Strategy Informer: SimCity Societies Interview Strategy Informer: SimCity has traditionally explored and focused around the delicate financial planning of urban development, everything the player did or planned to do would have to be weighed up against the cities books. Will Societies continue the great battle for a budget in the black or has the heat been turned down? What about taxes? EA: What makes Paris different from New York? The interesting differences arent in their tax structures. In SimCity Societies we encourage the players to think about a city as more than just taxes and bricks. Weve introduced a new kind of currency: societal values that you must manage and plan around. We are dealing with the citizens, individual Sims and their happiness; money is however still critical in building your city if Sims are not put to work, you will run in the red, etc... Strategy Informer: One of the greatest moments of SimCity has always been to take a step back and see your creation organically evolve, neighbourhoods sprouting new homes, corporations building their mega towers it showed the player that they were making good Mayoral choices. Will Societies be able to capture that feeling now that players can no longer zone? EA: As with most things in SimCity Societies, the answer is yes but in a whole new way. Lets step back for a moment and think about zoning. Zoning implies a spectrum from primitive to developed. When a city becomes taller and more dense in a zoning system, the player could feel that the city was better. It can be a satisfying system, but it only operates along that one-dimensional spectrum. In SimCity Societies, you can take your city in many different directions. The game is non-judgmental. There are many ways to have a successful game experience. You can still be a benevolent Mayor acting in ways calculated to keep your people happy and your city coffers full. You can also be successful running a quiet agricultural community, where money flows in and out more slowly. And you can be successful running an Authoritarian regime, where you force people to continue working by brainwashing them. In that kind of free-wheeling creative environment, the preconceived idea of progress inherent in zoning would be limiting. And yet, the city does indeed evolve and respond to your decisions. The more you push into a coherent and well-defined type of society, the more the city reflects your choices back to you. For example, in a spiritual city, more and more people will wear robes and walk about sedately. In an amusement-oriented city, you may see ecstatic Sims kicking up their heels as they jaunt about. The street lamps in an Authoritarian city sprout surveillance cameras. In an Industrial city they become spiky wrought-iron poles. There are a host of subtle and satisfying ways that the city reflects back at you the choices you make building it. Read the Interview
