But there’s something different about CityVille. It’s got just enough SimCity in it to make it slightly more interesting than just pointing and clicking. And a lot of people in Silicon Valley who are busy doing productive things for society are doing more than giving the game a passing glance. They’re sticking around, at least for now.

Most surprising? Bing Gordon. Former Chief Creative Officer of Electronic Arts. Current partner at venture capital powerhouse firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

He’s also maxed out CityVille. A level 60 player. There are no more levels after that. That’s a picture of his city above. if you look hard enough you’ll see a seafood restaurant that I added to his city as a franchise. It’s called “Michael’s Seafood Restaurant.”

Even throwing cash at the game, that takes a lot of time. For “research purposes” I’ve played CityVille and have reached level 26. My guess is level 60 is something like 75 hours of gameplay, and he probably spent at least a few hundred dollars as well. Maybe more.

Gordon is a Zynga board member and clearly has an interest in the company. But I don’t think that explains this kind of passion for a game. There are other senior execs throughout Silicon Valley who are also serious CityVille players as well. None as crazy as Bing though.

Like I said, there’s something more to this game just the ones before. Zynga and others are evolving quickly. It’ll be interesting, and time consuming, to see what comes next.

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Authors: Michael Arrington

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