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

SimCity is less an insight into reality than a libertarian toy land, shaped by the free-market biases of the urban models that inspired it. Designer Will Wright's game drew on urban models by engineer Jay Forrester, whose 1971 book Urban Dynamics recommended dropping regulations for the free market, and whose Concord, Massachusetts, zoning advice drove housing prices sky-high. SimHealth, a 1994 hospital-management game, had a clear libertarian bias, and Paul Starr, a Clinton health care adviser, said it contained so much misinformation that no one could evaluate real policies with it.