Blog Discusses Social Networking in Cities XL

A recent blog entry on the Cities XL site goes into detail about how social networking will work in the game. Basically, every player, including solo ones, will get their own profile page on the Cities XL Web site. You'll be able to add an avatar, discuss what you are doing in the game and create your own friends network.

In addition, players who subscribe to the Planet Offer will have their cities saved on the game's servers, so the profile page will act as their permanent link to the game. " It allows you not only to take part in the community but also to play even when you are not in front of the PC on which you installed the game. ... You will be informed in real time of everything that is happening around your game."

The full blog entry can be found below.

There’s more to Cities XL than ‘just’ a game, there’s also an extensive website at the center of which is your page. Your Profile page is your personal space on the Cities XL website; it reflects you, your activities, your friends, and as part of the Planet Offer, your cities of course.

Solo players?... Not that alone!
The Cities XL website and many other community websites demonstrated how devoted city builder fans are, so we decided that it would be great if we could continue to support this community after the release of the game. Therefore, every Cities XL player, including Solo players, will have his/her own profile page on the Cities XL website.

This page is first and foremost designed to identify you and differentiate yourself from other players. So when you'll create your Avatar with the Avatar Studio to visit your cities, it will be automatically uploaded to your page as well as each time you’ll modify it. Right below you’ll find a dedicated space to write a short text that describes you, your mood of the day, or simply express what you are currently doing in the game…

You will then be part of the Cities XL community and a community is no use if you don't communicate with other players. You’ll then be free to create your own friends network as you would do with any other Social Network website such as Facebook or Myspace.This friends list will help you find their profile page easily to read what's happening to them in the game and contact them via private messages.

...And if you want, there's more!
So, now you know that we will be offering a profile page to every Cities XL player even for Solo players. Now, Solo players will have their cities hosted on their own computer, in their harddrive while players that subscribe to the Planet Offer will have their cities in our servers to ensure all the visit, trade and other MMO features.

Therefore, players who will subscribe to the Planet Offer will have some other information and features available on their profile page: it will be your permanent link to the game.

It allows you not only to take part in the community’s life, along with the Solo players, but also to play even when you are not in front of the PC on which you installed the game. If you are part of the Planet Offer, whether you are on holidays, in a cybercafe or at work, you can join the community and act on your cities in a matter of minutes.

You will be informed in real time of everything that is happening around your game. That way, if one of the contracts signed with your friends somehow becomes invalid because one of the cities involved is unable to provide the required resources, you will be notified right away and will be able to react directly from your profile page. For instance by contacting your friend and having him solve the situation , or by obtaining another contract from another city to make up for the lack of resources.

With this page we wanted to give players a full set of information and tools that will allow them to interact with their cities and with other players from anywhere and at any time.

Whether you have to stay in contact with your friends, manage your Blueprints and Megastructures, manage your contracts or publish your City Journal, the web site will be your daily friend in the Cities XL community.

We will soon talk in detail about all these functionalities in an upcoming blog entry. Until then, we invite you to share your comments and suggestions with us.

Tags: CitiesXL, News

Comments

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What happens after?
# Jul 07 2009 at 11:59 AM Rating: Decent
lol Wierd how I wasn't sure whether to use Caps on H and A in my Subject Heading :p

I have to admit that I'm new to hearing about this beta (which I'm currently downloading with glee on my Sim-loving face :p ^^) But I'm wondering as to a few things that I seem unable to find in the forums (and I have to go to the Dr. so I'm hoping that someone can clear this up for me so I don't have a trillion windows open while I should be getting ready ^^)

1) When (Or already?) do the subscription fees come into play? Do we get charged now, or do we worry about that at the official release?

2) After the beta, what happens to our beta versions/keys... will they still be valid and able to be used after the beta period? If no and we are needing to repurchase at the release, what will we need to do as far as keeping our account/keys etc? (And if there's patches, how that will work).

I think that's pretty much it, unless you can think of things to add that I might think of later ^^. I thank you very much for both your time and the oppurtunity to test this... I'll do my best to attempt to give a decent and fair (and active) response via the forums at the main site.

I'm posting this here, however, so that 1) it might be seen admidst the ton of topics in the main forums (and are difficult to uncover the facts I need anyways lol) and also because this is where I found out about it. Salute to Zam & WoWinterface for having brought me here, lots of loves!

In addition, I'd like to suggest that if these questions aren't in the faqs (or at least in the Newcomer's area of the forums at the main site).

I'll be back laters, I look forward to replies ^_^
bleh
# May 13 2009 at 1:19 PM Rating: Decent
Hopefully any online nonsense will be completely optional, but from what I'm reading that won't be the case. That's just what I want is another Rockstar Social Club jammed down my throat.

Not everyone sits on facebook and browses myspace all day.
bleh
# May 14 2009 at 12:09 AM Rating: Decent
Hi Bleh,

As a community Manager at Monte Cristo I can answer this one :)
Well most of the functionalities available on the Website will also be implemented directly in the game (trading,chat,etc.), so if you don't want to use the website online you won't have to; except for some specific parts like retrieving Megastructures for instance...
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