{"product_id":"building-simcity-isbn-9780262547482","title":"Building SimCity","description":"\u003cb\u003eA deep dive into the trailblazing simulation game \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e, situating it in the history of games, simulation, and computing.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBuilding SimCity\u003c\/i\u003e explores the history of computer simulation by chronicling one of the most influential simulation games ever made: \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e. As author Chaim Gingold explains, Will Wright, the visionary designer behind the urban planning game, created \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e in part to learn about cities, appropriating ideas from traditions in which computers are used as tools for modeling and thinking about the world as a complex system. As such, \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e is a microcosm of the histories and cultures of computer simulation that engages with questions, themes, and representational techniques that reach back to the earliest computer simulations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGingold uses \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e to explore a web of interrelated topics in the history of technology, software, and simulation, taking us far and wide—from the dawn of programmable computers to miniature cities made of construction paper and role-play. An unprecedented history of Maxis, the company founded to bring \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e to market, the book reveals Maxis’s complex relations with venture capitalists, Nintendo, and the Santa Fe Institute, which shaped the evolution of Will Wright’s career; Maxis’s failure to back \u003ci\u003eThe Sims\u003c\/i\u003e to completion; and the company’s sale to Electronic Arts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA lavishly visual book, \u003ci\u003eBuilding SimCity\u003c\/i\u003e boasts a treasure trove of visual matter to help bring its wide-ranging subjects to life, including painstakingly crafted diagrams that explain \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e’s operation, the Kodachrome photographs taken by Charles Eames of schoolchildren making model cities, and Nintendo’s manga-style “Dr. Wright” character design, just to name a few.Series Foreword\u003cbr\u003eForeword\u003cbr\u003eJanet H. Murray\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: SimCity’s Mystique\u003cbr\u003ePart I: Simulation’s Grasp\u003cbr\u003e1 Building Imaginary Cities\u003cbr\u003e2 Simulation as Analogy\u003cbr\u003ePart II: Paving the Road to SimCity\u003cbr\u003e3 System Dynamics: A Society of Bits\u003cbr\u003e4 Cellular Automata: Synthesizing the Universe\u003cbr\u003e5 A Children’s Construction Set\u003cbr\u003ePart III: SimCity’s Architects\u003cbr\u003e6 Designing SimCity\u003cbr\u003e7 Maxis at the Crossroads\u003cbr\u003e8 How SimCity Works\u003cbr\u003e9 Playing SimCity\u003cbr\u003eThe World in a Machine\u003cbr\u003eAppendix: Reverse Diagrams\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eReferences\u003cbr\u003eIndex“In his new book \u003ci\u003eBuilding SimCity\u003c\/i\u003e, Gingold meticulously describes the history of the people and ideas that shaped simulation games. Gingold's book recognizes that games are rarely the result of a single person's efforts. \u003ci\u003eBuilding SimCity\u003c\/i\u003e includes the collaborators—programmers, artists, interface designers, writers, and business partners—who helped make the game an unlikely commercial success. It also situates \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e in the wider context of 20th-century computing, design, and education.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Los Angeles Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“The triumph of \u003ci\u003eBuilding SimCity\u003c\/i\u003e is that it lays bare the illusive nature of simulation: that although many small parts make up a simulation, once we are through its portal, the simulation of these many different parts takes on a cultural life and reality of its own.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTechnology and Culture\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“I learned more about the history and practice of simulation from this book than I ever knew. While I was usually stuck in the trees when designing SimCity, Gingold rises above to see the entire forest.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Will Wright, designer of \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Sims\u003c\/i\u003e; Cofounder, Maxis \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Much more than a book about SimCity, or even about videogames, its large scope includes the invention of interactive computer graphics for simulations of all kinds, including the ‘beyond reality’ universes of games. Highly recommended!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Alan Kay, winner of the 2003 ACM Turing Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eBuilding SimCity\u003c\/i\u003e tells the riveting and timely story of how the very unlikely idea of simulating cities became one of the most successful videogames of all times, tracing its origins back to the history of computing.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Yasmin B. Kafai, Lori and Michael Milken President’s Distinguished Professor, The University of Pennsylvania; coauthor of \u003ci\u003eConnected Gaming: What Making Video Games Can Teach Us about Learning and Literacy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e “An exhilarating read. One of the best origin stories ever told and the best account I've seen of how innovation actually occurs in computerdom. Exhaustively researched and brilliantly illustrated, this revelatory book tells the definitive origin story of Will Wright, \u003ci\u003eSimCity\u003c\/i\u003e, and Maxis. First comes everything that led to them—radical city-modeling for school kids, system dynamics, cellular automata, graphical interfaces, Santa Fe Institute, early computer games, and the people that made them, and why, and how.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Stewart Brand, creator of the \u003ci\u003eWhole Earth Catalog\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eChaim Gingold is a designer and theorist whose work has been featured in \u003ci\u003eWired\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCNN\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times.\u003c\/i\u003e He worked closely with Will Wright on \u003ci\u003eSpore\u003c\/i\u003e and designed the \u003ci\u003eSpore Creature Creator\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303885426917,"sku":"NP9780262547482","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262547482.jpg?v=1767723171","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/building-simcity-isbn-9780262547482","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}