When SimCity got serious
May 19, 2020 2:09 PM Subscribe
I "played" SimHealth when it was still timely. It did illustrate some of the interconnected nature of complex systems, but was really hobbled by a lack of focus. That lack of focus was almost entirely an attempt to avoid taking shit from the early incarnation of the unhinged Limbaugh-worshipping right wingers.
There was a DOS game from a few years previous about the federal budget that I found more approachable and thus easier to learn from than SimHealth ended up being.
posted by wierdo at 3:08 PM on May 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
There was a DOS game from a few years previous about the federal budget that I found more approachable and thus easier to learn from than SimHealth ended up being.
posted by wierdo at 3:08 PM on May 19, 2020 [4 favorites]
Aha, it's a microworld! Hot topic among constructivists and industrial psychologists in the late 80s and early 90s. There were tons of them, from the very simple to the somewhat tricky. Thanks, I hadn't heard that Maxis got into it.
posted by anthill at 3:30 PM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by anthill at 3:30 PM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
You can play SimHealth on the Internet Archive.
posted by Iridic at 3:57 PM on May 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Iridic at 3:57 PM on May 19, 2020 [3 favorites]
BiosGroup had its genesis at the Santa Fe Institute, and IIRC, prior to the period discussed in the article there had already been some contact between Maxis and SFI.
This is all stuff I was interested in and followed during that period and expected to become personally involved with eventually. It's weird how "agent-based modeling" has been diffused and become ubuquitous such that it's not really a thing in its own right anymore, it's just a mundane part of the standard toolkit.
The mindspace Hiles was in around 1990 was very close to where I and a bunch of people were. So much of the world today was in its genesis then, good and bad, and both big trends and various specific technologies were very clearly anticipated by me at the time. Again, as was the case with many others.
I was never, ever interested in disasters in any of the SimCity games. That I was fascinated by creating and building and experimenting while so many others found a lot of enjoyment in a sort of vicarious distructive transgression was, and still is, sort of incomprehensible to me. I mean, both in ways that make me vaguely uncomfortable and in ways that I find enjoyable, even delightful, in being reminded of just how diverse people are.
Simulations and sandboxes are always what I've wanted in video gaming, though more often than not I'm disappointed.
I'm thinking about Bartle's gamer archetypes and that I'm a subtype of the explorer: I'm interested in the details but not as a "collector" of details, so to speak, but rather only as a means to the end of cultivating an intuitive comprehension of a system.
The aim of both Wright and Hiles to foster a broad intuitive familiarity in a ludic environment—one that doesn't ptetend to be expertise in what is simulated but, rather, a scaffolding upon which true expertise could later be built—speaks very deeply to me. For me, learning and knowledge really only begin once I have a good, reliable sense of the metaphorical terrain.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:32 PM on May 19, 2020 [14 favorites]
This is all stuff I was interested in and followed during that period and expected to become personally involved with eventually. It's weird how "agent-based modeling" has been diffused and become ubuquitous such that it's not really a thing in its own right anymore, it's just a mundane part of the standard toolkit.
The mindspace Hiles was in around 1990 was very close to where I and a bunch of people were. So much of the world today was in its genesis then, good and bad, and both big trends and various specific technologies were very clearly anticipated by me at the time. Again, as was the case with many others.
I was never, ever interested in disasters in any of the SimCity games. That I was fascinated by creating and building and experimenting while so many others found a lot of enjoyment in a sort of vicarious distructive transgression was, and still is, sort of incomprehensible to me. I mean, both in ways that make me vaguely uncomfortable and in ways that I find enjoyable, even delightful, in being reminded of just how diverse people are.
Simulations and sandboxes are always what I've wanted in video gaming, though more often than not I'm disappointed.
I'm thinking about Bartle's gamer archetypes and that I'm a subtype of the explorer: I'm interested in the details but not as a "collector" of details, so to speak, but rather only as a means to the end of cultivating an intuitive comprehension of a system.
The aim of both Wright and Hiles to foster a broad intuitive familiarity in a ludic environment—one that doesn't ptetend to be expertise in what is simulated but, rather, a scaffolding upon which true expertise could later be built—speaks very deeply to me. For me, learning and knowledge really only begin once I have a good, reliable sense of the metaphorical terrain.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:32 PM on May 19, 2020 [14 favorites]
What a great, detailed article. Thank you for linking!
posted by brainwane at 6:12 PM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by brainwane at 6:12 PM on May 19, 2020 [2 favorites]
I’ve played a lot of Sim games in my time - SimCity, SimFarm, SimAnt, SimEarth - but my favorite “simulation” game wasn’t from Maxis, rather Koei. Their AeroBiz and AeroBiz Supersonic games were amazing to me, I could indulge my interests in aviation and running a business. It has the same approach - it wasn’t a complete model of what running an airline is like, but it has the goal of being interesting enough to keep your attention on building a successful airline.
posted by SirOmega at 9:24 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by SirOmega at 9:24 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
I live near the Richmond refinery, i suspect they used this software to actually run the place considering the stuff that goes down there.
posted by boilermonster at 11:25 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by boilermonster at 11:25 PM on May 19, 2020 [1 favorite]
Their ancestor, Lemonade Stand, originally developed in 1973 by Bob Jamison of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC), can still be played (the good old Apple ][ version) on an emulator at the Internet Archive.
posted by fairmettle at 3:17 AM on May 20, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by fairmettle at 3:17 AM on May 20, 2020 [7 favorites]
SimEarth was never my favorite game, but it was one of very few that I owned back in the day, so I played it so much that it probably shaped my worldview in ways I'm not even aware of.
I'm thinking about Bartle's gamer archetypes and that I'm a subtype of the explorer: I'm interested in the details but not as a "collector" of details, so to speak, but rather only as a means to the end of cultivating an intuitive comprehension of a system.
That sounds a bit like me, Ivan; I seem to always try to figure out how to "break" and/or modify such games. I like to learn their limits, not technically but in terms of the breadth of their respective universes.
So which sandbox games have you NOT been disappointed by?
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 4:11 AM on May 20, 2020
I'm thinking about Bartle's gamer archetypes and that I'm a subtype of the explorer: I'm interested in the details but not as a "collector" of details, so to speak, but rather only as a means to the end of cultivating an intuitive comprehension of a system.
That sounds a bit like me, Ivan; I seem to always try to figure out how to "break" and/or modify such games. I like to learn their limits, not technically but in terms of the breadth of their respective universes.
So which sandbox games have you NOT been disappointed by?
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 4:11 AM on May 20, 2020
Is it weird that I kinda wanna play SimRefinery? It’s exactly the sort of weird, geeky, niche thing my nerdbrain craves.
I mean, the chance to learn how an absurdly complicated industry I have no experience with works? Sign me up!
Clearly, whoever suppressed SimRefinery did not foresee the podcast age.
posted by panama joe at 5:14 AM on May 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
I mean, the chance to learn how an absurdly complicated industry I have no experience with works? Sign me up!
Clearly, whoever suppressed SimRefinery did not foresee the podcast age.
posted by panama joe at 5:14 AM on May 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
I live near the Richmond refinery, i suspect they used this software to actually run the place considering the stuff that goes down there.
posted by boilermonster at 11:25 PM on May 19
I was going to say, in Louisiana the refineries are so old, leaky, and held together with duct tape, I'm pretty sure no one knows how they actually work. SimRefinery:: Louisiana would have only a few action items:
1) layoff the contractors and union men
2) push it to the flare
3) call the lobbyist for deregulation
4) buy the new local newspaper
posted by eustatic at 5:58 AM on May 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by boilermonster at 11:25 PM on May 19
I was going to say, in Louisiana the refineries are so old, leaky, and held together with duct tape, I'm pretty sure no one knows how they actually work. SimRefinery:: Louisiana would have only a few action items:
1) layoff the contractors and union men
2) push it to the flare
3) call the lobbyist for deregulation
4) buy the new local newspaper
posted by eustatic at 5:58 AM on May 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
Oh wait
5) hire more lawyers to suppress litigation
posted by eustatic at 6:01 AM on May 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
5) hire more lawyers to suppress litigation
posted by eustatic at 6:01 AM on May 20, 2020 [3 favorites]
Good news! Thanks to this article, a copy of SimRefinery has been located and will soon be on the Internet Archive.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:23 AM on May 21, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:23 AM on May 21, 2020 [10 favorites]
Whoa! Ask and ye shall receive!
posted by panama joe at 5:23 AM on May 21, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by panama joe at 5:23 AM on May 21, 2020 [1 favorite]
Bless the Internet Archive
posted by Monochrome at 10:59 AM on May 21, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Monochrome at 10:59 AM on May 21, 2020 [2 favorites]
Somewhat relatedly, I found this mention of SimCity 2000 used for an undergrad urban planning course in 1997. Students emailed their cities to the instructor for grading.
posted by Monochrome at 9:07 PM on May 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Monochrome at 9:07 PM on May 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
SimRefinery found!
The lost Maxis game (in the form of an incomplete but fully playable prototype) can now be found on archive.org
posted by fairmettle at 11:30 PM on June 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
The lost Maxis game (in the form of an incomplete but fully playable prototype) can now be found on archive.org
posted by fairmettle at 11:30 PM on June 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
Two software instruction manuals and a scholarly paper about SimRefinery have been added to archive.org.
posted by Monochrome at 10:45 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Monochrome at 10:45 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
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