astralis

Just because CityLife is in 3D and not very good doesn't mean SimCity in 3D won't be good. After all, Spore is in 3D. Maxis knows where they have to go and they can do it. More importantly, the gameplay is still essential. Simply making SimCity4 in 3D is NOT going to work. Gamers have "been there, done that". They will have to reevaluate their entire strategy and start from scratch. I have more confidence in Maxis and will not compare CityLife to what Maxis can do.

The next SimCity should revisit its roots and start from scratch. The idea was to show how cities developed and placed you in the middle as the urban planner to grow your own city by deciding on taxes, industries, and environment. This is still a great starting point. City management, though, also includes political decisions we must make. Combining aspects of the Sims and SimCity into a real online 3D city (and a powerful AI system for those who prefer single player) where people choose professions, build their businesses, run for office, make political decisions, and help grow the city is where the next SimCity should go. For example, if anyone has played Vice City, San Andreas, or similar games, you can see that 3D cities have exisited for years in very good detail. SimCity needs to take it to that level and above and also place it online where the users build and govern it with other real players you can see and interact with in the game. When you start a game, it would be very elementary. Perhaps the only things that exist are the raw resources that one needs to survive: shelter and food (that is trees, rock, plants and animals). Your goal is to collect the resources you need to become prosperous and influential for yourself and your family. As in real life, each person fills a role that provides a service that is required such as a farmer, a hunter, a builder, a leader, a soldier, a watchman, etc. There would be many other positions that can be created if the users decide. Government is structured however the players see fit. It develops naturally. So, if the users decide on a monarchy where it's led by one person then that's the way it goes (more than likely because someone has more resources than someone else). Revolution, though, can come if the users take over the leader or they decide to establish a council or assassinate the ruler. People can die in the game (but it would still be an arcade game after all and can come back but would lose resources). So, we would need police to patrol for criminals and criminal behavior and courts to prosecute them. We would also want to provide the rules that the police can and cannot do to keep them in check. As we gather more resources, we know that we cannot build our own houses and grow our own food and protect ourselves. We have to work together. So, people start establishing themselves into careers they do best. For example, starting a construction company that builds buildings. Or being a real estate broker that sells the houses. Or maybe your government decides that housing is free. Or starting an agricultural conglomerate to grow and process food. Or down the chain as a grocer on a corner or owning a chain of grocery stores that distribute food. Innovation and development then begins and the city grows. To keep buildings in check, the council creates an inspection department. A justice system fines people and imprisons them for not obeying the council. Or maybe you want to live the life of a criminal and rob people. Or maybe you want to see what it's like to be a police officer and patrol and arrest criminals and also investigate crimes. Or maybe be a judge to determine who is guilty based on evidence. Each of these careers involves the people in the game. The police arrest the criminals, collect evidence to prosecute them, and the judges determine who is guilty. Collecting the evidence would be a game in itself. But this is what makes a city survive. The city council can decide to place video cameras on the streets and at intersections. People can place them in their homes. Fingerprints. Later, time progresses and more innovations become available to discover and process new resources such as oil (plastics), metal, etc... you can build cars, or sell cars on a small car lot. Or you can build ships or sail ships transporting the cars. Like in real life, if you build something, you have to get it somewhere. What happens if someone doesn't follow the rules? Like in real life, if they're not enforced then they don't work. The city must learn how to do this and create the system that works best for them. Otherwise, it would be anarchy. For example, airflight will eventually be invented. Managing how people get to fly by providing pilot licenses so newbies don't plough into your house over and over (if they did, it would be a real loss in the game) or load the plane with 20 people who are just trying to get to their destination and die. Without these mechanisms, cities disintigrate into chaos. These same mechanisms would exist in the game and the users decide what they are. Media would also become invented and people can run news services. The billboards, newspapers, radio, television, phones, etc... can be central to the game, especially during campaigns for Mayor and Council (if the city decides on a democracy, of course). Learning how to control disasters (do you have an evacuation plan?), protests (must they ask for a permit?), blight (can you build a highway through a neighborhood without permission? what if it's your house the mayor is trying build over?), are all part of the game and central to the roots of SimCity but on a more interactive scale by placing us in the middle of the world, all online. Do you want to live next to a railroad? How to stop it? Maybe you want to own the railroad. Or just be an engineer? Or be on the contruction crew building it. The worse thing that can happen to a city or government is anarchy. Look at what happened in New Orleans. The city management has to take control of their cities and keep anarchy from happening by establishing a powerful police force, surveillance, tough laws, and tough judges, prisons and even executions. Or you can forgo that for a peaceful utopia. But for example, if you decide to run your car into someone's house. You will have to pay for the damage. If you run over someone in the street, you can be prosecuted and can sit in jail or pay a fine (after all, it is an "arcade" game and the person will come back to life). But, you can also outrun the police but they may have helicopters, or spotted your license plate and will come to your house to arrest you. Or you can forever be on the run. So many possibilities. This is where I see SimCity needing to go and our technology is now at the level to do it. SimCity4 is practically a mini-game in some of the new games that are out and game players are maturing in what they expect from games. Maxis can provide the tools for the users to create and play in these cities they create and govern.