I downloaded the SimCity Societies demo the other day to see what it was all about. I read reviews that said it’s not anything like SimCity and SimCity fans would be disappointed. One review also said it was too easy, but I disagree! It was too hard to make a profit and keep the budget balanced, because the building upkeep was so much more than the profit you made from workers. Maybe the demo was made harder than the game, or maybe I just need to learn more about the gameplay. I heard there are some patches available, so maybe they make it easier! If so, I think it would be fun to play to create a city that looks the way you want, whether it has fun, creative buildings or dirty industrial and manufacturing buildings. Even so it probably won’t be as addictive as SimCity 4 because it’s so simplified and has less to manage. I think I may wait until the price drops before I buy it.

I have just one employee in my hair salon business (Open For Business expansion), and she won’t come in to work because she’s underpaid. She says something about not coming in if she’s not paid enough. I have a feeling she’ll stay in the list of employees until I either increase her pay or fire her. But I think the only way to do that would be to increase the relationship with her and invite her over, then maybe the options to fire or manage wage will be available.  I went back to the business a few times and I think it happened each time. But suddenly one of the times I went back to the business and called her in, she came in to work! So I immediately changed her wage and I think we’re good now.

I installed Google Lively today and gave it a try: http://www.lively.com/ I selected a popular room and choose an avatar, then hid the avatar pane when it wouldn’t go away. But then I didn’t see any other tool bar buttons (to change wardrobe or create room) and I didn’t see myself or other people! The help center wasn’t very helpful, I tried both Firefox and IE 7. (I have Windows Vista). Javascript was enabled, but I decided to try enabling other options as well. In IE Security Tab, Custom Level, under Miscellaneous, I enabled the ’scripting of IE Web browser control’ and ‘allow websites to open windows without address or status bars’. I think that was it. I closed the dialogs, refreshed the page, and suddenly I could see the toolbar and black shapes for people start to load up! Although it’s a little slow loading up, it may be fun.