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SimCity Trains Bad Urban Planners
An anonymous reader writes "The global eco tech blog Worldchanging has a post commenting on about how SimCity borks urban planner ideas of how cities really work in the real world." From the entry: "While some of Lobo & Schooler's complaints arise from the fact that SimCity is built as a game -- the "God Mode," for example -- most derive from inability to modify the underlying model, whether to include mixed-use development (the ground-floor commercial/upper-floor residential buildings which help to make dense urban environments livable), to vary the demand ratings for various services, to make pedestrian travel more acceptable, or to alter the efficiency and availability of renewable power generation."
It's a game. It is as realistic as shooting evil devil-possessed demons on a martian base. It is not an urban-planning training tool, it's mild enternainment. This has as much credibility as extraterestrial rights campaigners complaining that Alf was lock in his room all the time and deprived of deeper socio-political stimulatory contact.
The pople who actually use SimCity as part of any real life planning scenario should be sacked. And forbidden to work on anything, ever again.
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
And here I was thinking that I could actually cause Godzilla to run through the city as New York's urban planner. *rolls eyes*
This is sort of like saying "Mario has taught children to hate the environment as they now stomp on turtles." Patently absurd.
Does Civilization train bad world leaders?
:P )
(No jokes about real people, please.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Halo doesn't properly instruct future supersoldiers
Half-Life shows an unrealistic picture of the profession of a physics Ph.D.
Battlefield 1942 misrepresents the look and feel of Wake Island
I could go on.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
(At least the original) Sim City was described by the developers as a toy, not a game, because you can't really win, but there are so many possibilities to play with it.
Yes, I'm nitpicking. But it's true.
I don't need a signature.
It disturbs me that games like the Doom series, Enemy Territory et all are training poor mass murderers. I mean in those games, you get to die and come right back in the game within a minute. They are also learning that you can go right out, work by yourself, and still whack tons of the enemy.
Our young wanna be mass murderers are getting the wrong idea. We need more games that teach proper planning and team work. We need games that teach our youth to properly scout out locations... sometimes spending days getting to know the terrain. If indoors to search for alternate escape routes that must be blocked. We need to teach our youth how to work together to create the maximum body count. And we need to teach them that you don't get to come back once the police shoot you. Make the most of the one opportunity you get.
I blame our game makers for our lack of good mass murderers.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Actually, Paul Starr made the same basic complaints about the assumptions hidden in the underlying model of SimCity in a 1994 in The American Prospect, "The Seductions of Sim."
I live in Athens Greece, which must rank as one of the er less desirable high density population areas
in terms of green area (at least in Europe). But, if you pick the right place (like where I am now - no don't ask) it's pretty good even for a convinced ruralite like myself (from East Anglia UK).
Mixed business and accomodation keeps a city centre vibrant and alive. The alternative - seen widely in my homeland (the UK) is desolate wastelands filled with security cameras and muggers. This morning, I could have picked from
at least 5 or 6 bakeries within walking distance for my breakfast (yummy fresh bread). Actually,
I know which one I go to because I end up debating
football (soccer to you US people) before returning to the office... Life. Get one!
(no money here though).
Funny thing here. Nobody worries about muggers or rapists here. It (mostly) doesn't happen.
I wish urban planners would look more carefully at the mediterranean model. Just like diet, it seems to work (albeit sometimes painfully slowly for my tastes).
I can't blame games designers for designing games based on their local cultural predujices. But, I wish we could find ones that tell the whole story.
(Hint: Small pockets of the US aren't the US, let
alone the rest of the world).
Anybody who thinks we are living in some sort of paradise here, please note - it isn't. (Don't ever
expect to actually get paid for that work you did).
But the bread makes it all worthwhile (crunch, crunch).
Best wishes from
not so sunny (rather cold at the moment)
Athens Greece.
Andy Allen.
...a Cluestick in the box. So these people can beat themselves over the fucking head with it.
I am in a graduate planning program and I love playing SimCity. I don't think that the game has an effect on how I approach planning. I feel the exact opposite has occurred: I find myself hating aspects of the game that fail to reflect reality. The summary notes the lack of mixed use development. The game also fails in trip generation, physics, and connectivity. Despite its flaws, it's a fun diversion, so I play it.
I think that the "bad planners" that learn from SimCity might be those in muncipalities that do nothing but zoning; when a town relies on zoning without a comprehensive plan, design ordinance or any other form of "planning" you are left with the suburban sprawl and commercial strip development that plagues the American landscape. We need a revival of the City Beautiful movement, which some believe can be found in New Urbanism.