Sunday, February 27, 2011

Zynga's CityVille is flawed (and brilliant): The issue of roads

Ever visited a friend's city in CityVille and notice something odd. It doesn't look like a city at all. There are rows upon rows of sushi bars on one end of the town while there is a slew of expensive chateaus on the other. (If everyone is living in $1 million homes and eating sushi all day, who is working at the banks and post offices much less the sushi bars?) But continue to suspend your disbelief for a moment and look between these fine, unrealistically placed establishments surrounded by elaborate bushes. Where did all the roads go?

They're gone, because they are worthless in CityVille. Roads cost 10 coins per square and serve no other purpose than to give pedestrians a place to walk between Businesses. However, Sidewalks cost double that, but take up less space and are much, much longer. So, what reason would an illustrious mayor have to place roads in their city rather than sidewalks. That's valuable space wasted that could be used by more homes and businesses. This is a fundamental flaw to CityVille and one of several reasons why players have reached such astronomical levels so quickly.

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