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Welcome to our first edition of the VIP INSIDER magazine

Here today we welcome our members to our new look SCBI VIP

groups. To start with, we have launched our first edition of our monthly

Magazine, VIP Insider. Here, we will run various features together with

some great tips and advice, a look at some of our great Mayors and

See what Epics have done to the Global HQ and indeed, to us! Enjoy

the content and we look forward to your feedback on the Forum page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/841020736004861/?fref=ts

Contents

The Psychology of Epics! ................................................... 3

Admin Interview .................................................................... 6

Some Of Our Great Mayors ................................................. 8

Build It Survey .................................................................... 10

Judy’s Corner ..................................................................... 11

RIO Update .......................................................................... 13

The Blacklist ....................................................................... 14

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The Psychology of Epics!

"Stop Raiding My Depot"

Once upon a time in a galaxy far away

SimCity BuildIt was born and EA's Evil Empire rose too - aka SCBI Facebook trade groups. Trade Alliances rebelled against the SimCity BuildIt bottlenecks and trading started, as did the War Of The Ratios - and Pirate Mayors showed up too. So, a mob of Jedi Mayors created a rule to secure items during the trading process: yes...all hail the "$1 Rule". The "$1 Rule" is a group-wide principle telling visiting neighbours that $1 items are not to be taken. Of course, there are genuine accidents where $1 items are taken and returned without issue, but sadly, sometimes, they're stolen with malicious intent - and all Mayors know how we Admins deal with theft!!! But the $1 rule has other uses too: to secure items Mayors give to friends/neighbours, hold items safely when moving them to your feeders/satellites, and can even extend the storage capacity of your city, temporarily! Since the beginnings of the game in 2014, the depot was the principle way to earn money. Mayors loaded their depots with full price items and walked away, returning to collect the Simoleons with a smile. What Mayors did not do was pay too much attention as to who

bought what: they did not care, they just wanted the Simoleons, the coin, the gold, the moolah. But then, on 15th December 2015, trouble came: the Death Star update...EPICS! Many Mayors went cray cray! Since the Epic Projects update, Mayors doing these Epics are, suddenly, not so 'whatever' about selling their depots to just any of their neighbours for the coin, but have become rather protective and selective about the full price (cough cough) items in their depots being bought only by their Epic-doing and Epic-helping friends! Comments in chat rooms and PM's are being sent with the following phrases: ...you took too many items from my depot; ... the things in my depot are for my friends who are helping me with Epics; ... those items were reserved for a specific person; ... give back such and such items; ... only take what you need, not what you might need later!!! Well...on the last point, "only take what you need," all Mayors doing Epics will know that as they move around their Epic's ticked tasks, they end up with a load of un-ticked tasks, as many as five or more, sometimes! And what do they do then? Yeah, exactly, they go shopping in the Global Trade AND their friend's depots: friends who purposely fill their depots with useful, hard-to-get items for their friends to buy, AND who are happily reputed for having a 'sexy depot'. So, what if they, for example, then stumble on a friend's depot with everything full-price that they NEED from that gigantic list of un-ticked tasks? Yuh huh, they damn well buy them all because guess what, yes, they need them.

People are doing epics 24 hours a day, it is constant, someone is always doing an epic

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and nobody doing them is thinking in real-time about "what I might need later", they are only thinking about the "OMG I need that NOW! So Mayors, please, do not be supposing you know what other Mayors do and do not need because you yourself go shopping with a long list too. Also, do not be stocking a 'sexy depot' then complaining about Mayors buying it. Remember, they were already on your friends list for valid reasons and were buying your items. What happened to change the way you viewed them? Oh yes...EPICS!!! Mayors are unfriending their neighbours for these reasons which creates, Ghosts - another new, growing problem. Granted, there are some greedy Mayors infamous for 'assassinating depots', unpleasantly referred to as 'depot rape'. Such Mayors will do that regardless of need, and regardless of them doing epics or not, they just shop like there is a war on: so fair enough, deal with them accordingly. But generally speaking, the Psychology of Epics is changing the full-price depot mentality and, it should not be! Why: a) because we all need coin to do epics and build or we will lose a lot of income long-term; b) we cannot change the SCBI sociology of 'full-price item is fair game' to the lucky Mayor; c) our game time has more moaning and PM'ing going on than ever; and d) it alters the higher, principle uses of 'The $1 Rule". So Mayors, what can you do...? One thing we should do is end the, "that was reserved for someone else" when somebody takes a full-price item. If spreading the help among your epic-helping doing friends is important to you, and you are listing an 'asked for' item for a friend to collect, then wait until they PM you saying, "I'm at your depot." Or, just post it for $1 so it is safe!? Why not...worried you will lose coin? Hmm, you will not lose coin overall if you are getting $1 help from them too. Some mayors use the philosophy of, ".if I made it, it's $1, if I shopped it, it's full-price." Either way, these optional solutions are one-to-one agreements that can be made quickly

and simply and will reduce the messy issues mentioned above. Let us all keep in mind why we are here. We all help each other to ease the bottlenecks deliberately put into the game. So, if you filled your depot today or helped even one person finish a task, a build, or a Vu disaster, then you are a good Mayor. Group Admins protect you, we are long-standing Mayors of good reputation whom network with all groups. But we cannot protect the full-price item because full-price items have no rights: that's why we created and uphold "The $1 Rule". As for everything else, we trust in your intelligence to manage your depots with your neighbours and keep good relations as good Mayors do. Of course, haha, your newest problem is finding storage!!!

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Admin Interview

We have decided that in each addition of VIP Insider we would take a moment to sit

down with an admin of the group to get to know

each of them a little better. For this first edition we sat down with Judy

Sakata. Judy is also one of our contributors for

VIP Insider and you can read her section of

Judy’s corner – tips on being a good neighbour

featured on page (11)

Judy has been playing SimCity Buildit now for

about 6 months and joined our admin team

about 4 months ago. She enjoys helping our

members with all aspects of the game and also

enjoys how helpful our members are to each

other.

VIP I - Tell us a little about yourself.

Judy – I am from Honolulu, Hawaii, I am

married and we have a son. I work as an

accountant and in my spare time I enjoy

swimming and baking.

VIP I – What is your favourite type of movies

and who is your favourite actor or actress?

Judy – I enjoy dramas and my favourite actor

is Richard Gere.

VIP I – And what about music? Who is your

favourite group or singer?

Judy – I especially like Ed Sheehan and his

song Photograph.

VIP I – Moving on to the game, what is it about

SCBI that got you hooked?

Judy – I enjoy getting to build the city of my

dreams the way I want it.

VIP I – What part of the game frustrates you

most?

Judy – That would be the land and storage

upgrades for sure, I don’t really like having to

search for so many parts.

VIP I – Out of all the update rollouts which

one(s) have you liked the most?

Judy – I like the Paris, London updates, and

especially like the epic projects.

VIP I – Are there any rollouts or parts of the

game that you would label as the worst?

Judy – The global market, I think the

developers need to come up with an easy way

to filter or find what players are looking for.

VIP I – What’s your strategy for making

simolians?

Judy – I look for the most profitable and most

wanted items by people, and then I make

those items and sell them.

VIP I – What is your main focus item now that

you are making?

Judy – I’m currently focusing on bread and

nails.

VIP I – What are some items that you buy most

on the global market?

Judy – I mainly buy items that take a long time

to make and that don’t have a high selling price

for profit like microwaves, mowers and yogurt.

VIP I – Ok, last question concerning the game,

about how much time do you spend playing

the game each day?

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Judy – About 4 hours a day during the

weekdays. On the weekends I might play more

or less, in most cases I play less.

VIP I – We’re going to start wrapping this up

now with a few questions around the VIP trade

and forum groups. Where do you see the VIP

groups in 6 months?

Judy - Seeing that SCBI is a popular game

and we are a good, strong group I can only see

VIP’s member numbers continue to grow.

VIP I – The final 2 questions will have to do

with advice to our members and players. What

advice would you give to new players and new

members?

Judy – For new players I would say have

patients, take your time and go slow, it’s easier

to collect land and storage at lower levels and

it’s hard to build money at first so focus on

building up your funds before you go all out on

building your city. For new members I would

say be sure to read our rules and guidelines

and make good friends with regular players.

And if you find a friend’s depot full of just one

or two items take only enough to help yourself

and leave the rest to help others.

VIP I – And what advice would you give our

more experienced players and members?

Judy – Help the new players, take time to read

their questions posted in the forums and give

them advice and guidance.

VIP I – Judy, thank you for taking time with us

today and sharing about yourself and your

takes on the game and our wonderful group

here.

Judy – Thank you for having me, I’ve enjoyed

sharing with our members.

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Some Of Our Great

Mayors

Here in the VIP community we are blessed

with an active and loyal membership and all of

you contribute to the Forum and Trade pages,

and our Chat Rooms. Pictured below are some

of our Mayors who stand out as very helpful

neighbours with great depots and seem totally

addicted to the game. We will feature more

great Mayors in future issues but you will

recognise the faces below.

Andy Dotulong

Mike Martinez

Dennis Parker

Joe Bushneck Sherryl Buchler

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Miri Wilkins Michele E Castillo

Joze Bidois JoJo Jmz

Lorie Curtis Ruthie Higbee

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Build It Survey

As we look around the community of SimCity

Build-It we see the different ways in which Mayors build, trade, help neighbours and grow their status in the game. This little survey is just to get an idea of the goals and motivations of our Mayors which might very well help us to run competitions and prizes aimed at your goals. A forum post "VIP Forum Survey" will be created to best follow the progress of this survey. What we ask is, copy the questions below, paste them in the comments of the forum post and answer them there and post them?! The VIP Admins will head-up the survey with their own answers today. GENERAL How long have you been playing SimCity Build-It? On a scale of 1 (not very) to 10 (need therapy), how addicted to the game are you? Do you make a note of the time when items cooking in your factories and shops will be ready? How many item prices do you remember: 10% of them? 50%, or even all of them?

Do you always remember to log-in to collect your taxes every day; and visit Daniel every day? Which did/do you work on expanding first: land or storage? What is the main goal in your city building plan: population or design/cosmetic appearance? Which of the specialised Residential types do you prefer: Residential Zone, Tokyo, London or Paris? What is the happiness percentage in your city? EPIC PROJECTS Have you built Epic Towers; how many do you want to build, and what level: Bronze, Silver, or Gold? How many Epic Towers have you built?, and what level are they: Bronze, Silver, or Gold. On a scale of 1 (easy) to 10 (hard), how difficult would you say Epics are? How do you prepare for an epic: do you craft items for a couple of days then do an Epic,shop for what you need as each task tells you what it needs, or a mixture of both? How much, on average, are Epics costing you each time? INCOME How easy, or hard, do you find it to grow Simoleons? Do you have a method for earning Simoleons: maybe you alternate weeks, selling items and building? Do you run out of Simoleons quite often? Do you trade? Do you hunt for items to trade in the Global Trade, or do you gather them from popping Bubbles

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On a scale of 1 (tiresome) to 10 (exciting) do you find the whole trading experience?

Judy’s Corner

About SimCity – Judy Sakata

As I remember, I started playing SimCity

Buildit on Aug 22, 2015. In the beginning, I have no idea about this game or how to play, all I know is building a city. When I started this game, I played it on my own, no neighbour, not even join any groups on Facebook, so it is so hard for me. I didn’t do well in the beginning and made mistakes, bulldozed buildings I didn’t like and run out of money to continue playing. So, what I am going to do? Either restart a new city or not play at all. Once I knew that I can’t restart my city from EA I decided to continue and made a plan for my city. In the meantime I joined VIP group and their chat room, met some new people there and learnt how to play this game in a smart way for myself. I stopped at level 11 for a month to earn a lot of keys first as the boat requirement is easy. Once I got enough keys I bought the transportation items to boost the population. I also took advantage at a lower level to do the storage and land as it is easy to find the items.

If you ask me, what is the best way to play this game, all I can say is “Patients” and don’t rush to build. I remember I opened VU tower on level 14 and Tokyo on level 19. By that time I was still working on storage upgrades, so I took advantage of trading remotes and Tokyo with people to get storage and I jumped up from 310 to 350 in 2 days. Once I'd finished Storage I used it to trade for Land. Around the same time Paris Town came, so I used this to trade for land too. Here is my advice, concentrate on one thing at a time, expand storage first in the first because you can hold lot of things when you move on high level. Do not keep all special items in stock, use it to get the item you need, do thing step by step. I remember I traded all my London to expand the new 12 slot land update and I expanded in 10 days. I saw a lot of posts from people asking how to make money! Of course there are lots of ways to do it. As we all know, nails are the most profitable item in the game, but how many hours you can spend every day, not too much right, especially if you have to work in real life. So I would suggest to make special items which it is hard to find at global and people want badly like; flour, cheese, bread and pizza. “I made my first 1M coins just selling lot of bread to people”, No hacks or cheats. Once I had enough funds I finished my storage and land upgrades so I can move up to the next level. I used storage and land to trade back Paris, London and Tokyo, and I started building my city. Most people are talking about feeders, a second city. The good thing about a feeder city is it helps to produce stuff for your main city especially for the new epic project. So far I have 28 gold, 10 silver and 2 bronze buildings, and I built them mainly by myself - sounds crazy, yes it is. You might ask how I did it. We’ll all I can say is, “Prepare well.”

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We don’t know what items the epic tasks will ask or how much, hard to guess, so I suggest you shop the hard to find items in global trade as it takes long time to make, like cheesecake, bread. Usually, the item I can find easily from global trade are light bulbs, TVs and gnomes etc. If you just start the epic, I would suggest you do silver first with lower starting cost and take your time to finish it. For me, it doesn’t make any sense to buy all items to finish it in an hour, then wait for 23 hours for building upgrade, so why you have to finish it in rush? Once you have enough silver tokens (at least you can get 3 or 4 per day), use it to speed up the production and preparing it for gold. The next thing I want to talk about is becoming VIP admin. I like helping people more than playing this game, knowing what people need and trying to help them. “To become a good neighbour, all you need is caring, sharing, and respect”. Reputation is important, it takes time to build it, but you can destroy it in a second. Learning give and take, forgive and forgot, even though it is just a game it also shows who you are, your personality. We all play this game just for fun so why not just enjoy it and do things to make yourself happy. I always say “do whatever you feel comfortable, this is your game” Enjoy the Game, your friendly Admin Judy Sakata

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RIO Update

Carnival Update Well, we were all wondering

what the Rio Carnival was going to be and how

much it was going to cost us. We don't think it

was as expensive as we thought except EA

have once again favoured iOS users with two

extra parks.

You can build limited time Rio Carnival Parks

in your city and immerse your citizens in the

fun and laughter of Carnival for your Sims to

celebrate. Available to all game platforms are:

Carnival Parade costing 12,000 Simoleons

Carnival Gate costing 5 golden key

Two additional Carnival Parks exclusive to iOS

users are:

Carnival Stage costing 10 golden keys

Parrot Statue costing 250 Simcash

You can find them in the Parks Specialisation

menu; look for the exclusive Rio Carnival icon

next to these festival parks.

Holiday parks boost your city population just

like regular parks. Tap on a park to see its

details. Rio Carnival Parks are only available

for limited time in SimCity BuildIt starting when

you first get a note from the festivals

The timer next to the carnival mask icon will

tell you exactly how much time you have left.

Once the time is up, you will no longer be able

to buy these parks for your city.

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The Blacklist

One of the biggest concerns of the Admin

Team is the safety of our Mayors $1 depot

items when trading or exchanging things with

other Mayors. The "$1 Rule" is a multi-group

policy that nobody has an excuses not to

know. Unfortunately there are some Mayors

whom insist on stealing these items if they

stumble upon them, worse, there have been

Mayors who will actively watch trade pages to

target depots during a trade. Below you will

find the current Blacklist of Mayors and we

strongly advise you to remove anyone on this

list from your friends.

Christopher Drew Will take $1 items if he sees

them.

Todd Potter Took 80 $1 items, then

blocked/unfriended the guy he stole from.

Took $1 items. Did not respond to requests to

return.

Melodie Anaelle Roussel Took $1 items. Did

not respond to requests to return.

Marian Cojocaru Took $1 items. Did not

respond to requests to return.

Poomdej Sapphuriwat Took $1 items. Did not

respond to requests to return.

Ben Watkins Took $1 items. Refused to return

items.

Eddie Lynn (Zona Zoo) Took 50 burgers at $1.

Did not respond to requests to return.

Matthew Dywane Necaise Does not think it's a

problem when people have $1 items stolen.

Réczi Tamás Took a $1 item. Refused to

return.

Aqeel Lal (aka King) Hacking that endangers

Mayors cities. Self-incriminating statements.

Offered keys and simcash as prizes for

contests by requesting player ID's.

Saad Shahid Hacking. Posted screenshots

showing he had hacked simcash.

Mohammed Briedy Took $1 items, then

unfriended and blocked

Marco Ferchland (Blue City) Will steal your $1

items if seen.

Melodie Anaelle Roussel Took $1 items. Did

not respond to requests to return.

Steven Marshall Took $1 items. Did not

respond to requests to return.

The full "Blacklist"post can be found by clicking

the link below. The Blacklist is

Kept up-to-date by SimCity BuildIt Official

Group, in friendship and collaboration with VIP

Forum and VIP Trade.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/simcity-

buildit-official-group/theblacklist

/46267930725276