Je trouve que le plaisir des yeux est important et de ce côté-là, Caesar IV surpasse SimCity IV mais ce n'est pas tout à fait le même registre, après faut voir la jouabilité...

For a long time now I've been a huge advocate for any type of game other than RPGs to break into the MMO genre. We have the room for them, because well, there really are none. We've had a few MMOFPS attempts over the years. There have been a couple that didn't easily fall into any one category. The best example we have of someone being successful in the MMO genre as something other than an RPG was Planetside. It's time for something new! That's where Cities XL comes into play. Oh, I know what you're saying right this very second... "But that's just a city building sim game, it's not an MMO!!!" But oh how you're wrong! I had my doubts initially as well, but recently the great folks over at Monte Cristo had me swing by their offices to get my hands on the game and talk about it a little more in depth.
 
First, a little background for those of you unfamiliar with the title. Monte Cristo has actually been in the simulation genre for quite a while, since 1995, so this is definitely not new territory. Their most recent title, City Life, was a very well reviewed and quite fun city builder. When I first heard about Cities XL (called Cities Unlimited back then) I was already excited about the title without even knowing there would be any online component. When I learned it would have an MMO aspect, that just greatly increased my excitement. Since I know a lot of you are still sitting out there thinking it's not really an MMO, I'll start off with that and then move on to the other information I gleaned while in their offices.
 
So how is Cities XL an MMO? First of all, there will be several different options in how to play the game when it is released. When you buy the box and take it home, the "free trial" will basically be a fully functioning single-player city building game. There will be no time limit set on it, no "30 days and then you must subscribe to keep playing", you can play the single player part of the game forever if you want and never pay another dime. The second option is the online, subscription aspect of the game. For the low price of around $15 per three months (subject to change, but they're aiming at giving you three months for the same price most MMOs give you one month), you will be able to hop online and play with thousands of other city builders around the world. When first starting your online play, you will be presented with an Earth-like globe with ~10,000 city slots on it. With each player getting five "character" (read: city) slots, that means you'll be playing with somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000 different people per server (planet). You are completely free to build all five of your cities on one planet, or on five different planets. While playing online, you'll have almost all the same amenities you'd have on any other MMO. There are planet wide chat channels, the ability to trade with others (which I'll get into more later) and even the ability to take your customized avatar and wander the streets of any other city on the planet.
 
The third option of game play will be what Monte Cristo is calling the GEMs system. Every so often (the first will actually be ready at release), they will release a GEM (Gameplay Extension Module) which is aimed at, well, further extending the game play. The GEMs will be things like Ski Resorts (available at launch), Airports, Amusement Parks, etc. Purchasing a GEM and adding it to your city adds a whole new level of game play. Basically you go from city building sim to a more Tycoon style game, think Zoo Tycoon, etc. Say for example you buy the Ski Resort GEM at launch and add it to your city (which you'll naturally need to be in a mountainous part of the world to do) you can then, with an easy click of the mouse, go from being the Mayor of your whole city, to the owner of the ski resort. You'll be able to do everything you could do in a stand-alone "Ski Resort Tycoon" type of game; construct new ski trails/paths, build/add lifts, restaurants, cabins, set all the prices, etc. And everything you do will naturally affect how well your ski resort does, and how well it does will have an effect on your city. Having a highly successful ski resort will bring in lots of tourism, which will naturally affect business in the city in a positive way, etc.
 
Monte Cristo will also be doing a lot of other MMO-esque things with Cities XL. You'll have an in-game friends list, and will even automatically have their Community Managers listed as friends when you start playing. The Community team at Monte Cristo will also be doing quite a few in game events and contests. One of the examples they gave me was that they could randomly announce that the city who has the largest population increase within a given time period will receive a rare mega-structure blueprint. The mega-structure blueprints will allow you to build real world famous landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty, Sears Tower, etc. The CMs will also be wandering around the planets looking for interesting cities/players to feature on the website. They've actually already run a couple real life contests, one of which had participants taking pictures of their own, real life homes, and the winner had her house modeled and included in the game. In another contest, participants sent in photos of their city's Town Hall, several of which were modeled and included. I got to see the finished product of Baltimore's City Hall, one of the entries, in-game and it's very nice.
 
Speaking of the website, I have to say it's probably the thing that impressed me most about the game, by far. Every player will have their own profile on the Cities XL website which will list all of their cities and their achievements, etc. Think of it as a similar setup to WoW's character profile pages or such; you'll be able to see the player's avatar, all of their cities and how they rank worldwide, which achievements they've attained, what mega-structures they've built (or own the blueprints for and haven't built), etc. Also, there will be a "newspaper" looking section of the page where the player can blog about their city and post news, etc. but the best part of the website is that you'll be able to interact with the game directly. Just about the only thing you can't do from the website is build/expand your city. All of the trading options available in game will be available through the website though, as well as status updates on your friends (and anyone else you've set it up to give you updates on, like that next city over who is trying to cut into your oil production.)
 
Trading is going to be a huge part of the online aspect of Cities XL. Depending on where you choose to build your city, you'll have access to some resources, but not others. If you're looking to become an oil baron, chances are you're not going to have much fertile land around you for agricultural pursuits. So you'll need to trade some of your oil tokens for agricultural/food tokens. The entire trading system is centered around these tokens. Your city has a long list of requirements, all of which work on sliding scales. If we take the above example, your oil requirement scale would at the positive end of the scale, earning you an excess of oil tokens you can use to trade, while the agricultural/food scale would be in the negative, affecting the happiness and productivity of your citizens. The system is actually very well thought out in regards to keeping the game balanced and fending off 3rd party farmers/traders. Everything operates on a barter system, there is no other form of 'currency' beyond the tokens representing the various resources. And you can't stockpile tokens, they vanish/reset every 24 hours. So, again, using the above example, if you have a +5 on your oil scale, that gives you 5 tokens of oil to trade each day, but if you don't have contracts in place to trade them to other players, they are "taken" by the NPC government in the game at the end of the day. This is a safety net type of system which will prevent cities from coming to a screeching halt and dying if the player can't find someone to trade with for the resources they need. If your city is in the negative for agriculture/food, you will get what you "need" from the NPC government mentioned above, just at a much greater impact to your citizens productivity/happiness than if you got it by trading with another player.
 
Trading is also limited/affected by your transportation infrastructure. Each plot of land has a different number of "city links" connecting it to the rest of the world. Connecting your city to the city links on the borders of your map connects you to the rest of the world, and naturally the more connection you have (number of major highways or waterways, etc, connecting 2 or more city links) the more transportation slots you have, which allow you to trade more with the other players on your planet/server. This is another facet that could greatly be affected by future GEM packs. Say down the road they release an Airport GEM which allows you to build a massive international airport. Naturally you'd have to use a large section of your map for its construction, but having it would greatly increase your connectivity and give you an immense number of transportation/trading slots. Which you could then use to turn yourself into a trading type setup, not manufacturing anything yourself, just bringing in large amounts of tokens and trading them back out to others.
 
All that's well and good, but if the game doesn't play well, it doesn't matter how many great online features it has right? Well, to give you an idea of how well it plays, when I was in the Monte Cristo office, I spent the morning part of the day talking about the game and watching a demonstration. Then after we went to lunch, I got my own hands-on time with it. It was about 13:30, maybe 14:00, when I started playing and I swear, next thing I know, Philippe had come back in the room and told me it was 18:30 and we needed to get going... I was completely shocked that much time had passed, I was so engrossed in the game it only seemed like maybe an hour had passed, tops. The mechanics of the game will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played a city builder before. They've taken both of the 'usual' play styles into account, you can use either the 'zone' or 'plop', or a combination of the 2, to construct your metropolis. And when using the zone method, you're not limited to just squares and rectangles, you can use custom shapes as well. Many things are also really dynamic, take for example if you're building a road; if you "sink" the road as you're laying it out, it will automatically become a tunnel, same with if you raise it, bridge. The map is completely grid free, giving you absolute freedom in where you can place your city. Naturally, the terrain you select will affect those choices some, for example if you have a mountain range or canyon running through your map. Which brings up another great point: Difficulty won't be determined by the amount of starting money you receive, but rather how difficult the terrain in your given map will be to work around. All of the normal statistics and information you'd expect to find in a city builder are readily at your fingertips, making controlling your expanding metropolis a breeze. The game is also very good about notifying you about problems that crop up, unemployment rate too high, too few executive level houses available, etc. And with a simple scroll of the mousewheel you can go all the way from a satellite view of your map to walking around the city as your avatar in a very smooth and fluid transition.
 
All in all, Cities XL is a very ambitious project. It's never an easy feat to bring a new type of game into an existing genre. Unfortunately the current "common" mindset is that if something is an MMO, it must usually contain orcs and elves, swords and magic, or even the occasional spaceship and lasers. This is definitely a mindset that we need to move away from in order for the MMO genre to grow. There is a lot more room in the genre for things that don't end in RPG. Cities XL, in my opinion, is definitely on the right track to bring something new to the genre, and do it very well in the process. I was already eagerly anticipating the game, and after getting my hands on it, I can honestly say it has only increased my anticipation of the title. Monte Cristo is currently accepting applications for the closed beta, so head over to this site to register. And don't forget to put in MMORPG.com's exclusive code MMO123 to increase your odds!