SimCity is a libertarian toy land

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View in browser  |  Your newsletter preferences  06.30.24 SimCity Isn't a Model of Reality. It's a Libertarian Toy Land In the mid-1980s, when Will Wright was just getting started as a game designer, he realized that the process of constructing a game—building out the individual levels—was fun in and of itself. Why not share the joy of creation with players? He conceived of a new game in which people could build their own digital metropolis, tweaking it as needed to maintain its health. When Wright brought the idea to publishers, none were willing to fund it: Who'd want to play a game with no clear way to win? So Wright cofounded his own company, Maxis, and released SimCity in 1989. It became the top-selling computer game of its time. Although Wright considered SimCity to be more like a sandbox or a dollhouse than a game per se, it came to have an outsize effect on the real world, inspiring a generation of urban designers. Many players credit the game with giving them a deeper understanding of how cities function and how effective governance ought to work. But a look under the hood suggests that SimCity is less an insight into reality than a libertarian toy land.—Kelly Clancy READ THE FULL STORY More WIRED Longreads What Came Before the Big Bang? BY STEVE NADIS | 5-MINUTE READ By studying the geometry of model space-times, researchers offer alternative views of the universe's first moments. The US Is Being Flooded by Chinese Vapes BY LOUISE MATSAKIS | 5-MINUTE READ The US government vowed to crack down on the sale of illegal nicotine vapes. They only got cheaper, fancier, and more potent. ADVERTISEMENT Pooping on the Moon Is a Messy Business BY BECKY FERREIRA | 8-MINUTE READ If humans are to return to the moon, space agencies and governments need to figure out the legal, ethical, and practical dimensions of extraterrestrial waste management. The Eternal Truth of Markdown BY SCOTT GILBERTSON | 4-MINUTE READ An exegesis of the most ubiquitous piece of code on the web. ADVERTISEMENT GET WIRED The future is happening fast. Stay ahead of it with WIRED.Get full tech coverage with a subscription to WIRED for just $30 $5. Plus free stickers! Subscribe Now. Thanks for reading. You may notice a few changes to this newsletter in the coming weeks as we make some improvements. Please let us know what you think!   Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here. Plus, browse more newsletters from WIRED. You're receiving this email because you signed up for the Longreads newsletter from WIRED.   Manage your preferences  |   View our Privacy Policy  |  Unsubscribe   Have questions or comments? Send us a message. Need help? Contact us.   Copyright © Condé Nast 2024. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.