Livestream: How video games can help build better cities

For those of you under the impression that computer games possibly serve only as a mode of killing time, take a step back. Cities: Skylines is the brainchild of a Finnish game designing company that invites players, aka gamers such as ourselves to participate in the creation of a town that one thinks best serves the needs of the public. Karoliina Korppoo, a designer on the project offers a wonderful perspective on how the crowd-sourced nature of urban planning might go on to shape the architecture in the ‘not so distant future’. 

Karoliina tells the audiences how in 2014, over 54 percent of the world population was living in cities.  “So many of these people have thought of how they would do things differently. And these tools are just what we gave them.” With entries from gamers across the planet, Karoliina presents a few videos of computer simulated cities, that she feels makes the cut. One of the entries featured is a city built within Netherlands, while another city borders closer to fantasy. 

This tiered city features concentric circle routes. Karoliina says, “The city is a big circle with tinier circles inside. And the thing is that you put all of the services in the centre, and then people actually live on the outer ring, because there is less traffic, less noise, less pollution. But the services are still close by. They are in the center. And this is the soul of the game. So maybe this is something that we might be seeing someday.”

Interestingly, a concept explored by one of the gamers is that of walkability within cities. Karoliina tells us that one of the gamers interviewed an actual urban planner named Jeff Speck, an expert on walkability. “If you want your citizens to walk, which is beneficial, you need to have walking as a reasonable means of transportation and a good way to reach places.” This might certainly be a more productive alternative to the Average Joe gaming, we say.  

Title: How a video game might help us build better cities

Synopsis: Inspired by classic city simulation games, Finnish designer Karoliina Korppoo and developers at Colossal Order are infusing a gaming genre with fresh perspectives.

A contest was held in the Finnish city of Hämeenlinna. They had a new area they wanted to develop. They made a map with the existing city, and they left vacant an area they wanted to develop and shared this map. Anyone could download the map, play the game, build the area and submit their creations to the city council. 

Source: ted.com/talks/karoliina_korppoo_how_a_video_game_might_help_us_build_better_cities