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Games Entertainment

Simsville Canceled 122

Posted by Hemos from the nada-mas-sims dept.
Ant wrote to us with the story that Maxis announced today that Simsville has been canceled. It was originally supposed to be out in 2002 - but Maxis decided that "it wasn't up to the standards of Maxis" - but did also say the team did a good job, and was being reassigned to other products like the upcoming Sims Online. The original intent was to be a cross between The Sims and SimCity. Having had to play through some real stinkers of games before, I applaud Maxis decision to kill the product, rather then try to release it on an unsuspecting public CT Cry!
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Simsville Canceled More

Simsville Canceled

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  • Ok, so how many people still have the original version of SimCity? And the Terrain Editor?

    I still remember trying to find ways to copy the pesky black-on-dark-red page with for the copy protection.
    • I have one ! The original box, Amiga version :)
    • I had huge problems *reading* those codes, so I had to find a way to make them readable. Luckily my scanman32 had a finely adjustable contrast and, by scanning in line-art mode, I was able to convert them to back and white, which I then just printed.

      Thank god the days of code sheets are gone.
    • I had someone to type the codes over (by hand!) in a WordPerfect document so that we could print and copy them; just in case we lost the original sheets. :)

      His reward was a copy of the game, of course.
    • > I still remember trying to find ways to copy the pesky black-on-dark-red page with for the copy protection.

      A friend of mine ran it thru his fax machine 3 or 4 times. Each successive output was used as input. Was clear as day. :)

      Me being a little more computer savy, just removed the stupid copy protection from the game ;-)

      I can look up the 1 or 2 byte patch if you want.
  • Sim City has claimed way to much of my time. From an old B&W version I used to play in my schools' Mac lab to Sim City 3000 during down time at work.

    I have to give major kudos to Maxis for their ability to put out games that can totally addict me. I tend to grow tired of games rather quickly, but Maxis usually keeps me coming back for me time after time.

    Thanks for thinking of us, the players, before the bottome line, Maxis. I wish there were more companies like this out there!
    • It still claims a lot of my time; I have the Palm version. 'tis a hell of a way to survive long meetings. :)

      What's so cool about it is the fact the game has translated across so many platforms (there was even a unix version out somewhere) and it retains the full character and interest of the game. A kudo to non-massively-graphic games that make you think.
  • Because the old SimCity rocked, while the Sims was the most mediocre thing I ever saw... :)

    There has been som sleep lost over that old game, to be sure...

    • I think it's more the fact that there's only so many things you can simulate without changing the action, sure SimFarm was educational and you could fly a little plane around and SimAnt you could challenge the mighty spider and army of blue ants.

      But what was there in The Sims?

      You couldn't even unleash Godzillia to knock down several city blocks and then after you had finished laughing try and restore the aftermath.

      That's surely what Simulations should be all about?
  • the Maxis team will be throwing a party around the bubble machine.

    Word is that the project's failure is being blamed on damage caused by too many purple potions.

  • Not up to standars? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This form the company that released SimAnts, SimFarm, SimIsland, etc? Good God, that game must have been *really* bad.
  • I think it is really good news that someone has the nerve to pull the emergency break in this way.

    I really don't understad the idea of pushing out unfinised games. I would guess it only hurts the company itself, and the poor people that buys the product. I mean: if you bought a full-price game that really felt "unfinished" I guess you'll *never* buy a game from that company again.

    As an example: I picked up 'Global domination' from the low-price bin one day; thinking that it looked like a simplistic strategy game somewhat like 'risk'. Gee -- guess if I was fooled? The gameplay is basically to click as fast as you can (that sends missiles...) on other countries. It's just *that more fun* than to senslessly move around icons on the desktop! I will *never* buy a game from thoose people again...

    Well; back to the point; this is a good move from maxis, and I hope other companies will follow their example.
    • Maxis have produced great games time and time again, I loved the entire SimCity range (Especially since I can import LDraw lego models into SC3K Unlimited for a real Legoland!) and I also enjoyed the Sims.


      I was really looking forward to Simsville, the idea of linking SimCity 3000 to the Sims seemed fantastic, but it did sound like a massive undertaking.


      I know of no other company that has the balls to say, "nope, it was to big, we couldn't do it. sorry"


      I applaude you Maxis and eagerly await whaterver you bring out next


      Trav

  • Its not canceled, we are living in it.

  • 6 fingers. (Score:2, Funny)

    by holloway ( 46404 )
    Having had to play through some real stinkers of games before, I applaud Maxis decision to kill the product, rather then try to release it on an unsuspecting public.


    When you insult SimAnt, you insult my family... now prepare to die!
  • This just shows, I think, what we all thought when we bought the Sims. That cities are much more entertaining. The reasons for this are straightforward: I have friends, relatives, even some enemies! I DON'T have my own city.

    I'd love my own city. It'd be great fun! Why emulate something we can all do more effectively anyway. Just walk out the door and meet people and you'll have WAY more fun than the Sims can ever provide. But if your in the mood for a bit of planning, zoning, police budget squeezing and tax raising play Sim City.

    Well done Maxis - get back to the Cities. Lets see some new ideas, lets network Sim City, lets have REAL neighbours to compete and negotiate with, that'd be enough to get me spending another £40 on Sim City 5Million - nothing else - just other Mayors to clash with. Oh - and Nukes ;-)
    • I have friends

      You might, but judging by how well The Sims sold, apparently there are a lot of people who do not.
    • Actually, there was networked Simcity 2000, but it never really caught on. It's too bad, the idea of causing crime and pollution in other people's cities is exciting.
      -Dosman!
    • I wonder what ever became of the original 3D version of SimCity 3000? I heard it was canned because the typical home computer wasn't powerful enough to run it; perhaps by now (with GHz machines and GForce cards) they are?

      Does anyone have any insight as to what ever happened to the original 3D version?

  • While it is a shame that Simsville didn't work, check out SimCity 2000 in conjunction with Simcopter. You can import your own Cities into SimCopter.
  • Why release
    announced today that Simsville has been canceled

    a game that will only get you $80 a pop, when you can develop

    reassigned to other products like the upcoming Sims Online

    one that will get you $80 a pop, plus a monthly fee?

    (note: this was humour. i have no idea what Sims Online actually costs to play, if anything).
    • Knowing Maxis, there will be a monthly fee. Originally 'The Sims' was supposed to be provided with new objects weekly that could be downloaded from the website. That stopped after a couple of months, and the only way to get new objects that had been produced by Maxis is to buy the upgrades. The last upgrade was so pathetic, I gave it away.

      My guess is that Maxis just couldn't get it together for Simsville--they have some real gems in some of their games, but some of them are real stinkers.
  • I would suspect that cancelling software projects is far more comman than might be suspected. Releasing software could indeed cost more than canning it, especially if it doesn't at sell or break a lot.

    What could make the game industry slightly different is the high make it or break it factor for small software houses. They simply can't afford to can a project and put yet another two three years into the next game.

    So the moral of the story? The trick is to have people with a sense of what would see on your team, plus good planning and all the software engineering spiffiness.

  • "suckage" is a subjective term (Score:3, Funny)

    by Cynikal ( 513328 ) on Friday September 21, 2001 @07:03AM (#2329056) Homepage
    About the only maxis games that got me were the first simcity and afterwards, the sims. the later simcity games really didnt do it for me, but thats all a matter of oppinion, i'm quite positive there would have been some players who would have loved this game if it didnt get killed. but oh well...

    While some people hated the sims, i loved it. Almost our whole family got addicted to playing it far too many hours a day. to the point that it made itself into our real lives. I still lmao when i think of the time i had supper at my sister's house one night, and then after i was finished i stood up, put my plate on the floor, said "blah blah, bla bla bla!" and walked away... lol.. we all practically cried with laughter, while my parents looked at us like we were idiots, not getting the joke.. ah well.. now my mother playes it like mad..
    • While I was struck by the mundaneness of the Sims, and never *really* liked the game, right after I got it I spent way too many hours in a weekend playing it (I was determined to see how far I could progress in the military). Then I took a break from the game, started taking a shower and I swear I could see my hygiene and comfort levels rising from red to green. That's when I knew I had to stop playing it.
  • For those that want to play a online simulation game, have a look at SimCountry [simcountry.com]

    You can choose to manage a country (think dictator) or become a bigshot CEO of a multi-national (sorry to say but microsoft is already active in the world, maybe AOL Time Warner is free?)

    It is still under development, so be aware that things might look strange from time to time. It is activly developed by 4 people at this time

    Currently they have 3 worlds active and around 6000 players. And they did not do a lot of advertising.

    If you are realy good at the game they even reward you with cash via PayPal.

    You can ready an interview with the creator of this game, Jossi Gil at Brassknuckles [brassknuckles.net]

  • You've *had* to play through some stinkers now and then? Yes, it is indeed awful when a bad game comes out. Ignoring and and not caring about it is very hard.
  • One of the things I love about the Sim line was the interoperability between some of their titles. For SimCity2000 I also bought SimCopter and Streets of SimCity. These games allowed you to fly and drive around your city. I'd love to be able to drive and fly in my SimCity3000 cities.

  • How to cheat in Sim City (Score:3, Funny)

    by goingware ( 85213 ) on Friday September 21, 2001 @07:32AM (#2329079) Homepage
    Early on in my programming career I figured out how to cheat in sim city, the original one for the Mac.

    Wait until the amount of money left was some unusual number.

    Then press the debugger switch and search for that number in memory. I think it was the "F" command. Here are some macsbug tips [goingware.com].

    Likely that number will be found in several places in memory (so keep pressing F to find them all). Now press "g" to continue and play a little while until the money changes.

    Now search again. Notice what locations are the same between each of the two values you searched for. Use SL or SW or something to set the money to a high number.

    Once I showed my housemates this I never had any peace anymore. They always wanted me to cheat for them. Once I'd done it a couple times myself I never cheated on my own games, it took all the fun out.

    I'm not claiming this is an original cheat but I thought I was pretty clever.

    • I seem to recall SimCity always having a money cheat, and "the Sims" has a particularly easy one.

      But I don't think they take the fun out of it.

      For me, the fun of "the Sims" is in the house construction, furnishing and interaction rather than earning enough simoleons to add on to the house or buy some bit of furniture. It's all about trying some wacky architectural experiment ("Let's try putting the front door on the second story of the house!") or seeing just how insane a sim party can get. Earning lots of dough just doesn't interest me by comparison.

      (Yet I still send my sims to work, simply because the career tracks are pretty fun too.)

    • The DOS(?) version was even easier - hold the [shift] and type FUNDS before you started building. It would cause a few disasters, but thats OK when there are no buildings yet....
    • Huh? Is this somehow easier than holding shift and typing FUND? Sure, it causes earthquakes sometimes, but just type it a lot before you start playing, or save before you do it.
    • I have the Mac verson. I uesd porntipsguzzardo as a cheat to give oneself $1m $500k.
  • What happened to SimMars [simmars.com]? Maxis released a trailer for the game over a year ago, and then redirected the web site to http://simsville.ea.com/ [ea.com], which is now defunct. Many members of the Mars Society [marssociety.org] were hoping to play the game, and hoping that others who played the game would become interested in supporting a real-life mission to send humans to Mars.
  • This upsets me for two reasons;

    1) I do not believe it was canceled for the reasons given.
    2) We have seen this before.

    IMO this is almost the same thing that happened to Ultima IX. The staff was 'diverted' off to work on UO and much later we got what they called Ultima IX.

    And then there is Lucas Arts, who decided the PC was not capable of delivering Obi-wan...so they make plans to bring it out on the XBox (and possibly another system?). What am I missing here?!

    In the end this is ALL about $$$. Of course, that's what EA and the others are in the business for, but I always thought/hoped some people (such as Will and Richard) might in it for more then just that.

    All I can hope for now, is that after Sims Online comes out they go back to finishing this game.

  • Good for Maxis for canning a "bad" game instead of releasing it like so many companies do. I think that the problem here is that they might have aimed just a little too high. Maybe in a few years, eh Maxis?

  • I'm almost glad they canned Simsville. Yet Another Micromanagement City Simulation was not needed (at least to this gamer, YMMV), but the plans they have in place for The Sims Online are intriguing. They're unlike anything the Sim series has done before as they shift emphasis from management to social interaction.

    The whole game is a vast experiment in community, economics and social interaction... you're competing for visitors and popularity by having a superior house design and/or a home business. No wrangling with the AI and trying to get your Sims to brush their teeth every morning, no constant patrolling of their mood meters. I'm looking forward to playing it; call it a more constructive and pacifistic version of EverQuest, perhaps.

    But I have to wonder, will adding the Simsville team onto The Sims Online push up the release date a bit? Or is that not really dependent on how many people you throw at a project?

  • I saw the game at E3 for the past two years, and I dare say that it was the most anticipated game of the next year in my personal opinion. It wasn't SimCity, it wasn't The Sims. It was a mix, sort of. It had some cool concepts.

    But, if it wasn't that good behind the scenes (they only show the best stuff at E3), then I applaud Maxis for not releasing it. That's why I stand behind Maxis and their products - even if it is a dissapointment that they cancel something.

    So, bottom line, yeah I'm disappointed (as I have been waiting for the game for about 2 years now) but it's not the end of the world - and it sounds like I would have been more disappointed come February 2002.
  • Sim's online looks cool. A MMORPG that has no fighting.. well at least not in the traditional hack'em up AD&D way. In my opinion Maxis should have made the Sims that way from the beggining.. I never got into the game for the fact that you were stuck in your house and hardly anyone else was around. I can see a whole new addiction coming.. Though what next actual real transactions taking place in a virtual world like this.. anyone see a correlation to Sci-Fi stuff.. imagine if the internet moved completely to a virtual interface such as this... Where you were the the little character and you aren't just RPGing it. Its kinda unnerving sometimes how much people get addicted to virtual worlds such as this.. a simple example is online chatting and similar message boards where people act completely different than real life.. Don't get me wrong some stuff is a lot of fun.. Hell I'm addicted to Anarchy Online at the moment, and by the way it ROCKS!!, but sometimes I guess I think people just get way too into the virtual world stuff and don't think about reality.

  • Oh no! (Score:2, Funny)

    by wampus ( 1932 )
    My wife was really looking forward to this game. I can just see the red double-minus over her head and the little breaking heart icon as she kicks my ass out to the couch tonight.

    "Don't kill the messenger" is not how she operates, especially when it comes to computer games.
    • You and me, brother. I'm in the same boat- my wife created a number of the skins used in the update packages (living large, house party, the upcoming one) and she loves the game. well, not the game as much as making things for it; she was looking forward to the interaction. ah well, she'll just have to wait for her copy of sims online to arrive...
  • Maybe I'm just a retro-grouch, but Maxis' Sim products seem to be getting more and more specialized and complicated at the expense of the original primitive, creative joy that old Sim City can still provide. A similar trend has been happening in Lego also. Hmmm. Coincidence? I think not.
    • Maybe it is because people that played them as kids have grown up and and now live in a larger and more lucrative sandbox... We get older, they still see market potential and still keep us in mind when they make their products.
  • excuse me for being ignorant, in that i havent read about sims online, but they should really make a giant server (or server[s] per country) and have everyone build a city in their own country. making a world wide network of cities.

    seeing as they run themselves (or in my case, run, filled with smog and invaded by protestors) the whole "world" of cities would be for ever working, you could log on, check things, and try to steal inhabitants from neighbouring cities (other peoples own cities)

    course, it might be a bit costly to have these cities running themselves, for a long time.

    just a thought, i always wanted to move in/expand my city to the neighbouring ones (sc2000)

  • If The Sims and SimCity 3000 could get past Maxis' dubious quality control, I shudder to think how bad Simsville must have been.

    Unless they've been intentionally making sucky games, I suippose. To paraphrase Carel Kapek (R.U.R.) (pardon the spelling):


    "Someone has been giving the games decent interfaces - and gameplay!"

    • Will Wright is a hack in the most positive sense of the word. He makes and battles robots in his spare time.

      Having been on the receiving end of the bug reports from Maxis quality control, I can definitely state that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

      -Don

  • First, the Warcraft role-playing game, then Sid Meier's dinosaur game, and now Simsville.

    Companies are cancelling projects that don't meet their standards. They seem to think the loss of big money already thrown into the project is less important than the loss of reputation due to a shoddy product.

    • Companies are cancelling projects that don't meet their standards. They seem to think the loss of big money already thrown into the project is less important than the loss of reputation due to a shoddy product.

      According to a friend of mine in the industry, a lot of this is also due to marketing expenses. Marketing a game costs so much that if you think it's going to flop, it's better to axe it (even if it's completely finished!) and lose the money spent developing, than to spend more money marketing it. It'd be throwing good money after bad.

    • Companies are cancelling projects that don't meet their standards. They seem to think the loss of big money already thrown into the project is less important than the loss of reputation due to a shoddy product.

      Welcome to the world of "sunk costs" -- remember, if a company has already spent the money on a project, it's gone. Period. They can't "get it back" or do anything about it.

      As my old HS economics teacher used to say, "every decision is made on the margin" -- in other words, the game companies must make a decision at one point looking only at the future, ignoring what's already been done.

      Kinda like when you're in a movie theater and you're thinking about walking out becuase the movie's really bad, and your friend says "But you'd be wasting the $10 you spent!" If the movie sucks, leave, cause either way your $10 is gone. Likewise with the game.

      nlh

  • Curse the GEA! (Score:3, Funny)

    by isomeme ( 177414 ) <cdberry@gmail.com> on Friday September 21, 2001 @12:15PM (#2330219) Journal

    Having had to play through some real stinkers of games before

    How many more helpless gamers will we allow to be bullied by the fascist Game Enforcement Agency? Well I remember that midnight knock at my door, and the trenchcoated goons who swarmed into my home and forced me at gunpoint to play Eleventh Hour. I screamed "But it's a stinker!", hoping for mercy, but it was no use. They made me play through the entire thing, twice. I was left a broken man.


    Fight the GEA!

    • So THAT'S what happened to my brother. He would play a Nintendo game (and later Amiga and IBM PC games), and suddendly start screaming about, "I Dragon-punched you!" and, "Sho-ryu-kan, sho-ryu-kan, god-dammit! AAAAAAAA". I couldn't figure out why he would play games that caused him such instense suffering. Now I know, and my heart goes out to him for being subjected to such torture at the hands of such sadists.
  • Hell, if Fun Com were making the game, it would have been released *months* ago w/ key features replaced w/ the ever-popular "emulate desktop mode"!!!
  • Standards and quality are nice and all, but the real story (according to GameSpot, which I will agree with in this case) is that EA felt the Sims "Hot Date" expansion for "The Sims" was too close to the principal ideas behind "SimsVille", and thus "SimsVille" was canned.

    Do the math: profit made by producing a completely new title, versus continuing product sales on one of the more successful mass media games in history? EA makes a ton of money off of each expansion sale, because the assumption (and the requirement is) the person already owns "The Sims". Buy the original game for $40-50, each update for $20-30 each... it adds up.

    It's really too bad, because SimsVille looked innovative on a number of fronts (I like the new "cartoony" graphics -- kind of reminds me of the innovation behind Sega's Jet Grind Radio). Profits have won out, though (this and "The Sims Online" -- two proven moneymakers).

  • Sorry -- had to say it.

    If they're abandoning the game, they should open source the code. (At least as much of it as they can.) While I'm sure some of the code is useful in their other games, the majority of it will have been for naught. Why not allow others to make some use of the code? It would create a lot of good will for the company. And if the game isn't that great, it shouldn't create any competition that Maxis would need to worry about.
  • Here's one for ya...

    Perhaps they canned it in fear that the company could be sued big time over certain potential "uses" for the game.

    The biggest one, IMHO would be the possibility that you'd get some freaks who would use their avatar to intice minors into performing, um... questionable activity.

    I can't see how they'd be able to release it without this being an issue.
  • I spent a good part of the last year working on SimsVille. It was a game with an awesome idea, that had a hard time limiting its scope and focus. There was so much we wanted to do with it and could not. This lack of focus kept knocking us off our deadlines. The game never had a hook, something that pulls you in and make you want to play. Thats why it was killed. There is no conspiracy, no connection to other products, nothing. It simply wasn't compelling enough to the people who pay the bills to get these games made. It looked great, better than any Maxis title to date. Its cancellation will most likely have no direct effect on The Sims Online, positive or negative. I'm sad to see it go, it was a fun ride.

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