The SimCity Box
Encyclopedia
The SimCity Box is bundled software published by Electronic Arts
that was released on June 23, highlighting recent SimCity releases.
As with previous SimCity titles, SimCity 4 places players in the role of a mayor
(or several mayors), tasked with populating and developing tracts of lands into cities
, while fulfilling the needs of fellow Sims
that live in the cities. Cities are now located in region
s that are divided into segment
s, each of which can be developed. The player has the option of starting the city in a segment of any of three area sizes, in real measurement the smallest has a length of 1 kilometer on a side, and the largest has a length of 4 kilometers on a side. A large city is 16 km²; for comparison the New York
borough of Manhattan
measures about 90 km². The size of a region and its layout of segments can be changed in a bitmap
file provided for each region.
Zoning and building size have been improved for SimCity 4. Agriculture
is now a separate industrial
zone-type, enabling for farms to grow regardless of high land-value, so long as there exists demand for agriculture and agricultural zones have been provided. Zones are now automatically aligned towards roads; streets are automatically created when zoning on large tracts of land. Buildings are now classified into several wealth
levels, zone types, and building size stages, which are affected by the region's population and the city's condition. The game simulates urban decay
and gentrification
with buildings darkening accordingly. Buildings originally constructed for occupation by higher wealth tenants can now support lower wealth tenants in the event surrounding factors forces the current tenants to vacate the building; this allows certain buildings to remain in use despite lacking its initial occupants. Buildings and lots can now be constructed on slope
s.
SimCity 4 can be used in conjunction with The Sims
. Sims can be imported into a city for use in the My sim mode. City layouts created in SimCity 4 can be used as neighborhood templates in The Sims 2
; the location of roads, trees, bridges, and map features such as rivers and hills are preserved in the importation.
released an expansion pack for SimCity 4 dubbed Rush Hour, which is also included in The SimCity Box. The expansion pack, among others, enhances the range of transportation facilities, as well as allowing the player to trace traffic flow, control vehicles and construct larger civic facilities, and introduces a new range of contemporary Europe-styled buildings.
While previous mainstream SimCity titles could be best described as mayordom, or "God" simulators, SimCity Societies
is different, as foreshadowed by the previews and statements from the developers, by being a 'social engineering simulator' rather than a city-building simulator.
The game is notably the first SimCity title not developed by Maxis.
Public works and a tax system do not play a part in the basic game. Instead, players get daily income from workplaces in the city. However, a downloadable update includes gameplay modes where a daily tax is incurred based on the buildings within a city. Transportation networks have been simplified to dirt roads, paved roads, subways and bus stops. Players do not build zones, a key element of past SimCity games; instead, they have the ability to directly place individual buildings, something not seen in previous editions, and similar to Monte Cristo
's game City Life
. There are also six "social energies", called societal values, which allow players to learn about the characteristics of the citizens. The six societal values are productivity
, prosperity
, creativity
, spirituality
, authority
, and knowledge
. The city will look, and act, in accordance with the energies the players choose. Players may focus on satisfying one, several, or all of these values. An improved version of the reward system introduced in SimCity 2000
has been included in the game.
The game is "fully customizable" and allows the players to customize individual buildings, decorations, citizens, and game rules. Prior to its release, when mentioning the depth to which the game will allow customization a Tilted Mill representative stated that those who were proficient in C# and XML
will have easy access to every asset of the game and that basic tools would be provided for building editing.
and gaming experience from The Sims
, that gives the user the chance to act as a game developer in a new series of games. The SimCity Box features one game from this called SnapCity, which is a SimCity
-look-a-like strategy/arcade game.
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
that was released on June 23, highlighting recent SimCity releases.
SimCity 4
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
(or several mayors), tasked with populating and developing tracts of lands into cities
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
, while fulfilling the needs of fellow Sims
The Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
that live in the cities. Cities are now located in region
Region
Region is most commonly found as a term used in terrestrial and astrophysics sciences also an area, notably among the different sub-disciplines of geography, studied by regional geographers. Regions consist of subregions that contain clusters of like areas that are distinctive by their uniformity...
s that are divided into segment
Segment
Segment may mean:*The divisions found in the internal section of a citrus fruit* Market segment, the smaller subgroups comprising a marketComputing*Segmentation , the division of computer memory into segments...
s, each of which can be developed. The player has the option of starting the city in a segment of any of three area sizes, in real measurement the smallest has a length of 1 kilometer on a side, and the largest has a length of 4 kilometers on a side. A large city is 16 km²; for comparison the New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
measures about 90 km². The size of a region and its layout of segments can be changed in a bitmap
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
file provided for each region.
Zoning and building size have been improved for SimCity 4. Agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
is now a separate industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
zone-type, enabling for farms to grow regardless of high land-value, so long as there exists demand for agriculture and agricultural zones have been provided. Zones are now automatically aligned towards roads; streets are automatically created when zoning on large tracts of land. Buildings are now classified into several wealth
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
levels, zone types, and building size stages, which are affected by the region's population and the city's condition. The game simulates urban decay
Urban decay
Urban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude...
and gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
with buildings darkening accordingly. Buildings originally constructed for occupation by higher wealth tenants can now support lower wealth tenants in the event surrounding factors forces the current tenants to vacate the building; this allows certain buildings to remain in use despite lacking its initial occupants. Buildings and lots can now be constructed on slope
Slope
In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line describes its steepness, incline, or grade. A higher slope value indicates a steeper incline....
s.
SimCity 4 can be used in conjunction with The Sims
The Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
. Sims can be imported into a city for use in the My sim mode. City layouts created in SimCity 4 can be used as neighborhood templates in The Sims 2
The Sims 2
The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game, The Sims, which debuted on February 4, 2000. It was first released on September 14, 2004 for Microsoft Windows. A port to Apple Mac OS X...
; the location of roads, trees, bridges, and map features such as rivers and hills are preserved in the importation.
SimCity 4: Rush Hour
On September 22, 2003, MaxisMaxis
Maxis is an American company founded as an independent video game developer in 1987. It is currently a subsidiary of Electronic Arts . Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all time, The Sims and its first sequel, The Sims 2...
released an expansion pack for SimCity 4 dubbed Rush Hour, which is also included in The SimCity Box. The expansion pack, among others, enhances the range of transportation facilities, as well as allowing the player to trace traffic flow, control vehicles and construct larger civic facilities, and introduces a new range of contemporary Europe-styled buildings.
SimCity Societies
SimCity Societies
SimCity Societies received mixed reviews. GameZone praised the game's increased accessibility and less "sterile" gameplay compared to previous titles in the SimCity series, and Game Informer concluded that the changes to the gameplay were "inventive"...
is different, as foreshadowed by the previews and statements from the developers, by being a 'social engineering simulator' rather than a city-building simulator.
The game is notably the first SimCity title not developed by Maxis.
Public works and a tax system do not play a part in the basic game. Instead, players get daily income from workplaces in the city. However, a downloadable update includes gameplay modes where a daily tax is incurred based on the buildings within a city. Transportation networks have been simplified to dirt roads, paved roads, subways and bus stops. Players do not build zones, a key element of past SimCity games; instead, they have the ability to directly place individual buildings, something not seen in previous editions, and similar to Monte Cristo
Monte Cristo (company)
Monte Cristo was a French computer game developer and publisher, based in Paris. It was established in 1995 by former Credit Suisse First Boston vice-president Jean-Marc de Fety and former Mars & Co strategy senior consultant Jean-Cristophe Marquis. The company was led by Jean-Christophe Marquis...
's game City Life
City Life (computer game)
City Life is a real-time strategy game that lets the player create a modern city. It is the first modern city-building game to allow the player to work in full 3D environment. The game is by French developer Monte Cristo. It is published in France by Focus, in the UK and Germany by Deep Silver and...
. There are also six "social energies", called societal values, which allow players to learn about the characteristics of the citizens. The six societal values are productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
, prosperity
Prosperity
Prosperity is the state of flourishing, thriving, good fortune and/or successful social status. Prosperity often encompasses wealth but also includes others factors which are independent of wealth to varying degrees, such as happiness and health....
, creativity
Creativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
, spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
, authority
Authority
The word Authority is derived mainly from the Latin word auctoritas, meaning invention, advice, opinion, influence, or command. In English, the word 'authority' can be used to mean power given by the state or by academic knowledge of an area .-Authority in Philosophy:In...
, and knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
. The city will look, and act, in accordance with the energies the players choose. Players may focus on satisfying one, several, or all of these values. An improved version of the reward system introduced in SimCity 2000
SimCity 2000
SimCity 2000 is a simulation/city building video game and the second installment in the SimCity series. SimCity 2000 was first released by Maxis in 1994 for computers running Apple Macintosh Operating System...
has been included in the game.
The game is "fully customizable" and allows the players to customize individual buildings, decorations, citizens, and game rules. Prior to its release, when mentioning the depth to which the game will allow customization a Tilted Mill representative stated that those who were proficient in C# and XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
will have easy access to every asset of the game and that basic tools would be provided for building editing.
SimCity Societies: Destinations
EA has announced the first expansion for SimCity Societies, which is also included in The SimCity Box. The new expansion, SimCity Societies: Destinations will focus on a new strategic scene in SimCity, this time tourism.The Sims Carnival: SnapCity
The Sims Carnival is an online communityOnline community
An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...
and gaming experience from The Sims
The Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
, that gives the user the chance to act as a game developer in a new series of games. The SimCity Box features one game from this called SnapCity, which is a SimCity
SimCity (series)
SimCity is an open-ended city-building computer and console video game series and the brainchild of developer Will Wright. It is published by Maxis . The game was first published in 1989 as SimCity, and it has spawned several different editions sold worldwide...
-look-a-like strategy/arcade game.