The thing with that is that games are reward based. With SimSocieties, you get rewarded for keeping it green (or rather, you don't ruin everything by NOT greening). In real life, there's no real immediate reward to people. In fact, they'd only be spending more money to switch over to more environmentally friendly standards. Because of that, I don't think many are going to have their lives impacted by the game.

Hey, for $25 from Toys R Us, I'll probably enjoy it.

You make a 5/10 game with no hype nor anything particularly interesting about it sound so influential.

@Sqwerell: If we make real life like a game and reward people for being more "green", everyone will want to help the environment.

"BP was named one of the "ten worst corporations" in both 2001 and 2006 based on its environmental and human rights records.[14][15] In 1991 BP was cited as the most polluting company in the US based on EPA toxic release data"

> Wiki

I hope people realize that as india and china both begin full-scale industrial revolutions of their own, we're all fucked.

there is no policy the united states can put in place to curtail the oil consumption by these countries, or the amount of coal burnt.

we're fucked to hell, and crippling our own economy won't do anything.

we're a country of 300 million in a world of 7 billion.

Too bad the rest of the game plays like SimCity Jr. for kids.

@this_is_sparta:

Wee.

Sounds like fun.

@this_is_sparta:

So, although i do agree that we are indeed screwed, believe me in all my training as an environmental scientist, i don't think its hopeless. The world will change, but such is the trend. Though i doubt this game would do much for people to learn, since i am sure it has no actual depth to it, it is a start.

Also yeah sure, India and China, are growing in their demands, but we can help them avoid the same mistakes we did. I mean for god's sake we solve problems here, we used to have one of the premier science and industrial bases of the world! We could easily make a buck off teaching the world how do this stuff right!

Oh great, a game where I'm lectured on political bandwagons, just what I'm looking for.
What next?, a game called Taxi Ride where you have to sit in the back of a virtual cab whilst some opinionated asshole drives shoves his opinions of what's wrong with the world, down your throat?

Environmentalism is the new way to feel guilt now that we've mostly abandoned religion, I say fuck that, it's just as full of shit as the previous system was.

Just about anyone in the world is "more green than Gore". The guy takes private jets everywhere and has a monthly electric bill over $1200 (source:AP).

Just kills me that those morons in Stockholm gave him a Nobel prize for saying "do as I say, not as I do".

I liked the old SimCity games, but don't like the direction this one has gone at all. I'm hoping for a real SimCity 5 so don't have much option but to boycott this one.

@Warren DeMontague: Link, please.

Wasn't this game supposed to be out yesterday?

Yeah. As I understand, this game doesn't even really work on the concept of a powergrid, as we knew it in all previous SimCity's. No harrdline connections needed, proximity generates implied electrical connection.

Haven't played it, but the reviews I've seen on IGN (shudder) and a few other scatter sites paint a SimCity that's more about show and looks as opposed to some resemblance to a simulation sandbox.

Dissappointing . . .

I'm playing it right now. In the tutorial the game makes you build Wind Farms. Snaps.

So a game that won't sell as many copies as an Inconvinient Truth sold DVDs is going to lurn us some Green Policies?

I'll trust BP (and Exxon, and Shell, etc) on how to stay green when I trust RJ Reynolds on how to quit smoking.

Dumbing down SimCity completely misses the point. It was never meant to be simple. Now certainly, you can streamline it in some ways - taking out having to draw all those damn water pipes is a great example. But SCS didn't look that appealing anyway, and if I'm going to get bludgeoned with a political message I'm sceptical about, I'm not going to want to give it much chance.

I'd like to see a serious civilization simulation that shows how difficult it is to maintain quality of life, safety, economic stability and a healthy ecosystem.

The oversimplifications that 'serious' games make are insulting. It's just social propaganda masquerading as academics.

No thanks. I'll keep waiting for Simcity 5

It's kinda cool to be able to build a city that looks exactly like you want. You place every building yourself, including each house and workplace, so you get full customization and can make it look exactly as you want it to. You can build a high-tech place, or an industrial city, or a 'fun' city, or a cyberpunk city.

It would be much cooler to introduce some way to 'persuade' your city to generate in a larger number of ways in a more traditional SimCity. MUCH cooler. And more satisfying. Sure, in the last one you can do this to an extent, but it's not the same.

Societies is not a great SimCity game, but I DO hope some of the ideas in it get carried on.

No way. Al Gore _invented green, both as a concept and a color. Why do you think the Japanese don't have green?

Anyways, I can't recall whether I saw it on TV or read it online, but a few months ago I ran across an interview with the world's leading meteorologist, who has over 50 years of experience in the field. And he called global warming a hoax. Sure, pollution is something that's worth avoiding, and not just to make the frogs happy. It's also been noted that whenever energy restrictions are mandated by the government, the resulting drive to meet those restrictions has generally resulted in more economically efficient energy systems than what they were forced to replace (in spite of the fact that the business world will complain about how much money the process will cost them).

Now, on the flip side of the whole thing, we don't have as much ability to permanently affect the environment as we think we do. We can kill off ecosystems, but they'll regrow in some form or another. Our three biggest forms of negative influence are in causing species to go extinct, introducing species to foreign ecosystems (which can often lead directly into instances of the former), and in rendering areas unlivable for centuries by way of nuclear material. But we're not causing the global temperature to rise. That's the result of a natural climatological cycle, which is currently approaching the warm peak. Want proof? It's still colder right now on average than it was during parts of the Medieval Ages, and you'll have a hard time blaming that one on global industrialization. So, give it 8-10 years and the global climate will start to cool off (again, naturally), the Democrats will claim responsibility, and the world will go on not caring much at all. Oh, and tree-hugging hippies will continue to drive VW microbusses, in spite of the fact that they probably produce more pollution per vehicle than just about any SUV on the road.

Could SimCity Societies make more of an impact on the public’s collective ecological awareness than Al Gore’s 2006 film, An Inconvenient Truth?

Purple Dave claimed: "Anyways, I can't recall whether I saw it on TV or read it online, but a few months ago I ran across an interview with the world's leading meteorologist, who has over 50 years of experience in the field. And he called global warming a hoax."

Wow, finally the truth is out. Some person one the internets saw some dude somewhere who claimed global warming was a hoax. Great, finally I can take my SUV out of the garage again! I feel so much better now.

You know, if you want to not do anything about the environment, go right ahead. Just don't pretend you do it because global warming isn't real. I find that somewhat hilarious and also a bit insulting, given how our alps are crumbling because the permafrost is thawing. Thanks.

@Warren DeMontague: Fantastic, another person who thinks pointing out that Gore pollutes more than the average bear completely invalidates his message.

If he lived in a cave eating wild berries, he'd kind of have a hard time getting his message out. And that's not his message anyway. His message is for systemic changes that add up to make a significant reduction in CO2 production, NOT for living the Stone Age Lifestyle.

Also: he has started paying extra to make sure that the electricity he uses at his home comes from clean sources.

wait it came out?