Playing With People's Lives: How city-builder games portray the public and their role in the decision-making process

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Date

2018-05

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The Ohio State University

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Abstract

City-builder computer games are an integral part of the city planning profession. Educators structure lessons around playtime to introduce planning concepts, professionals use the games as tools of visualization and public outreach, and the software of planners and decision-makers often takes inspiration from the genre. For the public, city-builders are a source of insight into what planners do, and the digital city's residents show players what role they play in the urban decision-making process. However, criticisms persist through decades of literature from professionals and educators alike but are rarely explored in depth. Published research also ignores the genre's diverse offerings in favor of focusing on the bestseller of the moment. This project explores how the public is presented in city-builder games, as individuals and as groups, the role the city plays in their lives, and their ability to express their opinions and participate in the process of planning and governance. To more-broadly evaluate the genre as it exists today, two industry-leading titles receiving the greatest attention by planners, SimCity and Cities: Skylines, were matched up with two less-conventional games with their own unique takes on the genre, Tropico 5 and Urban Empire. Several issues in these games' portrayals emerged. The games evaluated typically offered a flawed range of options for dissent with little variety or authority, do little to address social issues and disempowered groups, and poorly portray residents as developed characters. Tropico 5 was an exception to every one of these conclusions, while Urban Empire distinguished itself often as well. The two poorest showings belong to the two games used most often by planners, SimCity and Cities: Skylines. This implies that the planning profession must better educate itself on the full range of games available, a need to take a similar approach to these games as with books published for a general audience, and the ample opportunity for more research in this crucial but neglected facet of planning.

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computer games, city-builder games, media portrayal, public participation, disempowered groups, city planning

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