Before The Sims took the world by storm, Maxis were known for their quirky simulators. Be that SimAnt, SimCopter or the mother of ‘em all, SimCity. However, the series has been on hiatus ever since the disastrous 2014 reboot of SimCity which petered out into obscurity. But I think the time is right for another SimCity to complement The Sims!
SimCity deserves its flowers for being one of the most iconic series of all time, a cornerstone of Maxis catalogue and for being to citybuilders what Civilization was to 4X strategy. While The Sims may be the defining example of building a complex social drama of family and friends, SimCity saw you taking responsibility for your own living, breathing metropolis.
Sim Broadway
Okay, but why else should we want to see this franchise return? Well, think of some of the best cross-game mechanics that the Sims franchise has boasted. Stuff like SimCopter allowing you to explore a 3D render of your SimCity 2000 cities for example, or MySim mode in SimCity 4 allowing your user-created Sims from The Sims to join your city, or import neighbourhoods into The Sims 2.
Essentially, SimCity was a part of what I’d argue was the core appeal of the Sims franchise. And with the broader scale of many player’s Sim households and beyond, the next logical step is to take it back to a city scale. Heck, there was even a planned spinoff called Simville that I didn’t even know existed before this article, which focused on a town-level stepping stone between SimCity and The Sims.
Skylines
“But-”, I may hear you ask, “-what about Cities: Skylines?” Well, look, I love Cities: Skylines. But at the same time as much as I may grouse about EA, few have as er, “intense” of a DLC-focused business model as Paradox Interactive. Add onto that the fact that stuff like traffic tends to take up most of your time, and I think many of us would love a simpler, more fun and lightweight return to the citybuilding genre.
And just to pre-empt the argument that there isn’t enough interest amongst players around the SimCity franchise, I’d point to the fact that SimCity 4 remains hugely popular amongst modders, and even considered superior to City: Skylines in many aspects by players!
So while The Sims may now have competition in the form of life sims like Inzoi, I think that it still has one advantage over them with the ability to have a kind of interconnected universe.
So, you now know what I think. But what about you? Imagine not just navigating premade maps for your new plots in The Sims 4, but creating your own neighbourhoods and districts! Imagine tracking your own family of Sims as they exist amongst a sea of other names and faces. In my opinion, now is the right time to step back into the past as the next move to the future.
