5.4 SIMCITY (1989

creative mode is possible to design objects. The interface is based on a first-person perspective, which is

appropriate to understand architecture practice and everyday interactions.

Design experience

Since it is a construction sandbox game, narrative and storyline are free and up to the player, with

limited rules and constraints. The constraints are the limitation of resources and the need to be

protected by hazards. However, this is true only for the surviving mode, while the creative mode version of the game is freer and is up to the player/ players to be created and maintained. Users create their

own narratives.

Design interaction

The game encourages user engagement in agriculture and natural resource mining. Despite the difficulty

of surviving against imaginative enemies, the game presents a variety of animals and assigns them crucial

roles, such as giving food, protection, transportation, or other materials essential for crafting.

Furthermore, because it is an open-ended game, the gameplay challenges players and allows them to be

creative. The game is about construction and manipulating game world, but also walking, gazing and

exploring it. Constructions are the resort of experimentation with the tools in the game environment.

Moreover, it is based on communication through converting and taking inputs by the various players

participating in the design process or looking at their design. In fact, the game can be played alone or in

servers with multiple users. The advantage of Minecraft is that it can be played online, and players can

exchange their work in real-time. Interaction is based on conversing and communication which enable

exchange of knowledge and collaboration.

5.4 SIMCITY (1989)

SimCity is another city-building, open-end game that focuses on the creation of space and the actions

that take place inside it. The player takes on the role of a major or chief city planner, who makes

decisions on the city's growth and changes. SimCity is based on a rationalistic approach to urban

expansion rather than aesthetic criteria for urban design. It is based on the CIAM idea of separating the

city into zoning areas based on functional differentiation and a set of standard services and amenities

such as power, garbage collection, firefighting, infrastructure, and so on, depending on the district's

surface area and population.

The city's players and management collect taxes based on residents' satisfaction with the reasonable

criteria and the need to strike a balance between expenses and the requirement to meet the standards.

Meanwhile, players encounter catastrophes and perils while delivering these services and expanding the

city. Like the “Block n hood” game, SimCity conveys or make player produce various elements needed to build a city and focuses on the idea of interdependence and decay between the various components.

Game management is based on a set of predefined rules, such as maintaining a balance between

residential and industrial sectors, as the former generates taxes, and the latter provides services to

inhabitants. Major can also support community initiatives in areas like education, health, safety, tourism,

and others, which help to offset growing taxes and enhance the quality of services provided. All these

services are linked to nearby cells and alter as a result of inputs from them. SimCity uses multi-level

interactions to model self-organization and emergent traits including a hierarchical structure of

inhabitants and production, functional differentiation, while avoiding social segregation.

Figure 108 Screenshot from Sim City video game

Sim City may be viewed as a modelling tool in this respect. In fact, it represents a model of urban life, in

which most of the player’s actions can be visible in real-time and others take time to become visible.

This means that games can be used to understand and solve urban issues related to complex urban

systems, with different variable to be analyzed contemporary. Therefore, Sim City has been largely used

by city planners to explore and to predict the effects of urban decision, budget choices, public policies,

various projects and to adjust these interventions accordingly.

Representation

The visual style of the game is a close to realistic representation inspired by American cities grid and

some of the buildings resemble American buildings reproduction. The graphic representation of SimCity

2000 reconstructs realistically the way cities are built from the plots of land including road patterns,

buildings construction and decay. Many elements in the game world simulate the real world like fire,

traffic jams, pollution effects, etc. The interface is based on a god-like view or birds-eye view, in which

the player can monitor a large area. This representation is typical for management and strategic games.

Figure 109 Sim City build economy scheme; Relation of economy and services with inhabitants happiness.

Design experience

Sim city is a construction sandbox game and therefore narrative and the storyline is partially free and up

to the player, who gradually build up the city, in the limits of given rules and constraints which he learns

by playing. The story is set in modern times in a predefined geographical location. However, due to the

godlike interface, the player explores only from above the city, having mainly an experience of data

visualisation and management rather than spatial and perceptual. Game experience is enriched by

textual communication messages inhabitants or public authorities send to the player, and by cut-scenes

which bring the player in different game world.

Design interaction

Player in god-eye view gaze the environment to build and transform. All player actions in Sim City are

reflected in real-time in the city transformation. The game progression is based on unlocking new

demands (ex. upgrade of houses, services, parks etc.) in order to made inhabitants happy. Thus, the

system work together on numerous levels to make game advancement: producing materials, crafting