{"id":23603,"date":"2024-03-13T10:42:49","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T14:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/?post_type=games&#038;p=23603"},"modified":"2025-04-03T09:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T13:37:11","slug":"simcity","status":"publish","type":"games","link":"https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/games\/simcity\/","title":{"rendered":"SimCity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SimCity Background\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MDeM2dMi7DY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Inducted: 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simulations are some of the oldest forms of video games, but few have had the popularity, influence, or staying power of <em>SimCity<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The germ of the idea for <em>SimCity <\/em>came from designer Will Wright\u2019s earlier work on the game <em>Raid on Bungeling Bay <\/em>(1984), in which he found playing with the map editor he made as much fun as playing the game itself. Fueled by an interest he developed in the ways cities grow and evolve\u2014and the impact city planning has on that\u2014Wright set out to create a game (though he often used the term \u201ctoy\u201d) that let players share in his discoveries about urban development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The premise is simple. Players must try and build a city and respond to its ever-changing problems and needs, which themselves change depending on the player\u2019s decisions. There was no clear goal. As Wright himself noted, \u201cInstead of telling the player how to win or lose, we left it up to the player to decide what the desirable outcome was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/WVGHOF-inductees_Sim-City-042024-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"SimCity game boxes\" class=\"wp-image-24189\" style=\"width:496px;height:496px\" width=\"496\" height=\"496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/WVGHOF-inductees_Sim-City-042024-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/WVGHOF-inductees_Sim-City-042024-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/WVGHOF-inductees_Sim-City-042024-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/WVGHOF-inductees_Sim-City-042024-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/WVGHOF-inductees_Sim-City-042024-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/WVGHOF-inductees_Sim-City-042024-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/app\/uploads\/2024\/05\/WVGHOF-inductees_Sim-City-042024-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Several factors made the game so successful. For one, it was intuitive and easy to learn. With a couple of clicks, players were laying down roads and constructing buildings. The computer did the rest, spooling out the consequences as populations surged or cities crumbled from overcrowding or bad transportation. The programming and algorithmic designs were brilliant\u2014in part because Wright based them on intensive reading in books on urban functioning and system dynamics such as Jay W. Forrester\u2019s 1969 text <em>Urban Dynamics<\/em>\u2014but they were always operating beneath the surface, driven by an algorithmic structure that harkened back to cellular automata-based programs like John Conway\u2019s <em>Game of Life<\/em>, in which each individual unit has an effect on the others to which it is connected. The game\u2019s open-endedness fitted it to a variety of player goals. And the cheeky humor, such as the marauding giant Gila monster that wreaked destruction, kept the content fresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, the God-like perspective of the player meant that the consequences for the imagined people who might have lived in the game are never considered, thus sidestepping issues like racial discrimination that have long plagued city development and planning. Today we are reckoning with the legacy of decisions made by politicians and bureaucrats like Robert Moses who bulldozed neighborhoods (usually the poorest and least white) to create new highways and parks. In <em>SimCity<\/em>, no one cries when their home is torn down; it\u2019s all numbers and abstractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet the game\u2019s distance from the dust and dirt, tears and fears of real life accounted for part of its appeal. It was a chance for older kids and grown-ups to play, as they might have built block cities as children. Wright himself likened it to creating a model train layout. The game was instantly popular and recognized as a masterpiece. Developed by Maxis (co-founded by Wright and Jeff Braun) and distributed by Br\u00f8derbund, it earned game of the year honors from <em>Computer Gaming World <\/em>in 1989. The game was also instrumental in expanding the audience for video games. At a time when many people thought of video games in terms of arcade shooters or console platformers, <em>SimCity <\/em>appealed to older players who wanted intellectually stimulating fun on their newly bought personal computers.<em> <\/em>First the <em>New York Times <\/em>and then <em>Newsweek <\/em>ran stories on it; the magazine headline calling it, \u201cBig fun in a small town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The game sold millions of copies as a personal computer game (in 1991 it was still the best-selling computer game of the year) and then as a port to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Famicom in Japan, where it was also very popular). A series of sequels followed, including <em>SimCity 2000<\/em>, <em>SimCity 3000, <\/em>and <em>SimCity 4<\/em>, with millions of additional sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also had incredible influence on the course of video game development. In addition to the direct <em>SimCity <\/em>sequels, Maxis released other Sim games, including <em>SimAnt<\/em>, <em>SimEarth<\/em>, and (most successfully) <em>The Sims<\/em>. Other companies have made innumerable city simulation games as well, such as <em>Cities: Skyscrapers<\/em>. All descend in large measure from <em>SimCity<\/em>. The non-stop nature of <em>SimCity<\/em> also influenced the development of real-time strategy games such as <em>Command and Conquer <\/em>and <em>Age of Empires <\/em>in the 1990s. In short, <em>SimCity<\/em> proved that when the play was right, almost any subject could be a fit subject for a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Did You Know?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to March 2019 <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em> story, <em>SimCity<\/em> inspired a generation of real-life city planners who grew up playing the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Related Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/blog\/will-wrights-video-game-notebooks\/\">Will Wright\u2019s Video Game Notebooks<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/games\/the-sims\/\">The Sims<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/archives.museumofplay.org\/repositories\/3\/resources\/62?_gl=1*ollgum*_ga*MjYwNTE3NTI4LjE2OTUwNzA2NDk.*_ga_NNDS4KF8SX*MTcxNTA4NzM1OC4yMjMuMS4xNzE1MDg4MzYwLjIzLjAuMA..&amp;_ga=2.164643388.2004062136.1715087358-260517528.1695070649\">Will Wright Collection<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Inducted: 2024<\/strong><br \/>\nSimulations are some of the oldest forms of video games, but few have had the popularity, influence, or staying power of SimCity.<br \/>\nThe germ of the idea for SimCity came from designer Will Wright\u2019s earlier work on the game Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984), in which he found playing with the map editor he made as much fun as playing the game itself. Fueled by an interest he developed in the ways cities grow and evolve\u2014and the impact city planning [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":23588,"template":"","year_inducted":[512],"class_list":["post-23603","games","type-games","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","year_inducted-512","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SimCity - The Strong National Museum of Play<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/games\/simcity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SimCity - The Strong National Museum of Play\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Inducted: 2024 Simulations are some of the oldest forms of video games, but few have had the popularity, influence, or staying power of SimCity. 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