Mill has gotten plenty of hate posts, but check out Gamespot, IGN, and other places with SCS coverage and you'll see disappointment and rage coming from fans in those forums, too.  There are the rare posts that approve of the simpler gameplay, but they are outnumbered by far.

[zzsim 3]

^ Agreed, I've checked out some of the reactions at gaming sites such as Gamespot and even the people that aren't die hard fans of the series are dissappointed. A lot of the general PC gaming crowd that have maybe only played one or two installements of the game, or even just the original, were shocked and dissmayed to hear that Maxis wasn't developing the game and that it would simplified in many respects. Also, I loved the opening couple of sentences of the IGN preview, even the main stream gaming journalists have taken note of the community's reaction.

[Deathamphetimine 2]

Dissapointment was my knee-jerk reaction. But after having some time to think about it, I'm still dissapointed. I wanted more micromanagement and detail, I wanted more realism, not this piece of overprocessed cheese. I mean, why is Maxis not involved? They started sim city, and if not for sim city, maxis wouldn't even be here right now. EA just dug the grave for this series by choseing Tilted Mill (who is Tilted Mill anyway?). This is comparable to getting a new pool on your house, insted of going with the professional pool installer with experence and insurance (Maxis,) they go with the unlicensed installer with crackhead workers (Tilted Mill) for less money. I think we all wanted more from this new game, and have been given less. I WANTED SUPER-FREEWAYS!!!!!!!!!! 18 lanes of shimmering traffic and huge stacked interchanges and HOV lanes. I just don't see that cartoon of a game having all that. Me sad

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I almost cried when I went looking for SC5 news and found SCS. That was Saturday, and it doesn't seem to be settling any easier. The words "Cartoon" and "Dumbed down" accurately depict my feelings about the whole thing.

In the IGN article, they mentioned that usually information on new games is kept under a tight lid prior to the E3 game show, but with this one they wanted to get word out ahead of time, presumably to drum up positive press beforehand. I happen to think that it was to avoid negative press at the actual show (where the gaming world will be with incredible attention), as now we have almost univesal disappointment at the direction a SimCity game is taking. Perhaps they think that when they get to IGN the negativity and knee-jerkiness will be behind them, and they can move forward without us.

It is really a turnoff the way this is being handled. When fans went to the Tilted Mill forums and complained, instead of being like, "Oh, you guys need to trust us, just give it a chance and play it when it comes out!" and being positive about their game, the Tilted Mill people got defensive, and basically said we didn't understand them, that we misinterpreted them. Perhaps I am overreacting, but this just seems like we are being talked down to as if we don't know any better.

My knee jerk reaction? I will not purchase SCS. I'll just save the $$ and buy Civilization IV Beyond the Sword instead...

[Thad 0]

I'm disappointed. My hopes for SC5 were:

1. Use SC4 as the foundation, fix the bugs, provide more zoning choices, incorporate NAM, etc etc.

2. Then have add-on modules (optionally running based on user choice) so that if you wanted to, you could simulate socio-economic groups (like City Life), or operate transportation networks (remember Transport Tycoon or A-Train, or Sid Meier's Railroads). How about building a ski resort in the mountains (think Ski Resort Extreme). Well I'm probably unrealistic due to the computing power required to do this)

What SCS sounds like to me is a totally new game which seems like a clone of City Life, which does have very good 3D graphics and I enjoy playing it but has some limitations such as no terrain modification, not much in the way of transportation networks, etc. I understand btw that City Life will come out with a new version.

[Jarzai 0]

My first thought was that they've done it again.

They -being the industry. It -being oversimplified yet another great series.

My continuing thoughts are much like Jedi Merr has said. This kiddie-fication of gaming is everywhere, and it discourages me. There's very few titles i look forward to anymore, and now there's one less. *sob*