I’ve been a fan of the SimCity series ever since I found a copy of an original SimCity on a Macintosh I inherited at work in the 1990s. Creator Will Wright had trouble finding a publisher for SimCity back in the 1980s as the game was an oddity with no win-or-lose goals. He and Jeff Braun eventually founded Maxis to release SimCity. The Sim-franchise grew, reaching a pinnacle when The Sims became the best-selling PC game ever. The people-oriented Sims continues to grow with expansion packs and spin-offs. And now Will Wright is occupied with the ultimate life simulator, Spore. To continue SimCity, Maxis’ parent company EA (who acquired them in 1997) decided to hand the reins over to Tilted Mill Entertainment, creators of Caesar IV.

Tilted Mill took to heart the criticism that the SimCity sequels had become increasingly complex. They wanted to keep fun heart of the game while adding a new twist. But advance word of their reworking, called SimCity Societies, received profoundly negative reactions from SimCity fans. The problem? SimCity Societies is a “social engineering” game, not a city simulator. Gone are the planning of zones, laying of pipes, stringing of electrical wiring. Instead of watching buildings being built, you place them yourself and pick different “social energies” that guide how the city and its inhabitants develop. SimCity traditionalists would likely prefer that the game was just called SimSocieties. I wouldn’t mind if EA released the same ol’ SimCity gameplay with better graphics every few years, as unexciting as that may be for the marketing staff. SimCity Societies is scheduled to release in November. Even if the city simulator fans shun it, it could still find an audience in the vast Sims fanbase.