The game is also surprisingly light on social, especially coming from a company like EA that long ago embraced the power of community-driven engagement.
Beyond its best-in-class core loop and impressive short-term progression, the game doesn’t offer much to keep players engaged for the medium- and long-term, leaving its long-term prospects in doubt. That’s not to say the game does everything right. The game breaks new ground by being faithful to well-worn SimCity tropes while refreshing the game’s mechanics for a mobile-first design. Beneath the SimCity veneer is a surprisingly thoughtful mobile experience, a game that is cognizant of mobile best practices for retention and monetization but not beholden to them. The difference this time is that the community’s anger is misplaced. True to form, the haters were out in full-force upon the game’s worldwide release, peppering it with one-star reviews and ripping into the game for its over-reliance on micro-transactions and timers to engage users and monetize. This time, the beneficiary (victim?) of EA’s growing interest in mobile is the venerable SimCity franchise with SimCity BuildIt ( iOS/ Android).
Well, if you’re easily shocked, prepare to reach for your pearls because EA has once again revived a beloved PC franchise as a mobile game. You know, the one that was universally derided on release as an unrepentant cash grab, a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing free-to-play catastrophe hiding behind a beloved license? The one that was so universally hated that it forced EA’s own CEO to disown it? Remember Dungeon Keeper? No, not that one, the other one.
0 kommentar(er)
