The popular game SimCity was originally released in 1989 and with it brought the creation of a whole new game genre commonly known as; city building simulation. In this game you are given the task of designing and maintaining a virtual city.
During the design and development of your city, balance must be maintained in order to avoid creating a chaotic urban disaster. Many more things than just the construction buildings, roads and bridges are to be considered in order for your city to be successful.
In SimCity you will face challenges such as population growth, environmental issues, the city’s economy, crime and overall infrastructure not limited to transportation.
As you develop your new metropolis in SimCity, you will assume the roll of mayor, city council and urban planner just to name a few prestigious positions. An important task that you will be responsible for is the growth and sustainability of your city for a period of decades or even centuries.
Learning by trial and error has been the standard practice throughout time when one wants to achieve perfection in a particular subject. Through the advent of computer games and virtual laboratories, we are now allowed the luxury of testing a principal or theory without the risk of damaging or destroying anything in the real world. With this technology, we save a great deal of cost, aggravation and set-up time.
Not only do these computer programs allow for test and research simulation, you will quickly and easily be able to discover where you have went wrong with your theory and try again without the anxiety of failure.
If the testing and research you are doing involves science and mathematics then LOGO, Star Logo and Boxer are the simulators you want to look at. Students of economics, urban planning and civics will find Stella and SimCity a great help in testing their theories. The fundamental principal that makes these types of simulators so valuable is that it allows the user to think and communicate in a way that has important real world applications.
Caution must be exercised when using these types of simulators and it is best to proceed with some form of guidance since wandering around clumsily in a computer environment may develop bad habits. False conclusions and random generalizations from the research conducted can also be a factor without proper guidance at hand. Expert knowledge is what is really important in any field and this can be used to move the novice towards real problem solving solutions.
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