S I M U L A T I O N G A M E S
Simulation
| Sim City
(Maxis)
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| Boundary-Pushing: High |
Wil Wright's Sim City simultaneously created a new genre of game
and led to a new way of thinking about the purpose of games. It
could be played competitively in the sense of trying to achieve
the highest score for one's city, but it wasn't designed for that
purpose. Instead, Sim City and its descendants were imagined as
what Wright has called "software toys." The point wasn't to reach
some predefined conclusion, but to use computers as exploratory
tools. (In the usual West Coast metaphor, arriving at some
destination is less important than the journey itself.) Not
surprisingly, educators were among the most enthusiastic adopters
of Sim City. While it was far from being an accurate or complete
simulation of local municipal government, it captured the essence:
trying to satisfy multiple incompatible priorities. Besides, it
was fun, which doesn't hurt when you're trying to keep someone's
attention.
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| Addictiveness: High |
As with other highly addictive games, Sim City's interface with
the player demonstrated two features: a wide variety of simple
choices to make, and lots of feedback (in this case, city
management problems to solve, such as fires, traffic, and power
outages). Having a sufficiently broad palette of actions that can
be taken lets the player feel in control; it induces the belief
that the player can "win." (There may be biological reality
behind such beliefs. As one of the observations of Systemantics
puts it: "Control of a system is exercised by the element with the
greatest variety of behavioral responses.") And the feedback is
important, too, because it persuades the player that what he or
she does with all those available behavioral options matters
within the game universe. Being presented with challenges that
are consistent with the game universe (and which are neither too
easy nor too difficult) evokes player involvement, and generates
that "Well, just one more turn" impulse that designers strive to
achieve. Sim City accomplished this dual goal very well, and
deserves its recognition as one of the best computer games ever
published.
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| Replayability: Moderate |
Sim City would have earned a "high" rating for replayability had
it not appeared so simple to the player. (Something its sequel,
Sim City 2000, tried to correct.) Once you had a self-sustaining
city--one capable of continuous slow growth while taxes produced a
small annual surplus--much of the challenge of the game
ebbed. After that the player became merely a caretaker
official... and, as seen in the public's rejection of the
caretaker president Bush for the "quick-change artist" Clinton,
many people find simply preserving what works to be boring. They
want the emotional satisfaction of feeling that they've "made a
difference." Which is perhaps part of the reason why (maybe
because he understood boredom with systems that work) Wright added
random disasters to Sim City's options. (The other reason being
that it's a hoot to watch Godzilla stomp blithely through one's
carefully-constructed city.) But in the end even disasters aren't
enough. While there were often large numbers of problems for a
player to solve, the original Sim City just didn't have enough
variety in the kinds of problems needing solution. And
so, although addictive enough to lead most players to try the
different scenarios provided, and possibly even to create their
own, Sim City palled quickly afterwards.
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| General |
Overall, Sim City deserves as much credit for opening up another
way of thinking about games as for being fun to play on its own
merits. While there is and should be plenty of room for games in
which "competition" is not a dirty word, there is and should be
plenty of room for more open-ended alternatives, too. The
computer game market is not a zero-sum game; just because someone
plunks down cash for Quake today doesn't mean she won't buy Sim
City 2000 next week. So by all means, developers should consider
Wil Wright's innovative game design concepts. Where today is the
multi-player game that--like the real world--offers desirable
incentives for both competitive and cooperative behavior? Are we
stuck with Ultima Online? Or would a Sim City Online game which
would allow individuals to simulate participatory democracy strike
a responsive chord?
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