[nolvorite]

Pretty good critique of the realist aspect of the game, and props on him for trying to make a new game based on the factors that he mentioned. However, it's not like Sim City is expected to include every single aspect of city development and growth as a factor, nor is it expected to be some kind of acceptably accurate depiction of city development. And he said so himself, the developers of SimCity didn't want to involve aspects of the real world that were politically divisive as a factor, which I don't really think is a bad thing.

[rrherr]

> However, it's not like Sim City is expected to include every single aspect of city development and growth as a factor, nor is it expected to be some kind of acceptably accurate depiction of city development.

Agreed, but SimCity was marketed for realism and used for education. The OP writes:

> Over and over, the SimCity series invoked “realism” as a selling point. SimCity 2000’s box playfully warns: “If this game was any more realistic, it’d be illegal to turn it off!”

> SimCity has been used and is being used as educational tool ... shaping the way a lot of people understand or misunderstand city planning.

[nolvorite]

That's what they want you to think. However I strongly doubt that people think they have the city-macrocosmic simulation down to an exact science.

It's like saying that playing racing car video games makes you think you're good at driving in a race in real life.

[nopeYouAreWrong]

I am pretty sure I would be a great city planner based on my extensive collection of utopian simulations in Cities Skylines. Though I would have to take a huge payout to do far more important work, so I will have to pass.