Emanuel Maiberg discusses an ongoing crisis in a simulated version of reality familiar to many planners—i.e., the homelessness problem in SimCity 4.
"SimCity players have discussed a variety of creative strategies for their virtual homelessness problem," according to Emanuel Maiberg. "They’ve suggested waiting for natural disasters like tornadoes to blow the vagrants away, bulldozing parks where they congregate, or creating such a woefully insufficient city infrastructure that the homeless would leave on their own."
According to the article, the volume of the conversation of SimCity's homelessness problem inspired Matteo Bittanti to write a 600-page "epic" documenting the "so-called 'homeless scandal' that affected 2013's SimCity."
"Bittanti collected, selected, and transcribed thousands of these messages exchanged by players on publisher Electronic Arts' official forums, Reddit, and the largest online SimCity community Simtropolis, who experienced and then tried to 'eradicate' the phenomenon of homelessness that 'plagued' SimCity," writes Maiberg.
Maiberg goes on to discuss the connections between the SimCity games and the real world—especially when the game suffers such a high-profile and bizarre failure.
FULL STORY: Is 'SimCity' Homelessness a Bug or a Feature?
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Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
Custer County Colorado
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont