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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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