EA donates SimCity to OLPC

According to a weekend report on Ars Technica, leading game maker Electronic Arts has decided to give their pioneering game SimCity to the One Laptop per Child project for installation on every machine distributed to children in developing nations).

You probably played SimCity as a kid. Remember laying out your own city, making decisions about geography, building roads, residences, and commercial areas? You got to watch how your choices play out over months, years, and decades.

The game also reveals the importance of city planning and civic policy-making to ordinary citizens, making it likely that at least some children in developing countries could be inspired to begin a career in that field. Placement of homes, schools, hospitals, water supply, and shipping docks, for example, is a central part of the game and may shed light on children's own civic situation, as it has for students and users in "developed" countries.

Don Hopkins, who will make the game available on the machine's Sugar interface, has also suggested the game be used to teach children how to code their own games, Ars reports.

[adamp1013]

Good for them

this is one of the best things i have heard in a long time. I truly think this has the potential to make a long term effect in the poorer nations of the world. It gives the youth of their countries the knowledge to make better cities, and to restructure their society. The fact is that the changes have to come from within. Now the only obstacle is implementing the computers in these far away countries. I really hope this project succeeds.

[tlcoles]

Really?

Hey, I think it's a great thing too, because I have really loved the game. But let's not get carried away here: this is a video game, not a redistribution of wealth. Heck, has SimCity created restructuring in the Global North to foster the restructure of society???

(But, wow, I would like to live in the world of your imagining. Must be cool.)

[_t3h]

Python port?

I wonder if this means that the game will be re-implemented in
Python? As the entire OLPC code is open and available
(http://olpc.download.redhat.com/olpc/streams/development/buil
d623/devel_ext3/) (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Emulating_the_XO),
maybe this might end up part of the average Linux distro :)

[ALLurGroceries]

IMACHEAT

Someone must consider the socioeconomic ramifications of every child in the third world thinking that they can become rich simply by typing IMACHEAT

[tlcoles]

You take me back!

I had totally forgotten about that cheat code. Cool. But you must be joking, right?? I mean, IMACHEAT works for politicians worldwide, so why dissuade children from learning the truth? ;-)

[GreenbushLabs]

Why is this necessary with Croquet in the mix?

Why is this necessary with Croquet in the mix?

[zackery89]

sup