Will Wright’s simulation games: an environmental philosophy critique

Just as author Carolyn Merchant has shown (in chapters 2 and 3 of “Radical Ecology”) environmental ethics and worldviews determine how humans shape the world; for good or bad, game designer Will Wright’s environmental ethics and worldviews have shaped those held by many. Best know for creating SimCity and The Sims, Wright’s best-selling titles are creative, empowering, and educational ephemera that epitomize the mainstream beliefs of western culture. Whether they are the instruments spreading this egocentric worldview or just the symptoms of its pervasiveness, deconstructing Wright’s games provides the opportunity to critique western culture’s unfortunate techno-optimism, instrumentalization of nature, and the excessive application of Newtonian science.

Wright, an active gamer during his college years, decided that creating games would be his perfect outlet and career. His first game, Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984), found inspiration from architects and urban theorists Christopher Alexander and Jay Forrester. The two stressed spatial relationships, systems, processes, and “the grammar of design” in their writings. While design theories played a role in Bungleing Bay’s gameplay and organization, it was not until his 1989 release of SimCity that systems, processes, and design theory — all dependent on worldviews — would become the centerpoint of a game and ultimately, an entire genre, movement, and generation.

Wright’s cultural impact

The simulation, or “god game” genre is largely Wright’s creation, starting with SimCity. A smash hit, the game received approximately 20 awards in 1989 and 1990, according to its publisher. With so many awards and such commercial success, a whole suite of Sim-games was released, with Wright designing SimEarth, SimCopter, SimAnt, SimLife, The Sims, and the upcoming Spore. His publisher and co-founded company, Maxis, designed SimIsle, SimTower, SimPark, SimSafari, SimFarm, SimTown, and Streets of SimCity. While newer versions of SimCity have continued to make top-10 lists for sales and reviews, The Sims has been particularly notable, selling 70 million copies (the best-selling computer game of all time) and receiving frequent mention in mainstream media.

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Impacting the majority of gamers in the past 20 years, Wright has brought creative problem solving, design theory, and systems thinking to millions. In a more pragmatic sense, as well, he has confronted many with moral dilemmas, ethical quandaries, and the basics of socio-political thought. Wright draws inspiration from his successful experiences in Montessori schools, in comparison to the uninspired, dogmatic mainstream pedagogical model. Whether they realize it or not, Wright’s audiences are an enlightened, creative, and active group.

Deconstructing SimCity

Though likely for technical reasons, in this simplified model of our world the details both included and ignored are equally telling. Players construct cities (and later, regions with multiple cities) to balance the needs of residents, commerce, and industry.

While the game provides moral and ethical appeals to look after citizens, it implies western, egocentric (though, bordering on homocentric at times) values on people; the goal is clearly the greatest good for the greatest number. Economic classes comprise three levels — low, middle, and high. The lower class in this game are often found in areas of lesser education, higher crime rates, and/or higher pollution. While the real world has a myriad of links between cause and effect — many of them evidence of systems of oppression (devaluation of nature and women, capitalism’s unequal wealth distribution) — the world of SimCity is invariably from a Newtonian worldview that, tragically, reinforces poverty with social and environmental injustices by linking them, intrinsically.

The environment itself may possibly present the most problematic reductions. All but water and steep slopes are available for constructing civilization. Land that does not produce tax revenue has no other value and is wasted space. The world’s geographical and geological variations are reduced to forests, hills, and grasslands of the American east and midwest. Oceans, rivers, forests, and grasslands are devoid of life and represented only by several tints and shades of the basic hues of our earth — brown, green, and blue. Of what Merchant outlines as the heart of our ecological crisis — air, water, soils, and biota — only air and water receive the most cursory of treatments in each game in this series. The solution to exploiting each, reflects a techno-optimistic perspective; constructing parks and trees from the blood money of capitalism (though, it is never presented in that way) will apparently buy salvation for the atmosphere, while a water treatment plant or two can solve any aquatic discoloration.

In this Newtonian sandbox, land is parceled into its basic units of perfect squares. Without civilization, nature is a boring and worthless entity. As players build this civilization, pollution effects are localized and only spread proportional to the distance from the source. As each individual’s wellbeing is improved, the society as a whole improves by default. Power and water are infinitely sustainable, so long as the state can siphon enough money from its capitalist society. Both in SimCity and the western world, the Newtonian worldview and egocentric ethic allow little worry for the resource base because, with everything divided into seemingly perfect parts, aggregating the whole as a system becomes computationally impossible.

Deconstructing The Sims

Inspired by Wright’s experience in the Oakland fire of 1991, this “digital dollhouse” game condenses human cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, and material culture into a concise and reasonably tasteful (ESRB “Teen” rating) package. Players control the lives, surroundings, and relationships of their Sims from cradle to grave.

Where SimCity blurs the difficult connections between privilege and injustice, The Sims facilitates the misconception that standard of living equates with quality of life. The Sims’ egocentric ethic and Newtonian worldview requires the player to steer their character up the ranks of society, largely by aquiring wealth — materially and socially.

Three basic arenas of life — relationships, careers, and housing — determine the mood of a character. While relationship happiness is obtained through both quantity and quality of interactions with other characters, a player will learn nothing about interpersonal relationships and treat other characters instrumentally. The only indicator of career happiness is level of advancement, requiring players to accept and conform to ideas that each career field accepts only a prescribed set of skills, behaviors, and qualities. Housing happiness in The Sims is the most easily critiqued, for it is obtained through buying more stuff and more expensive stuff.

Whether intentional or not, the Newtonian worldview of The Sims represents many of the more obvious injustices within society. Clearly, though, as a best-selling title, many people hold egocentric ethics and find simulating success to be a worthy use of their time.

Conclusion

Merchant identifies that, while education is central to increasing quality of life, the proper subjects of education receive far too little attention. Just as it is socially acceptable within the real world to proffer, “because you can do something, it doesn’t mean you should,” it should be equally acceptable to do so for the digital, virtual worlds we construct. While simulation allows experimentation with less resource use, the power to affect cultural and social change should require simulation to act within an ethical philosophical framework. Furthermore, in simulations that involve culture and society (and most of them do), an understanding of the many different environmental ethics and worldviews is necessary to bring social and environmental justice. Lastly, that the media of video games are now a mainstream cultural product simulating morality, ethics, problem solving, community, and creativity as the grammar of their design, the ethical and moral frameworks of society should compel game developers to act responsibly. While fanciful, creative, and engaging, simulation games both reinforce our ills and create them anew.

Self-critique

This author apologizes for focusing on a topic that may be awkwardly narrow and disconnected from academia but intends for the analogies and philosophical models to remain true. He hopes that their application has been fair.

This is a reaction to Wright’s legacy, within the context of Merchant’s insights into environmental ethics and worldviews. Authored by a follower of Wright’s games, this is not an attempt at character assassination but certainly reflects frustration of an ignorant, misguided past. Ultimately, this holds hope for an enlightened and polycentric future of social and
environmental justice.

Bibliography

• Kelly, Kevin. “Will Wright. The Mayor of Sim City.” Wired, 1994.
• Merchant, Carolyn. “Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World.” Second Edition. Routledge, 2005. Chapters 2 and 3.
• Seabrook, John. “Game Master,” The New Yorker, November 6, 2006.
• “Sim-ply a genius.” The Sun, December 30, 2005.
• Thompson, Bob. “Guys and Digital Dolls,” Washington Post, April 14, 2002; Page W08.
• Wright, Will. “SimCity.” Maxis, 1989.
• Wright, Will. “SimCity 2000.” Maxis, 1993.
• Wright, Will. “SimCity 3000.” Electronic Arts, 1999.
• Wright, Will. “SimCity 4.” Electronic Arts, 2003.
• Wright, Will. “Spore.” Electronic Arts, 2008.
• Wright, Will. “The Sims.” Electronic Arts, 2000.
• Wright, Will. “The Sims 2.” Electronic Arts, 2004.
• Yi, Matthew. “PROFILE: Will Wright: Unsimulated success.” San Francisco Chronicle. November 3, 2003.