Was it Really That Bad?

Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor

3) Living and Breathing Sims

A huge difference between the two games comes in the form of opportunities. Taken from The Sims, these mini quests offer potentially huge monetary benefits for accomplishing milestone goals, such as gathering a certain number of sims into a church, or raising a certain dollar amount from gambling. Speech bubbles will pop up around the city offering these quests, and they can make the world seem just a little more lived in. 

Tourists will actively seek out ways to spend money, but they need hotels to stay at or they’ll leave too soon. Kids will skip school if the bus doesn’t reach them in time, or they’ll get in trouble if it takes too long getting to class.

A major plus for Maxis is reporting on issues. When a building is abandoned in Cities, the only information given is that the building is abandoned and is now a fire hazard. This can make it frustratingly difficult to pinpoint problems in the city. In Maxis’ game, details about the building are given to explain why the occupants chose to run away. Sometimes it is as simple as a fire leaving the home unsafe to live in, while other time it can be a more complex chain reaction. But this information is critical in understanding the ebb and flow of the city, and helps players make the changes needed to keep their sims happy and healthy. 

In Cities, the only way to affect change is to continually plop down services buildings until a metric is met and the citizens rejoice. In SimCity, it can be more complex and unique than that.