The first post-release DLC for SimCity has been released, and it's, well... it's an ad. You can plop down Nissan LEAF (objectionable capitals Nissan's own) charging stations for a boost in happiness. The DLC is free, as are the buildings in the game. They act more or less like parks.

It's common to rail against advertising in games. I, however, think that this DLC is perfectly fine. Desirable, in fact. But its timing? It couldn't be worse.

SimCity is a city simulator. I would love if my cities could have real businesses. If McDonald's, say, wants to pay EA some money so that my commercial zones can occasionally sprout some golden arches, so much the better. We can already build certain real-world landmark buildings. Adding real-world companies is a step in the same direction.

Moreover, this is precisely the form that in-game advertising should take. It's realistic. If we were seeing Leaf billboards in a first person shooter set in 2070, or, worse, 1870, then yes, that'd be an unwanted intrusion. But it isn't. It's designed in a way that's consistent with the rest of the SimCity artwork. It fits in.

The problem I have is simply the timing. EA has delivered a game that is broken in a variety of important ways. The company's sole priority at this point in time should be making the simulation work. It requires major rewriting to do that (either an abandonment of the agent model, or a substantially overhauled model, to include persistent agents with assigned homes and workplaces, sensible pathfinding, and proper education), and it requires a much richer set of transport options. It also has some glorious bugs: set the tax rate to zero percent, and your sims cease to care about having water, electricity, jobs to go to, or anything else. Result? 1.8 million happy citizens. As it is, the simulation aspect is not even beta quality.

It's for that reason that this DLC rubs me up the wrong way; EA is making yet more money from a flawed game before introducing steps to fix it.

True, the people who developed this DLC are unlikely to overlap meaningfully with the people whose job it is to fix the game (presuming that there even are such people). I don't think that's really the point, though. When your game is fundamentally flawed, this kind of overt profit-taking serves only to salt the wound. It betrays that money, rather than artistry or taking pride in their work, is primarily what EA cares about.

But perhaps anyone who's already bought SimCity knows that already.