Kyle Orland on a game that looks like Sim City but is in fact a mindless, pointless treadmill: "judged by the relatively low standards of CityVille clones, SimCity Social actually isn't a half-bad example". [Ars]

  • Bersl

    Strange, the only losing move is not to play.

    At least, within the context of the simulation.

  • Ed Ligget. Tuba.

    Isn’t referring to most social networking games as “mindless, pointless treadmills” a bit redundant?

  • Thomas Valley

    The problem with BB’s take on this is that the proper headline is “Kyle Orland thinks SimCity Social is Horrible.”

    The game itself, as social networking games go, is quite nice.

    • SamSam

      It sounds truly horrible to me. It takes the stock Zynga trademark of 1) nothing bad ever happens, 2) making things unpleasant (extra time to build, building permits required, etc.) unless you pay real money, and 2) forcing you to spam all your friends walls.

      But I haven’t played it, so what’s your counter-review? Is it any more “social-networking” than FarmVille or Mob Wars or whatever the kids are playing these days?

    • http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

      I think it’s horrible.

      • http://twitter.com/Theranthrope Theranthrope

        Too abstract. Tell me what you really think… in terms a child, or caveman, or libertarian would understand.

  • binarymutant

    I’m still on OpenTTD

  • scatterfingers

    I remember getting far enough along in Sim City 4 that it seemed like a pointless treadmill too.

  • http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

    If you think this is bad, wait til you see what EA has done with the upcoming SimCity 5.
    It’s a dark, cold winter for fans of the franchise.

    • Mac

       What? Do you know something about SimCity 5 that we don’t?  What has EA done with the next version of SimCity?  From what I saw, it looks incredible.

      • SoItBegins

         There’s no single-player mode. You need a perpetual internet connection even if you are not linking your city to the ‘cloud’.

  • RJ

    I’m of the opinion that sim-anything is a mindless, pointless treadmill.

    • rrh

      It’s okay, just simulate something that’s not mindless.

  • http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

    Guess what? The rabble of the world has joined us on the internet in the last five years. These are the kinds of games they want to play.

    • SoItBegins

       They don’t. They really don’t. Look up ‘Skinner box’ sometime.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000500177841 Rachel Banzhaf

    I get into the Zynga games occasionally. I tried the SimCity game. It’s terrible. Of course Cityville is terrible as well, so maybe that’s what they were going for. I haven’t enjoyed a Sim City game since the SNES. I was hoping this one would be near that level. Alas.

    • Bersl

      “I haven’t enjoyed a Sim City game since the SNES.”

       Not even SC2000?

  • uturn

    The same kind of concept turned into a neat little demonstration of how low-carbon/sustainability planning can work. While the costs might not be closely linked to reality (that aspect can be debated forever) it gives some nice insights into the trade-offs that may need to be made in future cities.

    http://www.enercities.eu/ 

  • http://www.facebook.com/altieri43 Nick Altieri

    i like it