Sustainability in City-Building Games
First author: CoxYear: 2022
Abstract
Sustainability is a topic of concern in the design of modern cities. In the interest of evaluating how popular media may reflect this value, we modified an indicator-based framework designed for evaluating the sustainability of real-world cities to fit virtual cities. We then applied this modified framework to seven video games in the city-building genre and examined how each category of indicators (water, land use, energy, clean air, social wellbeing, population density, and trade) was represented in each game. We found that social wellbeing played the most significant role in the long-term success of a city: cities with poor wellbeing struggled to maintain or increase population. Additionally, we found that games with pre-industrial settings generally rewarded sustainable practices while the industrial and post-industrial games did the opposite. Post-industrial games also significantly prioritized city growth over sustainability. Thus, the setting was a significant predictor for modelling sustainability.Details
Language: EnglishCountry of affiliation: United States
Published in: Proceedings of DiGRA 2022
Publication type: Conference proceeding
Source: https://dl.digra.org/index.php/dl/article/view/1344
Games
No Results
Franchises
No Results
Studies
Description: Content analysis using (and refining) the assessment index system framework to assess how sustainability is presented in city-building games
Research type: Non-experimental
Data type: Qualitative
Comparator: none
Control group: no
Pilot study: yes
Pre/post measures used: no
Follow-up: no
Sample type: Game(s)
Sample size: 7
Power analysis: no
Sample countries: null
Games studied: SimCity: BuildIt, Pocket City, Anno 1800, Cities: Skylines, Frostpunk, Dawn of Man, Banished
Franchises studied: SimCity (F), Cities: Skylines (F), Frostpunk (F), Anno (F)
Study outcomes: Reflecting ecological issues