A Cry for Action at GDC 2014: A New Dawn for Diversity in Gaming?

If there’s one thing we gaming reviewers at LGG&F can agree on, it’s that there needs to be more diversity in video games. This isn’t some revelation I’m pulling out of my ass: we’ve been saying it since the start, whether it be more people of color placed in the spotlight, women being allowed to have characterization beyond the easy pitfalls of tropes, or any representation of the LGBTQ+ community. Basically any character that’s not a chiseled, cishet, 5 o’clock shadow-ed white dude. Cries for a wider cast of characters have echoed across the subculture for what feels like eons, but the fact remains that until the industry decides to take up the mantle, the opportunities for change will be limited to break-out indie hits. However, my conscientious readers, we may be on the precipice of a new dawn. That is to say, the industry may have just had a breakthrough.

Just a few days ago at the Games Developer Conference in San Francisco, Manveer Heir, a gameplay designer for BioWare Montreal, took the stage in front of a packed room to deliver a panel entitled ‘Misogyny, Racism and Homophobia: Where do video games stand?’. During the panel, Heir called out the Western games industry for clinging too closely to the AAA game formula of white straight dudes saving the girl and doing cool things, and called for a change in not only how the games industry forms their future stories, but also how they view their audience. In a wise move, Heir reassured his audience that his speech wasn’t made so he could waggle a disapproving finger at his fellow game devs; instead it was to be seen as a nudge to an industry that has grown all too comfortable in their safe little niche. It’s a nudge well-needed, however.

Video Game Buzz: Sim City 5

What the $#@%… it appears we may be finally getting Sim City 5!  I know… it’s exciting…

How did this happen?  Sim City 5 has been such a long time coming; I’ll be honest, I’d begun to believe that I’d never see another Sim City game.  In fact, until the game is officially announced, promoted, and released, I still can’t help but be skeptical.

Why so reluctant?  Well, Sim City 4 came out in the beginning of 2003, and its expansion pack, Rush Hour, was released at the end of 2003.  Rush Hour’s release also marked the virtual end of support for the game, with no more patches being released afterward.  This was unfortunate for us fans of the series, since the game suffers from a still yet unpatched memory leak which can break the game.

I need to admit that technically a sequel was released in 2007.  However, Sim City Societies was a whole new manner of game entirely, developed by a studio other than Maxis (original developer of Sim City, The Sims, and Spore) to try and reinvigorate the series.  I, along with many other gamers, despise this game.

So here we are, almost 10 years since Sim City 4, and it would have seemed that all hope for a true sequel has long since been lost.  All of the sudden, though, there is all this buzz around the game’s announcement being right around the corner.  Hmmm, interesting—let’s take a look at where all this greatly awaited buzz is coming from!

The build-up goes as follows:

• Sim City Societies flops, the series appears to truly die
• Cities XL comes out to feed the hungry simulation fans, seemingly proving that city simulation games are still desirable and supportable.
• In 2010, Sim City 4 is re-released on the digital distribution platform Steam.  Hey, apparently Electronic Arts hasn’t completely abandoned it!
• Zynga’s CityVille hits Facebook.  In 2011 it even surpassed FarmVille as having the most active online users of any application to the date.  “Hey EA,” we began to think, “you know you want to cash in.  Give in to the dark side and give us a new Sim City!”
• Recently, EA started an official Facebook page for Sim City 4.
• Hermain Cain’s “9-9-9”  plan created buzz around and exposure for Sim City 4, since the game shipped with his particular economic policy built in by default.

Now it seems that EA itself is trying to actively promote some buzz around Sim City 5.  A big head in EA Public Relations teased a big announcement of something big from Maxis at the coming Game Developers Conference with a tweet.  A few days later, some apparently leaked screenshots of Sim City 5 cropped up on the web.

Sim City 4 was a wonderful game—I still play it, actually—but I have wanted this since before Sim City Societies or Spore.  I want Sim City 5 so badly that I am actually afraid to get my hopes up because it will crush me if all of this buzz and hype is for nothing.  EA will be streaming its GDC even on March 6^th, and I plan on watching it.  No amount of pessimism can change the simple fact that I am more excited about this than any other game announcement in the last 5 years, easily.

UPDATE: Maxis executive Lucy Bradshaw has apparently confirmed that Sim City 5 is in fact in the works.  According to her, we can look forward to a 2013 release.  It is apparently built upon the GlassBox engine, which has been developed from scratch to support the game.  However, Electronic Arts has still yet to officially confirm the title.  I’ll keep the updates coming.