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Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

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Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#11

Post by dragontamer »

danbolt wrote: post #6

I think it's important to remember that a "system" in a video game is a work of art just like the game itself. The systems, in a lot of ways, reflect the ideas and thoughts of the authors of that game. Magnasati's highlights and flaws help illustrate that thinking, or what tax rates are best for doing well in the game. An example that comes to mind is Factorio, where solar panels are more tricky to operate than gener…

> I think both of those gameplay mechanics illustrate (or at least point to) the author(s) idea about the world.

For good games, I don't think so. The #1 concern of any video game is "is it fun??".

Case in point: Factorio oil is infinite and a renewable resource (pumpjacks never run out). This isn't there because of some preconceived notion of infinite oil. This mechanic exists because planting new pumpjacks is far more annoying than planting iron mines / coal mines. In fact, pumpjacks are basically the only endgame mine that cannot be automated with blueprints.

As such, its best to have pumpjacks pump infinite oil for the rest of time. Because it'd be too an annoying of a game if oil ran out.

----------

In the case of Factorio solar vs nuclear vs coal: the game developer made them different enough to make the difference fun to think about and fun to play with. But I don't believe it necessarily reflects upon the political opinion of the creator.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#12

Post by ghastmaster »

The image reminds me of Guangzhou, China. I recently looked at google earth images of Guangzhou. I then looked at images of New York City. It is incredible to me that we in the U.S. think of New York City as a sprawling metropolis when not far from the city center it is mostly single family homes on plots of land. Whereas Guangzhou has many more high rise buildings for miles and miles. Get the ruler in Google Earth and check it out.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#13

Post by joaomacp »

danbolt wrote: post #6

I think it's important to remember that a "system" in a video game is a work of art just like the game itself. The systems, in a lot of ways, reflect the ideas and thoughts of the authors of that game. Magnasati's highlights and flaws help illustrate that thinking, or what tax rates are best for doing well in the game. An example that comes to mind is Factorio, where solar panels are more tricky to operate than gener…

> have men be either gay or straight, but women to be bisexual

There is some scientific truth to it: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-34744903

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#14

Post by [deleted] »

joaomacp wrote: post #13
danbolt wrote: post #6

I think it's important to remember that a "system" in a video game is a work of art just like the game itself. The systems, in a lot of ways, reflect the ideas and thoughts of the authors of that game. Magnasati's highlights and flaws help illustrate that thinking, or what tax rates are best for doing well in the game. An example that comes to mind is Factorio, where solar panels are more tricky to operate than gener…

> have men be either gay or straight, but women to be bisexual There is some scientific truth to it: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-34744903

[deleted]

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#15

Post by bluedevil2k »

XaoDaoCaoCao wrote: post #8
grawprog wrote: post #5

Not to anywhere near the level of this but i've been playing a map on city skylines where i've been trying to make it as dystopian as possible, though at first I was just trying to model my city, the sad thing is, on a superficial level, it still resembles it. Industrial areas lined with low income housing. A whole neighbourhood with schools next to oil refineries, a prison island that receives its drinking water fro…

That's a slice of the horror of our civilization lololol

I know it's cool and trendy to trash our current society and treat it like it's the worst time to be alive in human history, but in reality there's never been a better time to be alive in the history of our species. Poverty, infant mortality, childhood mortality, crime...all at all time lows. Literacy, income levels, food quantity, public health...all at all time highs.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#16

Post by rightbyte »

grawprog wrote: post #5

Not to anywhere near the level of this but i've been playing a map on city skylines where i've been trying to make it as dystopian as possible, though at first I was just trying to model my city, the sad thing is, on a superficial level, it still resembles it. Industrial areas lined with low income housing. A whole neighbourhood with schools next to oil refineries, a prison island that receives its drinking water fro…

Sim City 3000 might be the pinnacle of "Sim Cities" when it comes to the feeling of making a big scary city.

I would rather play Skylines than 3000 today due to nice feeling and the roads, but the limit that 6 squares depth from the road is as far as housing will "grow" and that you can't make deep neighborhoods or more angled zones, is a sour thumb for what would otherwise be a perfect game. 3000 neighborhoods felt deep and the isometric view didn't make me sad about not doing angled zones.

If Skylines could make roads free of the square course why not the buildings that seem to have to be orthogonal to the tangent of the road.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#17

Post by Kye »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #15
XaoDaoCaoCao wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a slice of the horror of our civilization lololol

I know it's cool and trendy to trash our current society and treat it like it's the worst time to be alive in human history, but in reality there's never been a better time to be alive in the history of our species. Poverty, infant mortality, childhood mortality, crime...all at all time lows. Literacy, income levels, food quantity, public health...all at all time highs.

Purchased on the credit card of carbon release. We might get lucky and see some technological or social innovation negate or stop the coming disaster, or civilization could snap back to where it was centuries ago.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#18

Post by rsynnott »

joaomacp wrote: post #13
danbolt wrote: post #6

I think it's important to remember that a "system" in a video game is a work of art just like the game itself. The systems, in a lot of ways, reflect the ideas and thoughts of the authors of that game. Magnasati's highlights and flaws help illustrate that thinking, or what tax rates are best for doing well in the game. An example that comes to mind is Factorio, where solar panels are more tricky to operate than gener…

> have men be either gay or straight, but women to be bisexual There is some scientific truth to it: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-34744903

I think they're reading a lot into a small survey, there... You could make a similar argument about men based on the Kinsey Report, but it's now considered fairly flawed.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#19

Post by Uehreka »

dragontamer wrote: post #11
danbolt wrote: post #6

I think it's important to remember that a "system" in a video game is a work of art just like the game itself. The systems, in a lot of ways, reflect the ideas and thoughts of the authors of that game. Magnasati's highlights and flaws help illustrate that thinking, or what tax rates are best for doing well in the game. An example that comes to mind is Factorio, where solar panels are more tricky to operate than gener…

> I think both of those gameplay mechanics illustrate (or at least point to) the author(s) idea about the world. For good games, I don't think so. The #1 concern of any video game is "is it fun??". Case in point: Factorio oil is infinite and a renewable resource (pumpjacks never run out). This isn't there because of some preconceived notion of infinite oil. This mechanic exists because planting new pumpjacks is far m…

Huh? Pumpjacks give less oil over time. They never really run out, but eventually you’ll stop running regular trains to an oil depot because your reservoir tanks take hours to fill. Unless you have a small base and dozens of oil fields, you could never run on depleted fields alone, and thus you’re constantly needing to expand and seek out more oil fields (just like the other resource types) mimicking the way that maintaining fossil fuel based industry requires continuous petroleum exploration.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#20

Post by AnonsLadder »

rightbyte wrote: post #16
grawprog wrote: post #5

Not to anywhere near the level of this but i've been playing a map on city skylines where i've been trying to make it as dystopian as possible, though at first I was just trying to model my city, the sad thing is, on a superficial level, it still resembles it. Industrial areas lined with low income housing. A whole neighbourhood with schools next to oil refineries, a prison island that receives its drinking water fro…

Sim City 3000 might be the pinnacle of "Sim Cities" when it comes to the feeling of making a big scary city. I would rather play Skylines than 3000 today due to nice feeling and the roads, but the limit that 6 squares depth from the road is as far as housing will "grow" and that you can't make deep neighborhoods or more angled zones, is a sour thumb for what would otherwise be a perfect game. 3000 neighborhoods felt…

I never played 3000 but was going to make a comment a lot like yours about Sim City 4
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