SimCity is one of the greatest games in all of computer gamedom. It's one of those rare titles that has crossed over into the mainstream, but without the contempt many hardcore gamers have for other mainstream titles like Tomb Raider (3D and 40DD in one game), Myst (the beginning of the end for the adventure genre?) and Deer Hunter (Bubba learns to use a mouse). It is at once a gamer's game and a non-gamer's game.

SimCity has maintained its depth of play, its gender-neutral appeal, and its sense of humor. It hasn't changed dramatically since Will Wright's first installment back in 1989. You drag select residential, commercial, and industrial zones and sit back and watch your city grow. It is the digital equivalent of Sea Monkeys, with bustling urban sprawl instead of murky brine shrimp in a bowl. It is an ant farm with gleaming skyscrapers and bustling traffic instead of bugs burrowing through dirty tunnels. It appeals to that part of us all that likes to watch things grow and flourish. And then, for the little boy in us all that likes to knock down the sand castles we've built, there are disasters. Carefully nurture your metropolis until it's a vast, well-oiled machine and then visit a tornado or earthquake upon it. It's chaos from order, but the kind that lets you reload to start again. It is destruction without consequence.