Jeremy Greenfield of Gamers With Jobs has just posted an interesting summary of his attempt to drive a city into the ground in SimCity: Societies. He found, as many critics did, that the system was too forgiving of screw-ups and that it may be harder to kill a city than to create one.

Thanks to the daily indignities of life in my little hellmouth, most of my Sims got fed up and went Rogue, which meant that they quit work and attacked a random building, shutting it down. However, buildings don’t stay closed for long, and I didn’t need to spend any money to reopen them. In fact, after a fire, I could dispatch a work crew to fix the building, or just wait, and it would slowly repair itself. How? Magic construction fairies?

He still praises Societies as a relaxing sandbox game, and I can understand the Zen type feeling he is talking about. I’d do that sort of thing with Railroad Tycoon. But even sandbox games need walls to bump against. Otherwise you get sand on the slide.