8 Feb. 2001

Announcements

- Pass around enrollment sheet. Check off, please.

- Discuss Reviews: Read assignment. Plan ahead: more than 102 students. Contact me or Casey.

Key aspects: (1) Content (topic, design, interface, etc.); (2) Critique. Was it a success in these aspects? Third aspect, context, will be addressed more prominently in the final paper.

- Tuesday our guest is Scott Hamilton, HPS Simulations. Aide de Camp; Tigers on the Prowl; Panthers in the Shadows; Panzer Campaigns series. Please do the readings. Dunnigan's Complete Wargames Handbook (chapters on computer games) is very important for the background. Tim's "All But War is Simulation" describes the restructuring of the military's interest in games and simulations during the 1990s. "War Games" is optional. Singhal's "Origin of Networked Virtual Simulations" is also optional, but valuable esp. on the history of Simnet specifically.

- Mark Tong--see me after class for access to game room.

History of Simulations

The term "simulation" has been used in many ways, sometimes for a class of games, sometimes (Crawford) in opposition to games. Historically, there are at least three threads:

1. Historical Simulations, aka "wargames." (Topic for Tuesday.) These are data-driven. History derives from SPI, Avalon-Hill, etc. History in the computer arena starts with SSI and Joel Billings, later Microprose, Talonsoft, HPS, etc. Designers like Sid Meier, Bruce Shelley, and Dan Bunten emerge from this tradition in various and different ways. These simulations are DATA driven and usually deliver a strategic or decision-making challenge.

2. Simulators. Variety of classes of games that try to put player in the perspective of a participant. Show Battlezone. Also includes racing simulations, virtual reality games, tank and aircraft simulation software. Eventually spilled over into a variety of first-person games. These are EXPERIENCE driven and try to create an immersive experience of being in a simulated situation.

3. Economic or Planning Simulations are MODEL-driven. The player views the world as a ruler or manager manipulating a ledger sheet or engineering a landscape. Examples are:

Hammurabi

M.U.L.E. (Dan Bunten and Ozark Softscape/Electronic Arts. Also did Seven Cities of Gold and Heart of Africa) Show it. Trip Hawkins could not buy "Cartels & Cutthroats," arguably the first business simulation, and published by SSI. Bunten told Hawkins he could do it better. Now a legendary game.

- terraforming

- real time

- auctions

Sim City (Will Wright; urban design concepts of Jay Forrester).

Sims

Discussion

- "The World according to Will" and History of Maxis.

- Friedman, "Semiotics of Sim City."

- Sims Strategy Guide

--- What is a person (chaps. 2, 3). What is a personality? -- Roy.

--- What is happiness? What are the Sims' free will & the Happyscape (ads)? -- chapter 4. --- Mark.

--- What is a relationship? Chapter 5. -- Nit(h)in.

- Discussion Points

Simulation vs. Game. Crawford: Reality vs. Imagination. Friedman: Not so different.

--- object-oriented nature of the simulation. Actions, skills, happiness points, etc. are carried in objects/advertising.

getting a job

learning to cook

Legacy of SimCity? (place roads to create traffic. Reversal of planning logic?)

--- Quantification, models. Explicit here, but isn't every game based on this?

--- Are we playing the software, the game, or the designer?