First, let's notice how accurate a game that set out to be fun turns out to be. They eagerly emphasize that they're not transit experts they're just clever blokes who set out to create a fun game about transit, and who succeeded. This post is not a critique of Peter's and Robert's work. And if you notice what's going on, you'll learn some sound principles of network design that will serve you well, no matter what your role is in creating the cities of the future. Their game, Mini Metro, is simple, fun, and (if this is a virtue) addictive. Well, now there's a draft of the very game I've been imagining, thanks to Peter and Robert Curry of the New Zealand gameshop Dinosaur Polo Club. I use (non-computer) games in all my courses and stakeholder workshops because things you've played with are things you remember. And there are plenty of geeks out there, in city-building professions and advocacy, who'd enjoy learning this way.
Games are a good way of thinking about real problems (see Jane McGonegal's great book Reality is Broken). I mean a game that is simple but engaging the way chess is, and where the strategy you need to learn happens to also be What City-Makers Need to Understand About Transit (but Often Don't). I don't mean complex simulation games like Cities in Motion, Transport Tycoon or ( shudder) SimCity, which simulate so many things that it's hard to focus on the network element. I've long wished there were an computer game that would require players to figure out the basic facts of transit network design.
0 kommentar(er)
