On Simcity and The Genre and Future of City Simulation

City simulation will never likely become more of a financially successful genre than role playing games, first person shooters and arcade games and puzzle games. But Simcity was one of the most popular games. This indicates that just because one in every two trillion games has a tiny chance of being within the genre in question, it does not mean that the genre is unpopular, merely that it is only a small part of the game world.

A small, and yet in my opinion very important, part. With most games coming out now featuring car racing, street fighting, alien shooting, and fantasy adventures, there is little space on the video game store shelves devoted to simulation games. Whilst The Sims was one of the biggest selling games of all time, and simulation is a genre spanning many sub genres and catering for nearly all interests (Technically any video game is a simulation of a scenario of some sort) it seems most gamers and the general public are more fond of shooting aliens than building cities.

A pitiable observation I would add, as simulation games form the most intelligent and creative part of gaming, that part which is not contained within the bounds of predictability in that rut of obvious and mundane action and reaction that would make the torturer water at the mouth. Instead city simulation in particular is a highly advanced and civilized genre of gaming, focusing on character at its highest peak, that of environmental character, rather than the somewhat archaic and savage human character or character of battle.

SimCity is of course the city simulator, and as such it must be looked at to get a good understanding of the growth of the genre in recent years. It began as a project known as Micropolis by Will Wright in the 1980s, and was released as SimCity (Now re released as freeware under its original name as part of the one laptop per child project) in the late 80s. A success, it spawned a number of somewhat less deserving titles such as SimEarth with simplistic gameplay, although we must remember the times constraints when judging these early DOS toys.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Of course its successor Simcity 2000 was a big hit, and is my favorite of the series. Released in the early 90s it is my favorite video game. When I first played it in 2003 I was very favorably impressed, and bought Simcity 4 the next year with high expectations. I will not say I was unimpressed by 4, but it was not of such quality as 2000, of that I am sure. Simcity 3000, released in 1999, I have also played since then, and it is fine but also not as good with gameplay and character as Simcity 2000.

Image via Wikipedia

Simcity 2000 in my opinion remains the pinnacle of the series, with such character and gameplay deserving of great applause. Its successors, whilst they tried to uphold the genre, are somewhat wanting in many areas, no doubt due to the limitations of technology and of financial resources. In 2007, however all this stopped.

With the anticipation near boiling point Simcity Societies was released. It, to say the least, is a weak crooked old man compared with its strong predecessors, and feebly walks about with a limp and weary smile, attempting to convey the same airs and graces of its relations but to no avail. In my opinion 2007 was a very dark year for the genre indeed.

With the release by competitor company Monte Cristo of Cities Unlimited and recently of Cities XL, we see how weak and feeble the competitors to Wright and Maxis are. Indeed it could be said that Societies was the death knell of this fine and formerly highly reputable genre, the blame resting in unknown quarters although I highly suspect that the mention by Wright of changing the style of the game to suit new players had something to do with it.

And so, since that time many projects to create community built city simulation games have arisen, to varying success. Putting aside Simutrans as it deals more with transportation simulation although certainly it shares many features with its city building brethren, we analyse LinCity and find a pathetic weakling. We analyse OpenCity and there too we see a weak success. Cityscape and other countless projects all seem to be but pedestrians in the pursuit of being motor cars.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

The best hope for the genre in my opinion is an open source non commercial project called CityMania at present in development. The team members seem very loyal to the cause and committed, and some have useful skills in programming. Will this project ever create Simcity 5? Only time will tell, but for now I shall wearily pursue my own feeble project Virtucity with the manner of a tired warrior ready for victory but seeing none on the horizon.