‘SimCity’ Isn’t a Model of Reality. It’s a Libertarian Toy Land

By Kelly Clancy

In the mid 1980s, Will Wright was just getting started as a game designer, he conceived of a new game in which people could build their own digital metropolis, tweaking it as needed to maintain its health. That game? ‘SimCity.’

When Wright brought the idea to publishers, none were willing to fund it: So Wright co-founded his own company, Maxis, and released ‘SimCity’ in 1989. It became the top-selling computer game of its time. 

To Wright’s surprise who only imagined the came like a dollhouse or sandbox, not a game per se, ‘SimCity’ came to have an outsize effect on the real world, inspiring a generation of urban designers, some who 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. Full story here: [https://www.wired.com/story/simcity-libertarian-toy-land/](https://www.wired.com/story/simcity-libertarian-toy-land/)

Well there are no real libertarian economies today. On the contrary there are more and more regulations and less freedom every year.
So seems like either the game is not a libertarian sandbox or people did not use it as model of reality.