In the mid-1980s, when Will Wright was just getting started as a game designer, he realized that the process of constructing a game—building out the individual levels—was fun in and of itself. Why not share the joy of creation with players? He conceived of a new game in which people could build their own digital metropolis, tweaking it as needed to maintain its health. When Wright brought the idea to publishers, none were willing to fund it: Who'd want to play a game with no clear way to win? So Wright cofounded his own company, Maxis, and released SimCity in 1989. It became the top-selling computer game of its time.
Although Wright considered SimCity to be more like a sandbox or a dollhouse than a game per se, it came to have an outsize effect on the real world, inspiring a generation of urban designers. Many players 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.—Kelly Clancy
