Computer Game Helps Students Learn Urban Planning

17 June 2003 - 10:00am

Students learn about urban planning by playing SimCity, a popular computer game that involves designing and managing your own city.

"John Gaber, an associate professor in community planning...uses Sim City 3000 in his 'Death and Life of Great American Cities' course to teach his students how cities work and function.Sim City is a computer game...that allows its users to design their own city. The game provides a budget and the user builds a city by paying attention to every detail that goes into city designs such as water and electricity systems, location, hospitals, police stations, factories and land usage. Financial, transportation and environmental advisers are provided to offer the user guidance."

Source: Auburn Plainsman Online, June 16, 2003
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All of that only scratches the surface of what's wrong with this study. The idea that complex urban development patterns and human behavior can be meaningfully studied according to one primary criteria — density — is wrong from the start.