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How 'SimCity' Inspired a Generation of City Planners (latimes.com)

Posted by msmash on from the fascinating dept.

Jessica Roy, writing for LA Times: Thirty years ago, Maxis released "SimCity" for Mac and Amiga. It was succeeded by "SimCity 2000" in 1993, "SimCity 3000" in 1999, "SimCity 4" in 2003, a version for the Nintendo DS in 2007, "SimCity: BuildIt" in 2013 and an app launched in 2014. Along the way, the games have introduced millions of players to the joys and frustrations of zoning, street grids and infrastructure funding -- and influenced a generation of people who plan cities for a living.

For many urban and transit planners, architects, government officials and activists, "SimCity" was their first taste of running a city. It was the first time they realized that neighborhoods, towns and cities were things that were planned, and that it was someone's job to decide where streets, schools, bus stops and stores were supposed to go.

5 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. City Planners are crazy by sinij · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Where I live, city planners seem to be certifiably crazy. It is harsh winter 5 out of 12 month here, yet they keep eliminating lanes by adding bike lanes. This results in more traffic congestion and road sections that are unused for significant part of the year.

    1. Re:City Planners are crazy by Whatsisname · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, city planners have just realized what you have failed to realize: we can't solve traffic unless we get rid of the cars. You can't build enough highway lanes to solve traffic congestion. Building wider streets and bigger highways just ends up spreading everything out more and more, and thus necessitating more and more car travel. It's a positive feedback system.

      Planners have realized that we need to go back to building cities for people, not for cars. Bike lanes are just one part of that. Slowing down traffic is another.

  2. We need SimResources too by wcrowe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I wish there were also SimFood, SimEnergy, SimWater etc. Maybe it could all be covered under SimResources. Perhaps it would give millennial urbanites, who think that food, water and energy just magically show up at their local Starbucks, Trader Joes and so on, a clue as to where that stuff comes from and that the values and livelihoods of the people in other parts of the country who provide their food and energy actually matter.

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    Proverbs 21:19
  3. Nobody mentions Tropico? by WolfgangVL · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The real successor to Sim-City.

    Secret police, wiretaps, and rigged elections! Art imitates life, eh Presidente?

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    You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
  4. Re: missing one thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    or childrearing

    Compulsory sterilization is the solution here.