#Sim city 4 able regions software#
#Sim city 4 able regions plus#

#Sim city 4 able regions software#

Moreover, some modelling software have shifted into games for didactical purposes, such as MacSim (Augier et al. They use video gamesвЂ™ graphic models in order to improve their own user interfaces. Furthermore, the development of modelling tools enhances their similarities to video games.

Like models (Haggett 1965), video games can be both heuristic and didactic tools. In the United States, several urban studies and town planning trainings are using video games (Adams 1998, Squire 2004, Gaber 2007, Gordon & Koo 2008, Nesson & Nesson 2008). Aside from its playful aspects, a didactic role is often attributed to this game series. 2006).ДЎ The SimCity video game series, created by Will Wright in 1989, is unanimously appreciated among geographers, urban-planners, and teachers. But we want to learn something about the real world from such exercises, by confronting the results of simulation with observationвЂќ (Bretagnolle et al. вЂњOf course simulation models can be conceived as entertainment tools, and designed for building games, or imagining fictive worlds, as utopias always did. Paper first presented at S4 International Conference Emergence in Geographical Space: Concepts, Methods and Models, Paris, France, November 2009. Les jeux vidГ©o poussent les joueurs Г sвЂ™approprier et Г comprendre les modГЁles, mais pas Г les dГ©passer, ni Г produire de nouvelles connaissances. Cependant, la principale limite des jeux vidГ©o dГ©coule de leur pouvoir didactique: les jeux vidГ©o et les logiciels de simulation accordent une place presque diamГ©tralement opposГ©e aux utilisateurs dans la production des rГЁgles et des modГЁles.

#Sim city 4 able regions plus#

Les jeux semblent mГЄme offrir des simulations plus abouties. Ces comparaisons rГ©vГЁlent des ressemblances frappantes: les outils de simulation et les jeux vidГ©o aboutissent Г des rГ©sultats similairesВ : ils permettent tous deux de simuler des dynamiques urbaines complexes (rГ©seaux urbains hiГ©rarchisГ©s, sГ©grГ©gation urbaine). Cette apparente convergence entre outils de simulation et jeux vidГ©o est analysГ©e Г lвЂ™aide dвЂ™une sГ©lection de jeux de stratГ©gie et de city builder. Les travaux rГ©cents insistent, dвЂ™une part, sur lвЂ™amГ©lioration de la qualitГ© graphique des outils de modГ©lisation et de lвЂ™attractivitГ© des interfaces, dвЂ™autre part, sur lвЂ™utilisation de jeux vidГ©o pour stimuler lвЂ™enseignement et la recherche. Les jeux vidГ©o permettent de modГ©liser les systГЁmes complexes en rГ©vГ©lant les boucles de rГ©troaction, en reproduisant lвЂ™auto organisation et lвЂ™Г©mergence de structures hiГ©rarchiques, en rГ©pliquant la diffГ©renciation fonctionnelle et la sГ©grГ©gation sociale au travers dвЂ™interactions multi niveaux. Games induce players to learn the model but not to challenge or to produce new knowledge.

However, the main limitation of video games emerges from their didactic power: video games and simulation software implement rules and models in almost opposite means. Games even seem to allow going one step further, being often more comprehensive simulations. Comparisons reveal that simulations and video games point to similar results:, they both allow the simulation of complex urban processes, like hierarchical urban networks or urban segregation. This apparent convergence between simulation and video games is addressed through a selection of strategy and city builder video games. Recent trends focus on improving modelling toolsвЂ™ graphic quality and interface attractiveness and on using video games to facilitate urban studies teaching and research. Video games allow complex systems modelling, revealing retroaction loops, replicating self-organization and the emergence of hierarchical organization, functional differentiation and social segregation through multi-level interactions.