Radiance Zeigler
1) Abstract: Development of SimCity Brainchild of developer Will Wright, the game SimCity was first published by Maxis in 1989. Since then, the game has sold over a million copies worldwide and was named the best-selling computer until 2012, including the several different spin offs that were sparked in the process. In SimCity, the player’s main task is to found and develop a city at the same time of maintaining the happiness of the citizens and staying within the city’s budget. The player must define different development zones, which has specific limits to what can be built there. They can either flourish, when specific conditions are met (power supply, transportation) or die. SimCity’s easy and enjoyable task to simulate a realistic city not only became popular among children and teens, but adults of all ages also.
2) Summary: Seeing Like SimCity In the article Seeing Like SimCity by Rob MacDougall, the author expresses to readers his views on SimCity and the inaccuracy of information that the game provides when being used for education purposes. He begins by saying that according to the news; an open source version of SimCity would be included with every laptop distributed by the Laptop Per Child Project. He explains to readers that using simulation games, such as SimCity, for educational purposes are potentially dangerous to the quality of material being learned by the student and should not be used for such reasons. Also included was a quote from computer scientist Alan Kay, which MacDougall agrees with. Kay stated that the game contained rigid and stupid assumptions that actually teach kids the wrong ideologies and values as opposed to the ones they should actually be learning. For example, if the citizens in the city are suffering from food deprivation, the task in the game would be to build more grocery stores so more food would be available. We all know, in the real world, that lack of food or access to food can play a part in hunger but this is not necessarily the only factor that can contribute to this issue. To children though, this implies that more grocery stores=an end to hunger, which is not accurate in the least.
3)Importance The popularity of the game, amongst society, has gone from entertainment to education. MacDougall demonstrates the social importance of SimCity mainly by trying to explain to readers why it shouldn’t be used for educational purposes. He also demonstrates its importance culturally; by stating that the simulation games created for game play today erases historical content. He argues that the more you play and learn to directly interact with the game, the less you actually think about history, which in turn, trumps the context of the game.
4)Conclusion: Debate? According to the comments posted below, this post has most definitely generated some debate amongst readers. One commenter, by the name of Trevor Owens, wrote that he disagreed with MacDougall’s idea that playing games could possibly consume the model. He reminded MacDougall of the importance of player agency and the asked whether it was us who consumed the model or if the model consumed us. Another commenter by the name of Alex GalarzaBold text ( :) ), said that he doesn’t believe that he didn’t internalize these fundamental assumptions at all, while playing SimCity in the past. He believes that we’re engaging with the game just like we would another other text. This is a more positive engagement where we can also exercise our own agency in the process. After reading the article, I do not in fact agree with the author’s opinion. Yes, there may be a point where the games tasks and provide inaccurate information to it’s players but I also think it depends on the age and level of development of the player. Older individuals would probably better understand the connection between the game and the real world and successfully separate the two. Even if children do learn inaccurate information from simulation games, as they grow older I think they will realize that results in the game don’t necessarily mean the same in the real world. It’s been a while since I actually played the SimCity but when I did play, I recall having a clear sense of what the game vs. real life was. I had not once thought, the things that occurred in my simulated city would the same outside of the game. Although I do not agree with the author’s opinions, this article was still interesting and informative and I can say that my knowledge in this area has improved because if it.
Works cited: "SimCity." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 9 June 2015.
