Cisco has had success promoting it’s ASR routers through the “Cisco Edge Quest” games – the first one being a 3D “shoot-em-up” without the shooting, and the second one being a rail racer much like AudioSurf.

But Cisco’s released a new game called “myPlanNet” which is essentially a SimCity clone based around Cisco technology… a… “SimCisco,” if you will.

It reminded me especially of AeroBiz, the old airline simulator games from the 16-bit era.  At any rate, Cisco’s myPlanNet game consists of you choosing to be a Phone Service company, a Cable TV service company, or a Mobile Service company.  It doesn’t matter what you choose because within a few turns, all three are basically indistinguishable.  You roll out services (enabled by Cisco products you buy) and try to manage consumer satisfaction while making a profit. 

I’m not quite sure what kind of company you’re supposed to be running, as you pay to develop technologies that you need to buy Cisco’s gear in order to use.  I’m also not sure that it’s a little overbroad – and that if it wasn’t a computerized fantasy world, you might have to deal with the FTC before going into so many markets that you end up becoming the ruler of the entire telecommunications infrastructure of the known game universe.  

It’s not a particularly hard game, but the networking screen gives you a very good overview of Cisco’s product line, and you’re introduced to each one when you roll out a new technology that could use it.  And the technologies it covered basically mirrored consumer adoption of the Internet, and gives you a good idea of where we’re going as well.  All of it is current technology, though not necessarily currently commercially viable.  Things like holograms, for example, are certainly a cool Cisco technology, but I’m not sure that they’re going to have much more practical use than the television screen.  Then again, I thought Twitter was a fad too. 

What isn’t a fad is the idea of using interactive media in marketing; going beyond the idea of advertising in games to giving product information as the game.  I think it’s probably one of those weird cultural shifts that we’ll find as the Nintendo kids turn thirty and start taking on more responsibility in purchasing decisions.