The new version of SimCity, ‘Societies’ sounds pretty bloody good. According to [Scientific American](http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=FBCCCBC6-E7F2-99DF-3DED6620467D4CEF), a player (architect/urban planner?)’s focus will be:
> SimCity Societies encourages its virtual architects to design cities that maximize any one of a number of different values, including authority, creativity, knowledge, productivity, prosperity and spirituality.
Apparently BP [consulted on the energy use modelling](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/arts/10sims.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin) in the game:
> Electronic Arts and BP worked together to build what the companies describe as a more nuanced power generation and pollution simulation. The companies say the game is meant to show the trade-offs among three aspects of electrical power: cost, power output and pollution.
I think, when I retire, I’ll spend my golden years in my heavily Wired Tuscan farmhouse in front of some wall based holographic display, playing games like this.
Nice, careful brand placement from BP:
> One wrinkle in the game’s marketing is that relatively clean systems like wind farms, natural gas plants and solar farms are branded with the BP logo, while the dirty options like coal are not. Gas stations in the game also carry the BP brand.
Via [BoingBoing](http://www.boingboing.net/2007/11/01/simcity-societies-an.html)