Paul Kozlowski

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Detroit: A Tale of SimCity

SimCity is a popular computer and console based city building game developed by Will Wright and published by Maxis. First sold in 1989, SimCity has gone on to release multiple spin-offs of the game including the very popular The Sims in 2000. The goal of SimCity was to build a city, while keeping the city on a budget and maintaining the happiness of the citizens. The game was first released for the Commodore 64, IBM PC, Amiga and Macintosh platforms. Micropolis was the original working title for the game, but was later changed to SimCity before it was released. (Wikipedia.org)

Simulating Detroit, A City with Cars and Crime but No Races

In this article written by Mark Sample, he describes a simulation of Detroit in the original SimCity (Micropolis) game. He makes an important note, that Detroit is synonymous with cars and the big three auto makers: General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford. While the original game contained a few simulations of different cities, Detroit was the “most relatable scenario geographically and chronologically.” The scenario regarding the Detroit simulation was based on a recession in the automobile industry, which caused unemployment and crime to increase. The player’s task was to “rebuild the industrial base of the city” and had 10 years of game time to do so. (PlaythePast.org) Mark then refers to the fact that five years earlier, Detroit had faced a real life crisis quite similar to the scenario, relating the fact that the 12th Street race riot took place in 1967. He goes on to compare the 12th Street riots to the Detroit simulation, making an important observation that while race was a big factor in the real Detroit, the simulation had no conceptions of race. Crime in the simulation was not based on race or class, but rather an algorithm in the code of the game. (PlaythePast.org)

Social Importance

The main point Mark looks at is the role class and race play in the big picture of crime. He relays the message of how “colorblind” the simulation of Detroit appears to be. When Will Wright was asked about the exclusion of race in the game, he replied “I just kind of optimized for game play.” Mark goes on to talk about how designers must think about the optimization of games and how it affects the game’s context. In SimCity, this includes how race and class play a role in crime, unemployment, and development of a city.

Comments

Although not many comments, each one contains something to note about the context of the article. An interesting fact from Rob MacDougall is how “turning “race” into “crime” was one of the signature rhetorical moves of late 20th C urban politics” and this was not a phenomenon unique to simulation games. He points out that the oversimplification seen in simulation games are not flaws within the game but rather the main reason for the simulation. Jeremy Antley agrees with the point Rob makes, and also points on Wright and other designers assume people come to games with sort of an inherent knowledge about the “larger issues” in the game.

A comment by Trevor Owens relates Sample’s posts to the game Colonization and the lack of slavery in the game. He makes an observation that when simulating American society, designers tend to steer clear of anything about black America. Lastly, John Brindle drew parallels between simulation games and board games, and how both are forced to make decisions about the directions of the game because of limited resources. John makes a very good point noting “…every design decision is also an ideological choice, and neither ‘optimizing for gameplay’ nor ‘optimizing for simulation value’ are ideologically neutral.” In essence, each designer has chosen an ideological path to follow when creating their game, and none of these paths can be classified as neutral.

Personal Opinion

As an avid gamer, I must admit I have never played the original SimCity (mostly because it was released before I was born). Having played SimCity2000, I can confirm that race and class were not added as factors in that game either. Sample’s article was not the greatest . I’m not quite sure what it is but there seems to be some missing content or missing connections in his post. SimCity was a game built for entertainment, so why would it need to include sociological concepts in the game? Not to mention the fact that computer hardware was extremely limited at the time, so I’m not totally convinced that adding more factors to the game would be feasible. Overall, the article was climbing a mountain but didn’t quite reach its peak. Sample needs to support his claims with more examples and not just grasp for straws.

Works Cited "SimCity (1989 video game)" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_%281989_video_game%29

Sample, Mark. "Simulating Detroit, A City with Cars and Crime but No Race | Play The Past." Play The Past | http://www.playthepast.org/?p=2474


PIPA, SOPA, and all that jazz

Anonymous

Anonymous can be described accurately by the word hacktivists – that is, a group or person who protest via hacking into computers and computer networks. They are a leaderless group that fights for human rights, free speech, and information ethics, to name a few. According to Wikipedia, the group was founded in 2003 and is commonly pictured as a man with a question mark for a head to show anonymity. Anonymous is also closely associated with the Guy Fawkes mask.

The group uses their knowledge of computers and networks to hack websites of governments, corporate businesses, and copyright agencies in protest. The group is very loosely organized, with members all over the world. They share a common goal which ties these networks of hacktivist together. Anonymous is known for its operations such as #OpEgypt, targeting the Egyptian government during the mass deviance, or #OpCartel, focusing on the Mexican drug cartels. (Wired.com) A few groups have split from Anonymous to form other groups like LulzSec and Operation AntiSec.


PIPA

PIPA, also called the Protect Intellectual Property Act, is a piece of legislature proposed to Congress. In this act, legislatures were looking to curb the amount of illegal data being downloaded on the internet such as music, movies, software, etc.

PIPA’s main players include payment network providers, internet service providers,internet advertising agencies, qualifying plaintiffs, and an information location tool. The proposed law would enact the use of the information location tool to remove links and ‘pointers’ to websites that hosts illegal files. This bill would give power to the Attorney General to take action against these types of sites that are “…used “primarily as a means for engaging in, enabling, or facilitating the activities" of copyright infringement or counterfeit products; or …is designed by its operator "as a means for engaging in, enabling, or facilitating the activities" of copyright infringement or counterfeit products.”(reddit.com) The Attorney General can then require payment networks such as Paypal to not service these sites, ad companies to not advertise on them, remove the sites from all search engines, and internet service providers to block them, also known as DNS blacklisting.

SOPA

The Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as SOPA, was another proposed bill to Congress targeting the websites that host and share copyright material illegally. SOPA would classify websites as either domestic or foreign. Domestic websites are really defined as anything located in which the United States has authority over (.com, .org, .us etc). Foreign sites were loosely defined as anything not domestic. SOPA would have mostly the same players as PIPA, but would also add internet search engines and US directed sites to the list while removing the information location tool.

SOPA would allow the government to seize control of the website if it were found in violation of sharing copyright material over the internet, but only if it were domestically located. SOPA includes the words “No Duty to Monitor” which requires ad networks and payment networks to not have to monitor actions taken online. However, these words are not included in the part about search engines, suggesting that they are continually required to find and remove links of foreign sites violating copyright.

Anonymous and Online Privacy

In theory, Anonymous stands for everything that is online privacy. They fight to keep the internet open and free while retaining their anonymity in cyberspace. Groups of hackitivist have really flourished in the last 15 years, creating a new way of public protest that some might refer to as “cyber terrorism”. Having started on 4chan, Anons have created a presence for themselves not only on the web but also in the media and have taken governments by surprise. Anonymous has been a big opponent of proposed bills like SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act was the most recent bill introduced to congress to limit piracy on the web. But with limiting piracy poses the risk of losing privacy which is something that many internet users, communities such as Reddit, companies like Google, and groups like Anonymous would not stand for. Anons and their split off groups have become the voice for the internet.


Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden is a whistle blower who reported on how the United States and British governments were operating mass surveillance on their citizens. He worked as a contractor for both the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. After coming out about these spy programs, he fled the country and is now wanted for espionage. Although wanted by the US government, he is pictured as a hero on the internet for reporting the intrusiveness governments have in our lives. The readings and events have illuminated what he has done because since the failed attempts to pass bills such as CISPA, SOPA, and PIPA, it has shown how governments have penetrated and tracked our lives without consent. It has really cemented what people were thinking – that government agencies have more access to personal data than we think they do.


Works Cited

"Anonymous (group)." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., 22 June 2013. Web. 26 June 2013. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)>.

"Edward Snowden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., 25 June 2013. Web. 26 June 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden>.

Harvey, Jason. "blog.reddit -- what's new on reddit: A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP." blog.reddit -- what's new on reddit. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 June 2013. <http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html>.

Norton, Quinn. "2011: The Year Anonymous Took On Cops, Dictators and Existential Dread | Threat Level | Wired.com." wired.com . N.p., n.d. Web. 25 June 2013. <http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/anonymous-dicators-existential-dread/all/1>.