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I have read about and looked into CityVille. How does it compare to Sim City 3000? My guess is that it's more social (since SimCity was 0% social), but probably a bit watered-down as well, since they're trying to cater to more casual gamers.

So I guess what I'm asking is, how deep is CityVille? As deep as SC3K?

Also, one thing that bothers me about social games is the NEED to either pull out your pocketbook or recruit your friends. I'd rather just play, play, play for hours. How much does CityVille require you to either pay (for "CityBucks" or something) or recruit/interact with friends?

So, in general, perhaps a good question to ask is, how is CityVille similar to/different from SC3K?

Thanks! :)

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Note that you didn't need to open a new question for this, you can just click the edit button to modify your original question. Now that you've done it though, we can just go ahead and close the original question, since this one is phrased better. –  bwarner Jan 13 '11 at 23:22
People are viewing this question, but no one is sharing any thoughts! Can someone please shed some light? :) –  rinogo Jan 24 '11 at 22:16
VTC as per this meta –  Wipqozn Mar 24 '12 at 0:23

2 Answers 2

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There are huge differences between Cityville and Simcity.

Cityville is for a more casual audience to play with friends. You buy buildings that produce coins or farms to produce goods. Those goods supply shops, which are also bought with coins, that give you more coins and experience. Simcity is a city simulation game. You manage Government building and city zoning with a sort of hands off approach what buildings go where. One of the few similarities is the main goal, which is to create a thriving successful metropolis.

Cityville Features:

  • Free Web-based Flash game Social game
  • Click based Farming on timed objects
  • Bonuses gained from visual decoration
  • Requires friends to complete some buildings/goals
  • City is persistent, continues after you logoff
  • Main income from timed clicks on buildings
  • Population density based on building type

Simcity features:

  • Paid application based game
  • Strategic building & city planning
  • Police, Fire, Education and Medical planning
  • Residential, Commercial and Industrial zoning
  • Traffic management
  • Economic management from taxes
  • Main income from taxation
  • Population based on area conditions
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Awesome anwser. Thanks! –  rinogo Feb 24 '11 at 19:28

I don't know CityVille but there are some information out there about the differences to Sim City 3000 (see quote and link below)

To summarize: You can't compare CityVille with Sim City 3000. CityVille aims for the causual gamer looking for an easy game with constant progress, more interactive elements, constant gifts and prices as rewards for doing somethin good and no chances to mess things up.

Not to mention, as a real mayor, you are not dictator and you can't truly pick out what buildings and businesses you want. Where are the bad neighborhoods in CityVille? Where are the strip clubs and businesses you can't stop from coming in? In CityVille, everything is perfect and selected by the fuehrer, you. In SimCity 3000, you act like a real mayor and just decide what areas will be zoned as. This allows any business or residential complex to move in and set up shop.

There is also a constant barrage of "prizes" and "gifts" that you receive while working in CityVille. CityVille's basic strategy is similar to FarmVille and all those other Facebook games in that they just constantly give you prizes and encouragement for free in order to get your constant attention and possibly even your money. There is basically no way to fail in this CityVille game. In SimCity 3000, you can fail by losing money, letting your people be sucked up by aliens, or letting the city burn to the ground through disaster after disaster.

In CityVille, when you do something good, like completing the creation of a flower cart, you get points and coins and such. The aggravating part of this CityVille process is that you must click on everything to pick it up. As mayor in CityVille, shouldn't everything be brought to you? In SimCity 3000, there is no need to pick up rent or bonus points from every one of your city's buildings. These things are automatically distributed to you without having to take the time to do it and you then have more time to focus on building your city.

In conclusion, CityVille is nothing close to realistic and is a poor simulation to building a city. CityVille actually seems to be aimed towards the casual game player who was easily addicted to FarmVille. SimCity 3000 provides a much more realistic atmosphere and much more flexibility and less of the rush, goals, and rewards that make CityVille so tedious.

Source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7700938/cityville_vs_simcity_3000_pg2.html?cat=9

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Great link and thoughts. Thank you! :) –  rinogo Feb 24 '11 at 19:28

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