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How 'SimCity' Inspired a Generation of City Planners (latimes.com)
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.
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.
Grew up on Sim City. Started on C64.
Thank you Maxis, and screw you EA.
I learnt a lot from Sim City, I know all cities on earth will inevitably get destroyed when the town planners get bored and call on all sorts of disasters to wipe the slate clean and start again.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
How 'SimCity' Inspired a Generation of City Planners
(Player adds infinite cash) Mmmmmm...gonna get me some kickback action!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
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.
Proverbs 21:19
When I was young and playing SimCity 3000, I loved building up cities and solving all of the problems. So after a while I had built up a "Utopia" city, virtually no crime, close to zero pollution, parks everywhere, rails to take you anywhere, etc... And to top it all off I had taxes set at 1% across the board, I even had a surplus of cash being generated at 1%. So I checked the city for complaints (Shouldn't really be any), and I found that people were telling me taxes were too high. Since I couldn't go any lower but 0%, I decided to set it at that for a year to see what would happen. After one year in game passed I checked it again and guess what, the people still said that taxes were too high! They were paying no taxes and living in a damn perfect city and still wanted more.
That game taught me that no matter how good you do something or how perfect it is, people will still complain.
It was a great lesson to learn.
Thats why modern cities are designed with long straight boulevards. Not to be architecturally pleasing, but to give the kaiju a clear run across the landscape without running into buildings.
Joseph Smith Jr used the grid system in Nauvoo in the 1830s. Brigham Young continued it in Utah Territory in the 1840s, but the stipulation he wanted the streets wide enough that an ox cart could do a U-turn. I think both these example predate SimCity. The grid system used by Smith and Young make navigation super easy: chose the city center, street numbers increase by 100 as you move away from the center and include the direction (200N 300W is 2 blocks north and 3 blocks west of the center point); 8 blocks to the mile. If this were combined with the proper layout of residential, commercial, industrial, and recreational use and you could avoid a lot of gridlock.
This is much more complex problem. Poverty and crime are linked. While it is taboo to directly discuss this and you have to coax it in terms of broken windows or stop and frisk, this doesn't change the fact that one very effective and inexpensive (tax-wise) solution to crime is to just drive out the poor.
there is no such thing as parking in sim city. therefore there is no such thing as parking in urban planning
One of the biggest learning experience from Sim City is the idea of balance, and consequences. This is a lesson that a lot of people really don't get anymore, they are so stuck on a theory that they want to Min/Max their lives to fit their social/political ideas.
Sim City really prevented the ability to Min/Max game play and forced a balanced approach.
Those Industrial zone which pollute and lower the nearby Residential value, however they are needed to support the Commercial districts, and if they are too far away from the Residential areas, then they will not be utilized thus lowering commercial value.
Your choices have a trade off, but not making a choice is often worse, then when you have your consequence in action, you will need to then see if there is a way to mediate it, and then have its own sets of trade offs.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
this doesn't change the fact that one very effective and inexpensive (tax-wise) solution to crime is to just drive out the poor.
That's not a solution as it doesn't solve crime, it merely transports it (and most likely you will have increased net crime at the new location as compared to the original location due to lack of contacts/support/job prospects/housing/etc for the displaced).
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Actually, it was to imitate Paris. And Paris did that so that the army had nice long firelanes for their cannon when they were suppressing riots.
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.
Will SimCity let you create a busy street suitable for playing a violent video game such as Frogger?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
No Developed nation would be able to grow its own food without centrally planned subsidies. Farming is simply not that high value , the land and people can be used for something more economically viable . Food would all be imported from the third world if we didn't have central ministries of agriculture centrally planning we nned to have this much corn production capability in case of war hence we need this much subsidy.
**Life is too short to be serious**
Streets of Sim City does...
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
No, city planners have just realized what you have failed to realize: we can't solve traffic unless we get rid of the cars.
Citation?
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.
While all of these planning moves are clearly anti-car, it doesn't lead to "building cities for people". It just leads to more misery, short and long term. The least affected population by this is childless single hipsters working in tech, who can afford in both circumstances and income to live in a tiny condos downtown.
In my city everybody who wants to spend a night out and all the tourists visit the old tiny cramped UNPLANNED historical centre. Not the wide rectangular centrally planned and fugly PLANNED boulevards which are pretty much deserted in the evening.
The reported data clearly indicates that building more highway capacity is both short and long term effective solution to traffic.
The real successor to Sim-City.
Secret police, wiretaps, and rigged elections! Art imitates life, eh Presidente?
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