Introduction

You're the Mayor!

Close your eyes and imagine a game with no bloody violence, no high tech armored tanks to control, no vast armies to command, and no deer to shoot at. "How can such a game sell?" you ask. Well it's SimCity, that's how! SimCity is a one of the few games that transcends age, gender, and "twitch" ability. It's something that anyone can enjoy, not just people with a T-1 and the talent to pull a 180 degree turn and shoot a rocket into someone out of midair [/me looks at Thresh]. When SimCity came out over 10 years ago, it was an instant classic because the idea of building and running an entire city appeals to anybody of any age. I've even heard of city planning classes using the program as a tool to teach students about some of the aspects of running a city and implications of certain political decisions. A few years ago, SimCity 2000 came out, and it built upon the foundation of the original simulation classic, and added a lot more features and aspects to worry about. There were a lot more choices for power sources, and the player also had to worry about piping water into the city, among other things. SimCity 3000 builds upon that by showing cities that seem alive with detailed animations and 3D sound.

Now that's a city!

No killing? What's the point then?

Your job in SimCity is to be mayor of a small town, and to try and grow it into a huge metropolis. You start out with just a patch of land (small, medium, large, or IMMENSE); the land has varying elevations, bodies of water, and trees. Of course since this is a game, you don't really have to deal with annoying things like city councils and such, to get your decisions done. You're pretty much a dictator, and as dictator, anything you say gets done. The limiting factors in building your city are money (usually the key element) and the political, environmental, and social implications of your decisions. You'll need all the help you can get though, because you'll be responsible for proper zoning (laying out which areas are residential, commercial or industrial), powering your city, bringing water to your residents, giving means of transportation, providing emergency services, schools, hospitals, and much more! Your decisions will affect pollution levels, crime rates, traffic levels, and the overall happiness of your "sim" residents.