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XL Dreams
A long time ago, I had one of the first editions of the classic computer game Sim City. And perfectly in line with the critique of the simplicity of modern zoning by Jane Jacobs, you really just had your Residential, Commercial and Industrial buttons to play with. Since that time, I haven’t really followed gaming, and sometimes the development of the whole industry just catches you off guard. Recently, I took a first better look on Cities XL, a computer game for building and running imaginary cities.
The visuals are of course breathtaking. But what’s more interesting is perhaps the whole phenomenon of megacities in the game culture. Because there’s something in the gleaming skyscrapers, dream cars, HiFi systems, and other forms of material, masculine sleek. The screenshots of the upcoming 2012 edition seem to emphasize extremities: tall buildings, huge highways set in a challenging statuesque terrain. Alternately, you have you paradise resort villages, both alpine and tropical.
Are these the dream cities of the gamer demography, which is predominately male, I presume? And isn’t there something similar here to the dreams of, say, that golden era of modernism? Or, I don’t know, Dubai?
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