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Comment by seszett | Hacker News Reader

SimCity 2013 is missing in the title, otherwise it makes little sense.

FWIW, the game is called simply SimCity, and the HN title is the same as the title on the article, so, no, not really. HN also tends to put dates on articles that aren't from the current year. If you're totally unfamiliar with the series, it doesn't matter. If you're a little familiar with the series (like me), then you know that the original was released more than a decade ago and pretty much defined the genre, so you know this isn't talking about the original game titled SimCity. If you're familiar with the series, then you know exactly what's being talked about.

Yes really, the title in the article makes little sense in isolation, as even its own subtitle demonstrates.

Before reading the 2nd sentence of the article, you seem to have been mixed up about if this article is about the SimCity that came out in 2013 or the one that came out in 1989. I find it hard to believe that you're aware of the original SimCity game and think that this could be an article from 1999 that could be about it being a disaster for the series (and I'm glad you read further to learn more about the series!). But, even in that case, in isolation, you know that 2013 was a decade ago (and not 1989).

> I find it hard to believe that you're aware of the original SimCity game and think that this could be an article from 1999 that could be about it being a disaster for the series

This almost exactly describes what I thought before I started reading the article. (And the whole reason I started reading was because of this confusion.) Except I didn't think "1999" because I don't know what year the original SimCity came out, I just know that it was more than a decade ago.

Maybe "Simcity (2013)" to be extra clear. After all, SimCity 2000 came out in like 1994. OTOH the ambiguous naming was intentional by EA. They faced the consequences for all the other bad decisions made around the game, so any confusion about the rebooted name is on them IMO.

But I'm more of a Cities:Skyline fan anyways-I'm glad the Maxis devs aren't too sour grapes about the competitor.

Anyone familiar with the first SimCity would be well aware that it both launched decades ago, and was not a disaster.

+1 here. I purchased the original SimCity and soon after the original SimEarth. Loads of fun with both.

That's what I _thought_ but the article title had me doubting it, so I clicked it and only then realized that there was another game in the series with the same name and it came out in 2013. Kind of felt like I was tricked by a clickbait title.

Gotta love that stupid marketing trend of overwriting history with product names

The name of the game was SimCity.

Strictly speaking, it's true, but when multiple games with the same name are released, it's convention to use the year for the newer one. (It's also generally convention to not use the year for the original one when the newer one is a remake of the older).

So SimCity (2013) would be the most expected way to refer to the game.

I'm imagining the "Well akshually" guy as the person you're responding to.

Sure the name was "SimCity". But this is about the 2013 game, not the 1990s game. Clarity is preferred over 'Wellakshually Correctness'.

Normal people can infer context. Nobody thinks the original game came out in 2013. Everyone knows it was not a disaster.

I actually clicked on it thinking it meant the original SimCity which I adored, not realizing that was many decades ago, and expecting it to be some interesting argument that SimCity was somehow so good that it proactively ruined every city sim game that would come after it.

So it's "Wellakshually" and now the rest of us are 'not normal'?

How many other hot takes do you have to share?

Yes, and the original SimCity was a wild success.

Yes. So it's easy to tell which the title is referring to.

No, actually, it’s not. Because I have no idea there even was a 2013 version.

The title makes absolutely no sense to me.

It’s flat out wrong. SimCity obviously wasn’t released a decade ago.

This is my feeling too. The title as it stands without a date clarifying that it was the SimCity from 2013 makes no sense. If I knew there was a 2013 version, it would probably make sense, but before clicking into the article and reading a little, I had no idea. And the only reason I clicked and read was because I thought "surely there's a mistake in this title".

So too was the 1989 (and original) version though.

And which one launched a decade ago? How about we combine the three bits of info and see what we think we have... name = "SimCity", launch = 2013, reception = disasterous. Only one of those matches the '89 game, so it's clear which one is being referred to.

With the frequency with which older articles are posted to HN, it's easy to imagine this was an older article (re)posted. I'm old enough that I remember the original and SimCity "2000" and had no idea there ever was a 2013 version.

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