Cities XL and Immersion

[Jeiman2008 21]

I've now played Cities XL for two months and I am a Planet Offer Subscriber.  I play both offline and online versions of the game, and so far I am having fun with it.  I have one specific criticism of my gameplay experience so far:  Lack of immersion.  My city doesn't 'feel' enough like a real city.  I am feeling a very distinct lack of Narrative, Sensory, and Community immersion while playing the game.

Narrative Immersion:  I feel very little sense of narrative immersion while playing.  I understand this is what city journals can accomplish and that the player is certianly capable of creating his or her own narrative immersion

through a City Journal.  However, there is a big lack of any type of in game city narrative.  There is no fanfare or celebrations when new buildings are unlocked and milestones are reached.  I don't see cement trucks or construction

workers show up when I place a zone, the buildings just pop up in seconds (with the obvious exception of Megastructures).  There are population and industry/commerce milestones, however there are no timeline milestones.

I have no frame of reference for a city birthday or anniversary and a diminished frame of reference when comparing the progress of one city to another.

Sensory Immersion:  When I look over my city from above, it looks like it could be a real city, but I don't hear any cars honking, general rumble of busy traffic,  aircraft taking off, or school bells ringing and children screaming.  In satellite views where you can no longer see the traffic, the lack of ambient sound makes the city feel somewhat lifeless.  I also yearn for more flexibility in controlling the elevation of the camera when I zoom in to follow cars or check out the city from different angles.  Some angles seem impossible to achieve because I can't control the elevation other than moving on top of a building.  The process of building is by far the most fun aspect of gameplay for me, especially the road system.  I can spend hours just designing roads or trying to find the absolute best fit for zones within my roads.  It's when I stop building to look around (all the road building/park plopping/bulldozing sounds stop) that it feels most lifeless.

Community Immersion:  While playing I don't feel very connected with other players.  Much of the time I'm too occupied designing roads to pay much attention to chat.  City Journals currently seem to be the best way to bring players a

sense of community so far and I think MC has done a good job with City Journals.   I'm really not sure what exactly they could do to promote more community interaction, but I have a few ideas.  I think what's missing most is a better

means of comparison and  competition between players cities.  MMO players love to compare each others progress, equipment, abilities, talent builds and such.  I think players of an MMO City builder would be more hooked by having

more distinct comparisons between their cities and more specific milestones to attain.  Who hasn't said or thought "My city is better than your city because _____?"  We all like to stand out and be noticed.  How many City

Journals do you see where the player is so excited about his city that he feels the need to create several journal entries in one day?  It almost screams "Hey! My city is cool, notice me!"  The Community Highlights have been great so

far, and a good step in this direction, but it lacks something.  Any mayor would love to have his city in that section, give em an idea of how to be noticed in a similar way.  "The possibility to take part in various events and competitions, set up specialization strategies for your cities, build megastructures with other players, compete for rankings." -  Where are those events and competitions?   Maybe something like "Who can make a one million population city with a positive cashflow in the least amount of time?"  Or perhaps we could have an avatar party on Omnicorp Island, and everyone can throw rotten eggs at Don Madallf

In closing I'd like to say that this post isn't meant to fuel negativity toward the game, lord knows simtropolis has seen have enough of that.  Like many others here I simply feel that the game has great potential, and I want to

see it improve.  I believe things like improving the immersive aspect of gameplay and bringing players more ways to interact and compete would presently be the best way to improve the game and keep the community interested.