From video game to day job: How ‘SimCity’ inspired a generation of city planners

Post by crooked-v » Tue, Mar 05, 2019, 11:37 PM UTC

sverige wrote: post #54

DonHopkins wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very much because of gameplay issues. Theoretically the computer can simulate whatever model you can dream up, but the much harder problem is the user understanding, visualizing and editing that model with an easy interface that feels fun like playing a game, not tedious like doing your taxes in Excel or rigging skeletons in 3D Studio Max. Think of the number of extra user interface panels and gizmos and views a…

I've long had a dream of taking the source code for the original SimCity and changing it more to my liking. The newer version was nice for streets with curves, but inferior in almost every other way compared to the original. But I doubt I'll ever find the time to actually take a crack at it, so it will likely remain just a dream.

Post by sverige » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 12:08 AM UTC

crooked-v wrote: post #61

sverige wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've long had a dream of taking the source code for the original SimCity and changing it more to my liking. The newer version was nice for streets with curves, but inferior in almost every other way compared to the original. But I doubt I'll ever find the time to actually take a crack at it, so it will likely remain just a dream.

Take a look at Lincity, an open-source clone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincity

Post by filesystemdude » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 12:18 AM UTC

theoh wrote: post #64

filesystemdude wrote: post #39

I loved SimCity and it's probably among the reasons I got a masters degree in GIS with a focus in city planning. It turns out for a lot of reasons, real city planning wasn't for me, though it took that degree and six years on my city's planning board to figure that out. Glacial speeds of progress, a job that's mostly reactionary instead of visionary, "stakeholders" with infinite time to tell you why any change is the…

Interesting. I'm guessing you mean "reactive", though, not "reactionary". So it would have been reacting to events rather that projecting and controlling future scenarios.

Post by AlexTWithBeard » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 12:37 AM UTC

panic wrote: post #62

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The talks are nice. The articles are very disappointing though. The first one claims that Jay Forrester's urban model was wrong, because it produces right-wing/libertarian results. I may disagree with libertarians too, but that's not how you criticize a scientific model. How about some concrete stuff? The second article is just bland. It asks a very good question: what should we optimize for when constructing a city?…

The argument isn't about results—it's that the model itself was built on ideological assumptions instead of anything empirical.

Post by InitialLastName » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 1:14 AM UTC

gph wrote: post #59

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cities: Skylines is an outstanding successor, but it lacks much of the charm of the SimCity series and feels more like a sandbox than a simulation. I feel the opposite. I think SimCity's charm is just nostalgia. C:S is definitely more of a simulation, as it simulates individual vehicles, including commercial traffic. All the SimCity games before SC4 used a statistical model for traffic, and SC4's path finding was v…

I don't think that's quite what the OP meant by sandbox vs. simulation. To me it didn't feel like there were many challenges or ways you could irreparable damage your city in City Skylines. You could maybe invent your own goals, like creating a specific look to your city or building the most density possible while maintaing efficient transportation. But that's what I'd consider sandbox: using your own creativity on a…