SIMCITY ASSIGNMENT

Hello and welcome to the SimCity assignment. SimCity is an award-winning computer simulation that introduces people to the power of computer modeling in political science. It is a city planning and management simulation that requires the player to be relentlessly analytical. Warning: SimCity is a very absorbing game and it can become addictive!

For this course we will be using SimCity Classic -- there are both PC and Mac versions. We will NOT be using SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000, or SimCity 4000. SimCity Classic is the original version of SimCity and is, for our purposes, better than the newer versions. The performance targets set in this assignment are based upon the SimCity Classic model and only the SimCity Classic model.

The assignment is predicated on the EASY play level and since EASY is the default play level, just leave SimCity on EASY play level. Click on START A NEW CITY. SimCity will terraform a region for you and present you with two maps to view your region. One map is an overhead satellite view of the entire region. The other map is a close-up map of a small portion of the region. You can go back and forth between the maps by clicking anywhere on one or the other map.

Think about the towns and cities that you know. Where are they located in terms of topography? Most towns and cities are established on water. Why? What direction do air masses move? Watch the direction that smoke blows from the smokestacks in your industrial zones? Would you want to live in a residential zone downwind of a large industrial complex? Why don't small towns have huge sports stadiums and giant airports?

You can control the rate at which time elapses in SimCity. I recommend that you stick to the slower speeds most of the time. If you set the clock on FASTEST you will not have time to think and to react to what happens on the screen.

Your task is to design and manage a successful city. You do this by making decisions about zoning land for residential, commercial, or industrial uses and by supplying infrastructure such as roads or rail systems, electricity, police and fire protection. Remember that you, as mayor of your city, do not build any houses, shopping malls, or factories. Your job is to create an environment that will attract private investors to build and occupy houses, commercial, and industial enterprises. You do this by providing good city services and low taxes. The financial dynamics of your city are central to its success or failure. By encouraging investment in residential, commercial, and industrial zones you will expand your tax base and, with a growing tax base, you will be able to reduce the tax rate and still have sufficient funds to operate the city.

Each time you play SimCity be sure to disable the Disasters. At the top of the screen is a Disasters menu. Click on this menu and select Disable. This will turn-off most of the disasters that might befall your city. The greatest disaster, bankruptcy, cannot be turned-off and will remain the greatest threat to your cities.

CREATE AND DOCUMENT A SUCCESSFUL CITY WHICH ACHIEVES A POPULATION OF OVER 200,000 THROUGH THE YEARS 1900 TO 2050. SUBMIT A WRITTEN REPORT ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:

1. DESIGN CONCEPT (2 pages): Discuss fully the objectives you selected when you conceptualized your city initially and the choice of strategies you made to fulfill your objectives.
2. CHARTS: Draw-up charts for your city with data points at ten year intervals ranging from 1900 through 2050 for the following variables: mayor rating, worst problems, population, current score, tax rate, assessed valuation of property, and current funds. NOTE: No cheats, embezzlement, or misrepresentations permitted.
3. GROWTH NARRATIVE (2 TO 3 PAGES): Discuss the growth patterns of your city, the problems that arose, and the strategies you used to address the problems.
4. MAPS: Submit one-page computer-generated maps of your city drawn at 50 year intervals, i.e., 1950, 2000, and 2050. Because of many differing computer-printer configurations, you may have trouble getting the maps printed. My rule is this: Do not spend more than 30 minutes trying to print the maps. Once you have reached 30 minutes and 1 second stop trying to print and maps and, instead, give me a rough verbal description of your city.
5. CITY EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT (2 TO 3 PAGES): Discuss the success or lack of success you experienced in seeking to achieve your objectives. What would you do differently if you were to restart the city from scratch? What values underpin your ideas regarding good city design? Where would you choose to live in your city? If you were to retire as mayor of your city now, what advice would you have for the new mayor?

SOME GENERAL ADVICE: Playing SimCity starts-out feeling very difficult. You have to learn the various infrastructure icons, the budgetary process, etc. Once you have played with it for an hour or so it will seem to become quite easy and lots of fun. Then, later, when you actually build the city that you will submit for the assignment, it becomes very difficult again. The main target set by the assignment--achieving a population of 200,000 by the year 2050--is very challenging and requires that you be RELENTLESSLY ANALYTICAL at every step of the way. Over the years I have found that about 90% of my students are able to achieve the performance targets set by the assignment. Those who fail usually are the ones who started too late and did not spend the time to fully master the SimCity Classic model. So, SimCity starts-out feeling hard, then it gets easy, then it gets hard at the end.

Important advice: You will need to zone virtually the entire land area of your region to achieve the 200,000 population target. Every segment of road and rail should have tax paying zoned property on BOTH sides of every segment. Every zone (R,C, and I) should have a segment of transport (road or rail) adjoining it on one side and one side only. Line your lakes and rivers with residential zones. Don't even think about building a stadium or an airport until you reach 80,000 people. Try to keep your tax rate down to 5% or 6%. Build as few police stations as possible and use the analytical maps to determine the optimum locations. The key to success is having a positive cash flow in your annual budget. Remember: All of your tax revenue comes from property taxes. Privately owned property (R, C, and I) is your tax base. Road, rails, police stations, and fire stations don't pay any taxes--they require tax money to build and to maintain in your annual budget. If you can encourage people to invest in houses, shopping malls, and factories you will receive more tax dollars--because your tax base will be bigger. As your tax base get bigger you can actually REDUCE your tax rate and still have more tax dollars flowing it. The lower tax rate will encourage more people to come and invest in your city.

It absolutely essential that you use the analytical maps. These maps provide you the information that you need to make good decisions.