Why reinvent the wheel?

[LivingInThePast 364]

Before I begin, let's get one thing straight: I'm not against multiplayer inherently. Done well, it could be a welcome addition to the franchise.

Now that's cleared up with, SimCity 2013 is already starting to create MAJOR problems, similar to how I viewed SimCity Societies.

SimCity 1989 was a great game for its time, and SimCity 2000 took everything about SimCity that was good and made it better. New graphics, new options, new things to fiddle around with, and backwards compatible to boot. It was truly a grand step for the series. SimCity 3000 Unlimited (not the original SC3K) was not my favorite, but introduced many new features into the SimCity system, but it also took some away. Finally, SimCity 4 was released, which was the one we know and love today. It was quite customizable but suffered bugs and a general feel of incompleteness (backwards compatibility was missing too).

Then The Sims 2 took over Maxis, and SimCity was pushed to the back burner. As early as 2004 development had started on a city builder from Maxis (according to Luc Barthelet, anyway) but looking back on forums, EA was looking for a "mitarbeiter" (which roughly translates to "employee" or "collaborator") and rumors were that Maxis thought SimCity had perhaps gotten too complicated. Then in 2007, SimCity Societies was announced and soon released, by Tilted Mill. Of course, SimCity Societies was a bastardized disaster and a dark mark for the franchise. Despite the "new direction" of the franchise, fans cried, it was given a collective shrug from the gaming press, and was mostly passed on by the general public. Evidence in the SimCity Societies files do have the suffix of .sc5, so perhaps this was the "original" SimCity 5.

Cities XL came and went, and that created some buzz for a while, but ultimately faded away into obscurity when the final product was a buggy mess and not at all what anyone expected, with the "later" releases from Focus Home fixing the most crucial bugs but little else.

Now Maxis is back and releasing SimCity, it's great.

But there's a problem: rather than taking everything that made SimCity 4 and improving it, I'm once again seeing things "in a new direction". There's constantly talk of "using limited resources" and "being specialized in one thing" based on the information we have so far, making it seem (almost) like some sort of bastard love child between SimCity Societies and Cities XL. Maxis is making a less complicated SimCity, but I'm worried about that. Does that mean I can't set tax rates, or set them between wealth levels? Will what I can build be crippled? It seems like more and more we can't do things like we used to.

Really, I'm sick of trying to trying to "take SimCity in an entirely new direction". Add a few new things in, improve what made the last one great, and give me my SimCity.

[johndoh4 13]

You know the response you will get is "You can't stand in the way of progress". That is the standard response; but I come from the school of thought that people are sometimes fooled into believing that something is progressing when in actuality it is really regressing.

  Edited March 23, 2012 by johndoh4  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

In some interview a long time ago Will Wright said they had programmed themselves into a box with SimCity 4. I think he meant that the idea bank was out of currency, and no more was in the offing.

Someone recently said that the new SimCity was a "reboot". I am beginning to wonder if it is not a "cold restart" instead. EA owns the name SimCity, and I truly hope they are not planning to drag it, yet again, through the mud.

Don't be in a rush to uninstall SimCity 4. There is no reason why all the SimCity games cannot co-exist. Usually it is better to ride a steady old mare than some new, half-broken stallion.

Everyone at Simtropolis seems to have high expectations. Everyone should read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

Optimism is all very well, but the ancient Greeks always said that hubris is surely followed by nemesis.

So, gather ye rosebuds while ye may, but the proof will be in the actual product. I am not prepared to pay eighty bucks for a pig in a poke as some already have. It might turn out to be a goat. So, while I may optimistically participate in these discussions, I am still laying in the weeds waiting for the experience of others before I commit.

It is easy to make flights of fancy with the paucity of information we have so far, but remember that all this hype may be mere puffing.

[emperordaniel 1,281]

According to PC Gamer's article, creating specialized towns (like a coal-mining town, a Las Vegas-style city, etc) will be optional; cities without any specific focus would still be possible, just like in SC4.

[johndoh4 13]

I feel that I should mention that I am cautiously optimistic about the new game. I am intrigued by some of the new features described by the developers, but it is too early to come to any sort of useful conclusion on the game. All we can do is follow the development, offer constructive criticism, hope that maybe some of the developers are reading the forums, and keep our fingers crossed.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

It will be far more complex but it will not be too complicated to play. I actually see good ideas taken from Boomtown, Cities XL, SimCity Societies, LinCity, and most importantly, SimCity 4 Rush Hour. I would not call it a bastard child, especially because the developers never looked at Tilted Mill's coding and frankly disagreed with Tilted Mill.

[Mark Waybill 242]

I believe Simcity Classic progressed when it became Simcity 2000. I believe in some areas it progressed, in others stagnated, and in others regressed, when it became 3000. I believe 4 was similar. I hope SC5/2013 will be the logical and worthy successor of 2000. I hope that we'll have a truly worthy game. As for taking it in a new direction this can be translated into hype and buzz, or it could mean something quite serious. From what i've read so far I am cautiouslyu optimistic regarding the game. However I will not say 'can't get in the way of progress' and turn a deaf ear and blind eye on someone who wishes to make a constructively negative comment regarding some aspect of the new game.

But one has hope, that, as Maxis is back, and Simcity is back, that if integrity and honesty and good old values like a brand name meaning something have returned also, we may have a truly great game and a worthy successor to 2000, whose replacement on the throne has been only grudgingly accepted as a necessity.