Hi everyone! My name is Meghan McDowell and I’m a producer on SimCity. I’ve worked at Maxis for eight years and I’m really pleased to be part of the new SimCity. Part of my role here at the studio is to shape the newly announced SimCity World feature.
If you didn’t have a chance to watch our Gamescom trailer explaining the feature, you can see it below.
As you can see, SimCity World is a collection of features that enhance a player’s game experience by connecting them with one another. Through Challenges, Leaderboards, and the Global Market, SimCity World lets Mayors shape their cities’ stories in different ways, connect and engage with each other, and contribute to a global SimCity community. We built the SimCity World features as a way to surface that interconnected world to the player and show them how their gameplay can be complemented by being a part of it.
Part of our way of doing that is through CityLog, the tool that allows players to connect, notify, and act on events in SimCity. CityLog will do a lot of things. It’ll allow you to see if your friends have founded new cities in regions that you can join. Or tell you that your friends have passed you on a leaderboard. If there’s a challenge going on in a region, it’ll show you your progress. It’ll even message any Global Market changes you may want to take advantage of. Lastly, it’ll let you know about any Achievements your friends are earning in case you want to strive to achieve the same ones. All of the messages you see in CityLog have an action you can take. You don’t have to act, but if you are looking for new and interesting ways to play (or just want to keep tabs on what your friends are doing), CityLog can help keep you up-to-date.
One of the new ways to play is through our regular challenges. Some of these challenges will be cooperative, where the entire world of SimCity can collaborate to reach a common goal. Other challenges are competitive, where regions compete against each other and vie to win exclusive rewards. Challenges are completely optional, but are a great way to prove to the world what kind of Mayor you are. They take strategy and coordination to succeed at. You can work alone, with your region, or with the entire community to complete them.
To coincide with challenges we also have leaderboards. There are many different types of leaderboards in the game and they encourage you to compete or simply to see how you compare to the rest of the Mayors in SimCity. They range from traditional leaderboards like biggest population, more deviant boards like biggest polluters, and competitive leaderboards like most profitable Casino City. You can compare yourself to the global SimCity community or to your friends. Right now, I’m gunning for the top of the crime leaderboards in the studio. I’m quite the lawless Mayor!
The Global Market makes up the last piece of SimCity World, and it is here where goods and resources can be bought and sold. The market will be moving depending on how our players are playing. Players can affect the Global Market by how they play. So if oil prices are up, players may decide to invest in oil drilling in their city so that they can profit from it by selling the goods to other players.
I’ll let our Lead Designer Stone Librande go into detail about how The Global Market works in his blog post coming up this Friday on SimCity Insider. Before I go, though, I just wanted to say I’m having a lot of fun playing SimCity and every day something fun, unexpected, and amazing goes on in the game. I’m excited for all of you to get your hands on it. See you on the leaderboard!
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Comments
*reading*
*reading*
"I’m excited all of you to get it in your hands on it."
*head explodes*
This all fine and dandy but
This all fine and dandy but why don't you give players a chance to control the spaces in between the cities if we play solo mode. We should be able to lay down our own highways/rail lines, build farmland, suburbs, or anything we please in between the spaces since it is solo mode.
Oh, wait I forgot. It is an online only game. I guess the only way that would work if players had the option to be online for multiplayer and to be offline for solo play. EA does not want that to happened
Sheesh, no wonder EA is up for sale again.
happen*
happen*
Get out, orp! This game is
Get out, orp! This game is too big for you.
Quick question indexea. Do
Quick question indexea. Do you work For EA? Or do you just make a hobby of trolling messages that oppose the planet offer (or whatever it is Maxis call it)?
I consider the repeatitive
I consider the repeatitive complaints about the game as the real troll spam.
and literally, if the music
and literally, if the music in that video was the in game sound track, then you screwed the game again with bad music. SC4 music was SO chill
You mean the best PC game at
You mean the best PC game at Gamescom Awards ruined the music? Damn... You must be 16.
Isn't the guy that worked on
Isn't the guy that worked on the SimCity 3000 soundtrack doing this game? That would explain why it has an upbeat sound to it.
Even though this game seems
Even though this game seems to be awesome, it would be nice to build between cities in solo play ourselves.
This sounds great as long as
This sounds great as long as it isn't like another log (Battlelog) in which it requires a web browser to be open constantly.
Thanks for posting and can't
Thanks for posting and can't wait to try this out in closed Beta.
Lovely new update, thanks for
Lovely new update, thanks for keeping us updated on SimCity. I'm looking forward to it, and hope I get into the posed beta.
Thanks for the update. I am a
Thanks for the update. I am a little concerned however that this all sounds a bit 'facebook-y' - needing other players to get items, things like that... I hope that it doesn't rely on connecting to other users.
Wouldn't a solution to the
Wouldn't a solution to the inability to build our own regions be if instead of only having the option to build a city, we could have a region, which is then connected to other peoples regions on the global scale. That way we are still all connected, and we all get the option to build our own metropolises of connected cities within our own regions??? That would definitely sort it out for me and make the game 100%!
Oh God no! That would be one
Oh God no! That would be one big geography mess!
Now we await all the negative
Now we await all the negative comments from people.
This looks completely awesome! And you'll probably find more things will be added after the release in patches and updates - so things like "controlling in between cities" and where transportation networks link to, could be possible. At least, I read something like "Maybe one day" on one of the developers twitters.. think it was Ocean Quigley's.
The online aspect is great, as long as EA don't close the servers 5 years down the road, then this will be a super awesome simcity. I couldn't care less about the challenges, I like doing what I want in SimCity.
I think at the contrary
I think at the contrary SimCity is a game that could have a very long lifetime, that's almost a requirement in itself, you can play a shooter and move on, but if you are building a city it is supposed to last, so I'm not too worried about that. Especially seeing the graphisms and features, they are probably aiming to be making many expansions. They didn't name it "SimCity X" but SimCity implying "this title is serious". Obviously it could still be a flop and they could move on quickly, but with what I've seen so far, that will not happen.
SimCity World was really what I was hoping for in the new SimCity, it sounds awesome with endless possibilities... Crime leaderboards / Casinos and such, I like how they spice it up a little bit, instead of being overly too serious, while still having a realistic game. More freedom. Corrupted mayors, why not. Gives even more pride to the good mayors for not falling into the dark side. I need to see more.
I'm very excited over the new
I'm very excited over the new SimCity game and am very optimistic that Maxis will deliver a worthy successor to Sim City 4. However, I am concerned about the online-only aspect of the game on two points.
Say the game isn't viable in the long term and the decision is made by the powers that be to shut down the SimCity servers, will there be a patch to allow offline mode?
Another thing I am curious about, there are some who prefer to play sandbox style (using money generating lots, etc to ensure a constant stream of income) How does Maxis/EA plan on dealing with this, since it would throw off the SimCity World economy? I don't think it would be fair to ban/punish them, since that should be one of the "Millions of ways to play".
I'm loving the new SimCity
I'm loving the new SimCity and can't wait to try it, though I, like many in the Sim City community do have some valid concerns about the online-only aspects of the game.
In the event the new game isn't profitable, and the decision is made to shut down the servers, will there be a patch issued to make the game playable offline?
Another concern I have is what about the player who enjoys playing an entire region sandbox-style. Obviously using a "money-tree" lot would throw off the SimWorld economy. Will there be a way to have sandbox-style cities perhaps disconnected from the economy? This should be considered one of the "Millions of Ways to Play" since as far as I've known Sim City, sandboxing cities has been a way to play. I have done this, and I am sure a few others have done this, both as a way to create interesting cities, and to get to know the controls quicker.
First let me say SimCity is
First let me say SimCity is shaping up to be a very interesting and great-sounding game. However, that being said, I have some concerns about the online-only aspects of the game.
First: in the event the game is unprofitable and EA decides to shut down the servers, will there be a patch to enable offline play?
Second: How does Maxis plan to handle those who prefer to play the game in a sandbox mode? That has been a way to play SimCity for as long as it has been around. I don't think that should be any different now.
First let me say SimCity is
First let me say SimCity is shaping up to be a very interesting and great-sounding game. However, that being said, I have some concerns about the online-only aspects of the game.
First: in the event the game is unprofitable and EA decides to shut down the servers, will there be a patch to enable offline play?
Second: How does Maxis plan to handle those who prefer to play the game in a sandbox mode? That has been a way to play SimCity for as long as it has been around. I don't think that should be any different now.
Also, has anyone else had trouble with this site on Firefox?
oops, feel free to delete the
oops, feel free to delete the duplicate comments and this one, my firefox was screwing up
Stop crying people, and just
Stop crying people, and just wait for the real Sim City 5 to come out. This one is obviously not a true in like successor the the series, so just wait for Sim City 5 instead of Sim City.
I don't understand how it's
I don't understand how it's not a true successor when it has everything SimCity should have -- just with online aspects.
Well for one thing they said
Well for one thing they said many times before that this is not SimCity 5. Which gives them the excuse to do whatever EA wants to do to the game even if even if it turns off the majority of their core fan base.
If they called it SimCity 5 then people would have a much higher expectations and much harder criticism to the game. EA/Maxis was smart by not calling this SimCity 5.
Well for one thing they said
Well for one thing they said many times before that this is not SimCity 5. Which gives them the excuse to do whatever EA wants to do to the game even if even if it turns off the majority of their core fan base.
If they called it SimCity 5 then people would have a much higher expectations and much harder criticism to the game. EA/Maxis was smart by not calling this SimCity 5.
so why wasn't this made
so why wasn't this made optional? I don't ever remember in the past 10 years anyone saying "i'd really like to see the next SimCity be an online multiplayer resource tycoon game"...
EA, I hope Valve buys you so
EA, I hope Valve buys you so that you can get rid of Origin. Nobody likes it except those who haven't used Steam. PUt THIS GAME ON STEAM!
I'm a bit worried about these
I'm a bit worried about these social features of SimCity. I'm very excited to get this game when it will be available and it sound great but the problem is that this game starts to seem like a new WoW. It takes all your attention and time if you want to play it right and if you want to succeed. Can one play it two hours in a week and still can manage to build up his/her city successfully? I'm saying that at least I don't have time to play this game 10 hours a day even if I want to. I want to play it but it must be playable even if I play it every now and then. Do I lose some advantages if I don't play it every day? There will be players who does play it many hours every day. How those players are affecting the economics, market and other things that are shared between players in a game? Do they have some kind of advantage? If so, I'm not able to play this game as old SimCities where I did not need to worry about how are surrounding cities affecting to my city when I'm not playing.
Hopefully somone understands my message :)
It's friday, WHERE IS THE
It's friday, WHERE IS THE POST ON SIMCITY INSIDER? I wannnnnaa see itttt.
Really excited. Thank you!
Really excited. Thank you!
It's a shame the cities are
It's a shame the cities are in physical bubbles, i.e. little 4km squared cities surrounded by, well, nothing! Give those with more powerful systems the option to have 8km and even 16km squared maps Maxis, rather than limiting everyone to puny, pathetic maps just because a minority have less powerful systems! GIVE US CHOICE!
What a shame! I went from
What a shame! I went from holding out hope that we just haven't heard enough to the realization that this is it. Well at least I am beginning to get over it and accept that I'll be playing SC4 for the forseeable future.
Until I have: 1.God mode Region terraforming 2.Offline Single Player Sandbox Regions and 3. Large, Medium and Small Cities in those regions I will not buy. 4. Subways
Not only am I not buying this but I am not buying Madden, FIFA or any other of my usual EA titles. I'll stick to old SimCity4 and Bethesda titles that still allow me to play solo. I am social enough in real life. I like to be able to escape from annoying people with my games, especially SimCity. The only thing that MMO games have done for me is drive me further and further from gaming.
i think there will be an off
i think there will be an off-line mode, a terraform mode, and i'm guessing subways. be more optimistic: just because other people are on doesn't mean you have to talk to them or acknowledge their presence. anyways, look at the bright side: they probably fixed the zoom-click error!
I totally agree with you! It
I totally agree with you! It's as if the entire gaming world has decided they no longer want money from people like you and me! I used to spend a lot of money on games. I'm older and better-off than I used to be, and have even more money I'd love to throw at ANY company that will write great solo off-line games!!! If you force me to use some kind of online garbage like Origin or Steam, you can forget me giving you a dime. Especially because companies often take a "this is for your own good" condescending attitude about the online connections. If it were really for our benefit, they'd let us opt-out if we don't want it. My wife loves the approach the companies have taken, however, because I don't spend any money or time on games any more!!
I'm all positive with the way
I'm all positive with the way EA is driving this game. This online gameplay would be beneficial for a game that's supposed to last, just don't shut down the servers.
SimLog, Global Market, Sim
SimLog, Global Market, Sim World, GlassBox... sheesh, just call it "SimCity 5" and be done with all this overuse of tech buzzwords nobody cares about. I'm a career tech geek and former game producer, and my head is already exploding at all these cutesy tech buzzwords. I'm playing a game, not developing an operating system.
Forgot to add: if this game
Forgot to add: if this game is online only, I won't buy it. Bad, bad, bad move. Not everybody is connected to the Internet 24/7, nor do we want to be.
Hmm it sounds like they put a
Hmm it sounds like they put a lot of thought and work into the multiplayer aspect but didn't focus much on the solo-play part too much.
That is disappointing because I hate online city games! They should change the name of this game, because simcity has always been a single player game.
I wish they would just make a REAL simcity 5.
I don't mind the online-only
I don't mind the online-only aspect so much. It is not something I am excited about, but it is not a deal breaker. I am a little worried about the direction the game is taking though. Seems more and more like a semi-real time business strategy game, where your "city" is really just base of sorts. A peaceful Command & Conquer maybe? Realism is taking a back seat. Do real mayors really handle mining, gathering resources, import, and export of raw materials and such? Don't get me wrong - I am sure it will be a fun game to play and I am looking forward to it. But when it comes to building real cities, I'll stick with SimCity 4.
Thanks for telling me all the
Thanks for telling me all the things I can do in "World Feature"...
...but I don't want leaderboards.
...and I don't want to take part in challenges.
...and I don't care about other people's achievements.
...and I don't want world markets to be shifting based on what other players are doing.
...and I don't want to compete for exclusive rewards.
...and I really don't give a flying flip what "my friends" are doing on the game.
Come me a recluse, but all I want, REAL SIMPLE, is to play the damn game BY MYSELF!!!!
Come on, Maxis, PLEASE tell us, in plain and simple language, that there will be a fully-playable solo option!!!
I am not trying to be negative or overly critical... I totally respect all those who say they like your 'world feature', but I just want an option to turn it all off. Along with many other people, this one's a dealbreaker for me.
Ball's in your court, Maxis!
Building between cities would
Building between cities would mean some fools doing multiple highways for no reason or writing letters with rails. You guys must understand they have to build a game which will protect the creativity of those who really have any.
But one thing scares me, no one talks about climate! Will there be no climate? I want rainy days and snowstorms which cancel all flights! :(
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