[coldnebo]

IMHO, the biggest benefit from playing games like SimCity is the practical introduction to systems thinking: the obvious solution may not be the obvious solution. I often wonder if these games are giving this generation an intuitive grasp of systems dynamics that older generations simply don't get.

The meta-game of effective systems design is fascinating in its own right, because the skills learned apply to real-world systems as well.

I wonder if anyone has tried modeling the problem specific to the game using something like trueworld? http://www.true-world.com/htm/en/index.html