Your SimCity just got sponsored, courtesy of Nissan.

Plunk down a Nissan LEAF charging station in your city, and it will "provide happiness to the Sims that use it and a onetime wave of happiness to the nearby businesses," EA announced via its official SimCity forums on Tuesday.

The real question is, will the actual people who finally have the ability to play SimCity find themselves happier after being exposed to Nissan advertising?

In-game advertising is nothing new, of course. James Pond 2 had built-in advertisements for Penguin biscuits as early as 1991, and the sidelines in sports videogames have for years been just as plastered with ads as their real-world counterparts. Barack Obama's 2008 campaign even took to the streets of Burnout: Paradise with big virtual billboards.

Sometimes these in-game advertising campaigns can get pretty creative: At one point, Everquest II players were able to order Pizza Hut pizza and have it delivered to their door, all without ever leaving the game.

But it's rare for an in-game advertisement to actually have a direct impact on gameplay in a game. "Happiness" is one of the many factors that players have to manage as mayors of their virtual metropolis in SimCity. Now, use of the Nissan Leaf product results directly in a smoother gameplay experience. Use Nissan, win at SimCity.

I'd like to think that the implications of businesses only getting a "one-time" boost of happiness from being near a Nissan LEAF charging station is subtle commentary from the SimCity devs about the futility of futurism as a solution to human grief and suffering.

But, you know, probably not.

The Nissan LEAF DLC is free and available now.