A former beta-tester who had one of the biggest "mmo suggestion" threads in the beta forums, reposted some of that thread in the current fan forums that are acting as the "official" forums for the game.

In that original beta thread, there were a TON of suggestions, good and bad, simple and not, for improving the mmo aspect of the game, which just about all agreed was seriously lacking.

Now, I bring this up because the game has a small, but pretty "devout" following over on these other fan forums.  A following that is usually pretty "pro" towards the current version of the game, and pretty optimistic about its future.  Yet....here's just a taste of their responses to "mmo improvements":

"That's a long list of nice sounding stuff, but it would require a full re-working of the whole game from the ground up.

Really, making an MMO city-sim is a poor fit. City-sims are more single player than multiplayer.
The man-hours put into developing the MMO aspects of the game will detract from the time needed to make a good city simulator. "
 

"To make the game more MMO, they could add "online" to the name!"

"City-building game is typical single-player game. It can never been MMO."

"Anyhow, I'd rather see them put their efforts into improving the actual city simulator and make MMO secondary."

This one is quite good...they admit the mmo part is lacking, but think it shouldn't be improved:

"The current MMO model in CITIESXL loses it's appeal after one chooses a map and begins to play. As others have said, the MMO part of the city simulator should/must be secondary."

So, one has to wonder:  If this small sample of "diehard" fans of the game aren't interested in the MMO-aspects being worked on/improved, then what are the chances that it will get the attention it needs to fix it?

I'm doubtful this can turn around into a legit mmo.

I think you are pretty much right. The fan base is basically made up of SimCity fans (i spend a lot more time on Sim City forums that I do this one). They (ok... we) have been crying out for a better SimCity for years, CitiesXL promised this and almost delivered. I think they want the game to succeed.

I don't know but I imagine the MMO aspects are more influenced by nationstates and web mmos' than WoW or GW. But after defending this game on these forums throughout development, i'll admit i was wrong, it clearly doesn't really work.

Maybe the MMO function could work if they had alliances, trade blocs, politics etc along the Nationstates or ERepublic model. But to get to your original point, the fanbase want a city builder not an MMO, but accept that the genre is niche and the standard model of development and selling boxed copies ast £40 a time will not pay for the development and ongoing improvement so the MMO have been tacked on the get subscription revenue (imho). They would of been better off along the The Sims approach to releasing add-ons periodically for a fee or somthing.

Could you link to your post?

It was the "How to make the game more mmo" thread in the general CXL forums at Simtropolis.  It was started by KevinArt, who was a prolific beta poster, and actually ran the original "make it more mmo" thread on the beta forums.

Hope that helps.

What's the cost structure to this game, I meant to try it at some point, does it have a free trial?

There is no free trial, and even if you do buy, there is only one week of online play included in the purchase price starting effectively the moment you install the game, even if you want only to try the solo mode before going online.

Be aware of this before you buy.