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Games and Culture
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Challenge Everything?

Construction Play in Will Wright's SIMCITY

Maaike Lauwaert, PhD

University of Maastricht

This article deals with the popular simulation game SIMCITY by Will Wright. The main question of this article is whether or not the popular notion of SIMCITY as an endless and borderless playground is more than a contaminating marketing strategy. To analyze this question about SIMCITY as a borderless playground, the article will draw historical parallels with construction toys from yesteryear and differentiate between internal and external levels of playing and intended and unintended practices of play. The article claims that unintended practices of play, player "anarchy" through appropriation of the game, are difficult in a game like SIMCITY, thus frustrating the claims and the idea of SIMCITY as a borderless playground.

Key Words: computer games • SimCity • toys • participation culture • player anarchy

Games and Culture, Vol. 2, No. 3, 194-212 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1555412007306205
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?