SimCity Societies

SimCity Societies
Developer(s)	Tilted Mill Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Release date(s)	November 13, 2007
Genre(s)	City building simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player
Platform(s)	PC
Ratings	ESRB: E10+
Series	SimCity

SimCity Societies is a game developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released on November 13, 2007. This game is now confirmed to be a spin-off of the SimCity series.^{[citation needed]}

Summary

Unlike its predecessors, SimCity Societies combines the genre of social-engineering with that of city-building. This same concept of combining the two genres was introduced in Monte Cristo's City Life, which had the player have six socioeconomic cultures dwell in the same city to strive for diversity. Unlike City Life, SimCity Societies involves six different societal social energies that the player can pick and choose from to the make the player's ideal society.

Some changes to the core gameplay were made in order to simplify the game and make it easier for new players to enjoy. Zoning was removed; instead, players simply build whichever buildings they want. Players no longer need to build power lines and pipes, and transportation has become more simplified. Because of the changes to the original series formula, some SimCity fan reception to the game has been negative.

The city looks and behaves according to the social energies the player decides to develop within the city. The player has the ability to mix and match from one to all six of the social energies in a single city making for, what the game developers say, a very unique gaming experience.

There are over 350 buildings in the game. Certain buildings increase certain social energies, contributing to the city's total. Certain buildings have a chance of turning a normal citizen into something different. For example, a bar has a small chance of turning a citizen into a criminal while a church may produce a preacher. Also, the cities are divided into different styles: Contemplative, Romantic (European), Industrial, Fun City, Capitalist, Normal, Small Town, Cyberpunk and Authoritarian.

The game is also customizable. The building specs are stored in XML files for easy modification. A version of BAT was planned, though it did not ship with the game.

Societies

In SimCity Societies there are also, as the title suggests, Societies. Players can choose to build societies using a special filter:

• Authoritarian
• Cyberpunk
• Capitalistic
• Contemplative
• Industry
• Romantic
• Fun City
• Small Town
• Haunted ^(Hidden)
• Normal
• Family Entertainment ^{(Destinations)}
• Adventure ^{(Destinations)}
• First Spot ^{(Destinations)}
• Spiritual Asylum ^{(Destinations)}
• Forced Relaxation ^{(Destinations)}

Energies

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• Prosperity -e.g. Money: Influence your city towards consumer culture and corporate capitalism, many venues are retail venues which gives things which make your Sims happy.
• Authority - e.g. The Man: Influence your city towards mass surveillance and brainwashing, many buildings are big and expensive but have a huge capacity, and are also more focused towards brainwashing rather than happiness.
• Knowledge - e.g. Information: Knowledge tends to give hi-tech buildings, and usually mixes with other values to get the best effects (Prosperity or Authority).
• Spirituality - e.g. God Squad: The influence of spiritually varies from a kind of rural settlement to an oriental village, always focused on spiritual happiness and leisure time (Often short workweeks).
• Productivity - e.g. Factories: Productivity leans your city towards poverty, high crime, liquor related buildings and long workweeks in factories.
• Creativity - e.g. Art Student: Creativity makes cities go from a bohemian-university town to a surreal theme park city, producing many high quality venues and special entertainment Sims.

Disasters

There are only 3 disasters in the core game, but updates have added more disasters.

• Earthquake - The ground shakes, damaging buildings or even causing them to collapse.
• Killer Storm - Causes damage to buildings, and may also start fires due to lightning strikes.
• Meteor Shower - Can also been seen in the introduction video. Damages and causes buildings to collapse.
• Burger Robot (update) - Also known as Burgerzoint 6000. Burns and causes lots to collapse. Can also be spawned via cheat code.
• Monster (update) - Also known as Ornithosaurous Wrecks. Burns and causes lots to collapse. If the Destinations expansion is installed, it can also be seen in introduction video.
• UFO (update) - Also known as Flying Disks. May either demolish buildings or set them on fire. Can also be seen in the Destinations introduction video.
• Fire - May damage or destroy a building and injure a Sim living there as well as making them homeless. These can be stopped with an action from the nearest fire station.
  • Note this is one of two only disasters that is automatically triggered, illness being the other one. However, cheats are available to allow the player to burn buildings.

Climate related disasters

• Drought
• Tsunami
• Heat Wave
• Fire
• Storm
• Alien invasion (update)

Response and Criticism

The game generally received mixed reviews. Some said that this game was too different, while some praised it. Most response was negative, because of the nontraditional and overly simplified gameplay. Due to poor optimization, the game was unplayable or broken on lower and mid range machines at the time and required a computer that exceeded even the recommended system requirements to play comfortably.