Gibber-gabber
Fun history of city building simulation games
beingzoe over 3 years ago

While this presentation might be a little biased towards the Sim universe of city building games and a touch out of date, it provides some fun history and facts on a genre of gaming that I enjoy very much.

One of the things that draws me to city builders so much (and is a point made in the presentation) is that in general they do not have a win/lose situation. Games like Sim City, Sim Societies, and City Life are pure simulation experiences where good and bad things might happen but winning and losing are not primary factors of play.

The Caesar series has the feel of a city builder with strategy based campaign style play where missions are presented on each map such as attaining certain production levels, and achieving and maintaining prosperity for the city. Games such as Caesar (I’ve only played Caesar IV), also introduce a minimal level of RTS style combat, very minimal.

Then there is the further hybrid of strategy and city builder with 4X style games such as Civilization that have hints of the city building genre with basic concepts of micromanaging at the city level, but focus more entirely on empire building. 4X games concentrate on four primary goals: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. These games appealed to a broader gaming demographic, allowing for the fun of a city builder but introducing the win/lose scenario.

In recent years games like ROME: Total War took the 4X to whole new levels with extremely realistic warfare. In fact, the battle engine for the Rome game was so accurate to fighting styles and human reactions of the day that the History Channel licensed the game to recreate and simulate real life historical battles. See the Battle of Thermopylae recreated using Rome: Total War.

But most recently I was smitten with the release of Sins of a Solar Empire which blended the excitement of high paced real time strategy (RTS) play with 4X style play. While this game is a full departure from city builders, it’s exciting play and challenging intricacies makes it a fantastic tension release after a long day at work.

But when I just want to relax, but not in front of completely passive media, I always head back to the city builder.