Popular desktop game seen as the future of education and practice in city building

Beginning in Fall 2014 the Faculty of Environment’s School of Planning will begin using the popular open-ended city-building computer and console video game as the focal point for their degree program. Traditional courses are to be replaced with an integrative Planning education where student’s create, manage, and plan their own cities.

“The latest evolution of SimCity is by far the most comprehensive version of the game to-date,” says School of Planning director Clarence Woudsma: “For the first time we have a program that can simulate the minutiae of complex urban environments and behaviours. We are extremely excited about the learning potential of this new platform.” Students will have the opportunity to plan and manage their city from scratch, being graded at various stages on the basis of their ability to translate their learning into tangible outcomes in Simcity. Rather than being graded on how well they can recall facts and figures, they will be graded on the health of their Sims and the GHG emissions from their city. Simulated versions of the Region of Waterloo will be graded on how well the traffic and transit flows perform.

According to statements by game publisher Maxis, the new SimCity enables users, “to impact Sims lives, manage city-level simulation, and balance multiple cities at once. Every Sim, every car, every building has a purpose in SimCity. Sims go to work, purchase items, consume goods and live in a home (unless they’re homeless).”

Adding to the rationale of incorporating a game like SimCity from a teaching standpoint is its function as a recruiting tool. “Most of our current students became interested in planning because of SimCity in the first place,” says Woudsma. “They play the game anyway, so why not take it to the next level and build their planning education around it.”

Local high school student Jennifer Moritz is excited about the change. “I am looking forward to the challenge,” she says, “I've already started practicing.”

Since hearing the news Mortiz has been working on her SimCity, Awesomeville, Jennsylvania. “It's harder than it looks. I just hope there aren't as many Godzilla attacks when I become a real planner.

Editor's Note: Gotcha! We hope you enjoyed our April Fool's gag for 2013. Though many of our students credit the game with creating the passion for urban planning that lead them to the University of Waterloo, and reviews of the latest release of the game highlighted it's application to urban planning, the School of Planning will not be changing the curriculum of it's undergraduate program to include the use of the game SimCity.