Retrospective : My life as a simcity player

It's been a while since I post anything here, I am glad to see this forum active and new mods being released. Proves that this is indeed a raw game with potential, and the fact that it never receives the proper care and recgonition it deserves is beyond sad.

I don't really have anything else to say about this game. Still, I feel like posting, for some reasons. So I think I'd just talk a bit about how I was hooked with city simulators.

I was first exposed to the city-building genre in 2002 when my friends showed me Simcity3000. It was something new and refreshing as I've never played anything like this before - to shape a city god-like. However, the core mechanics of the game were way too complex for us kids to comprehend, we had fun but were as well frustrated.

My passion for city simulators truly sparkled in the year of 2004. I received Simcity4 as a gift for winning a drawing contest. The first few weeks with the game was tough. I didn't know how to construct a bridge, and never figured out how to build highways properly, let alone managing the city’s budget. Literally I had to rely on bank loans just to keep my city from going bankrupt, and my finance advisor wouldn't stop freaking out!

I was gradually progressing with the game, and it rewarded me with satisfaction, enormous satisfaction to be precise. For the next couple of years, Simcity4 and GTA San Andreas remained my favourites. I loved chainsawing people as much as I loved building homes for them. I think it was around that period of time (2004 - 2008?) that mods for Simcity truly flourished. Forums like Simtropolis, SC4Devotion, SCCN and JP Geocities were all stocked with endless new buildings and tools, discussions and city showcases were hyperactive everyday, which really skyrocketed the game experience to a whole new level. I was always amazed by the cities made by the community, they are still very vivid in my mind until this date. Looking back, that was really the golden era for Simcity.

Simcity Society came out in 2007, we all had high expectations but it just wasn't a worthy successor, it wasn't the game that we had hoped for either. The receptions were mediocre and we kinda just stayed with Simcity4 and pushed its potential.

I tried City-Life for a while but never really felt for it, it just lacked polishing and didn't have the same hook as Simcity4 did.

A Train 8 came out in about the same time, but it's more about railway management and logistics.

The Sims 2&3 were gold, but what they offered was more of a microscopic experience compare to Simcity.

And then, City Unlimited emerged, and this website tells the rest of the story.

I stopped playing city simulators altogether about 2 years ago, in order to focus on my studies and art crafts. Heard some good stuff about Cities Skyline but I'm not enthusiastic anymore. Put it the other way, I think my passion for city simulators and video games in general has finally come to an end, it's burnt out. So I guess, it's time for me to move on.

And that pretty much sums up my life as a simcity player. I'd be interested to hear your story as well