How a video game might help us build better cities | Karoliina Korppoo

这个演讲探讨了一款城市建造游戏与城市规划未来之间令人惊讶且强大的联系。演讲者，作为该游戏开发团队的一员，首先强调了游戏的巨大成功，拥有超过3050万玩家。 然而，重点迅速从单纯的娱乐转移开，展示了玩家如何利用游戏中的工具进行自我表达、创造，以及最重要的，探索现代城市面临的日益严峻的挑战的创新解决方案。 演讲者起初承认自己着迷于将城市视为一个系统，但令他惊讶的是，如此多的人也对此感兴趣。游戏的成功源于人类对城市环境固有的迷恋以及塑造它们的渴望。 游戏提供了实现这些愿望的工具，允许玩家建造和分享他们梦想中的城市。 这种分享方面至关重要，它建立了一个社区，玩家可以在其中相互学习彼此的设计和方法。 接着，演讲通过YouTube视频展示了几个由玩家创建的城市案例。 第一个案例，由Silvaren创作的“荷兰”，展示了游戏创建逼真但完全虚构环境的能力。 该玩家受到了真实荷兰城市特征的启发，但并没有复制任何特定的城市。 相反，他们创造了一个体现该地区关键要素的幻想城市，例如密集的人口和连接较小城镇中心的强大的交通网络。 这突出了游戏可视化潜在城市发展情景的能力，即使这些情景植根于现实世界的背景中。 转向更具未来感的愿景，演讲者重点介绍了Conflict Nerd创作的“分层城市”。 这种设计侧重于圆形布局，服务集中在中心，住宅区位于外环。 核心理念是通过最大限度地减少住宅区的交通、噪音和污染，同时保持方便地访问基本服务，从而优先考虑公民的福祉。 这个例子强调了游戏模拟城市居民的需求和愿望的能力，迫使玩家考虑服务的可及性以及城市规划决策对生活质量的影响。 它强化了游戏不仅仅是关于建造，而是关于理解虚拟市民的需求的理念。 最后，演讲展示了Yutou创作的“阿斯塔利亚”，一个体现步行友好原则的城市设计。 Yutou是一位YouTube内容创作者，他在一系列视频中记录了他的城市建造过程，甚至采访了城市规划专家Jeff Speck关于步行友好概念的看法。 然后，他将这些原则应用于他的城市，优先考虑公共交通、人行道和广场，以连接高层建筑，从而创造了一个步行友好、可持续的未来城市愿景。 这个例子强调了游戏如何被用来将理论上的城市规划概念转化为可视化和交互式模型，以一种切实的、可感知的方式展示它们的潜在影响。 演讲者透露，城市规划师已经在将这款游戏用作草图工具。 虽然模拟并非完全真实，但它足够准确，可以提供可靠的指示，表明某些规划解决方案是否可以在现实世界中发挥作用。 规划人员可以试验道路布局、十字路口和基础设施项目，以评估其影响，然后再进行昂贵且耗时的现实世界实施。 演讲以一个引人注目的真实世界应用案例结束：由芬兰城市哈梅琳纳组织的比赛。 该市提供了一张计划开发区域的地图，并邀请玩家使用该游戏来设计该区域。 提交的设计随后提交给市议会审议，有可能影响该地区的最终计划。 这个案例研究突出了游戏在城市规划民主化方面的潜力，允许公民贡献他们的想法和愿景来发展他们自己的城市。 本质上，该演讲认为，这款城市建造游戏已经超越了娱乐。 它已成为探索、可视化，甚至可能影响城市发展未来的平台。 玩家生成的创新解决方案，加上游戏模拟现实世界场景的能力，为城市规划者和政策制定者提供了宝贵的资源。 随着城市继续发展并面临越来越多的挑战，这些由玩家产生的梦想可能正是塑造更美好城市未来的关键。

This presentation explores the surprising and powerful connection between a city-building game and the future of urban planning. The speaker, part of the team that created the game, highlights its immense popularity, boasting over 30.5 million players. However, the focus quickly shifts beyond mere entertainment, showcasing how players are utilizing the game’s tools for self-expression, creativity, and, most importantly, exploring innovative solutions to the ever-growing challenges faced by modern cities. The speaker initially admits to being fascinated by cities as systems, but was surprised to find that this interest was shared by so many. The game's success stems from the inherent human fascination with urban environments and the desire to shape them. The game provides the tools to realize these desires, allowing players to build and share their dream cities. This sharing aspect is crucial, fostering a community where players can learn from each other's designs and approaches. The presentation then showcases several examples of these player-created cities through YouTube videos. The first, "The Netherlands" by Silvaren, demonstrates the game's ability to create realistic-looking yet entirely fictional environments. This player was inspired by the characteristics of real Dutch cities but didn't replicate any particular one. Instead, they crafted a fantasy city that embodied the key elements of the region, such as dense population and robust transportation networks connecting smaller town centers. This emphasizes the game's ability to visualize potential urban development scenarios, even those rooted in real-world context. Moving towards more futuristic visions, the speaker highlights "Tiered City" by Conflict Nerd. This design focuses on circular layouts with services concentrated in the center and residential areas in the outer rings. The core idea is to prioritize citizen well-being by minimizing traffic, noise, and pollution in residential zones while still maintaining easy access to essential services. This example underscores the game's ability to simulate the needs and desires of city inhabitants, forcing players to consider the accessibility of services and the impact of urban planning decisions on quality of life. It reinforces the idea that the game is not just about building, but about understanding the needs of the virtual citizens. Finally, the presentation showcases "Astaria" by Yutou, a city design that embodies principles of walkability. Yutou, a YouTube content creator, documented his city-building process in a series of videos, even interviewing urban planning expert Jeff Speck on the concept of walkability. He then applied these principles to his city, prioritizing public transportation, walkways, and plazas to connect high-rise buildings, creating a vision of a walkable, sustainable future city. This example emphasizes how the game can be used to translate theoretical urban planning concepts into visual and interactive models, demonstrating their potential impact in a tangible way. The speaker reveals that urban planners are already using the game as a sketching tool. The simulation, while not entirely realistic, is accurate enough to provide a reliable indication of whether certain planning solutions might work in the real world. Planners can experiment with road layouts, intersections, and infrastructure projects to assess their impact before committing to expensive and time-consuming real-world implementation. The presentation concludes with a compelling example of real-world application: a contest organized by the Finnish city of Hamelina. The city provided a map of an area slated for development and invited players to design the area using the game. The submitted designs were then presented to the city council for consideration, potentially influencing the final plans for the area. This case study highlights the game's potential to democratize urban planning, allowing citizens to contribute their ideas and visions to the development of their own cities. In essence, the presentation argues that this city-building game has evolved beyond entertainment. It has become a platform for exploring, visualizing, and potentially even influencing the future of urban development. The innovative solutions generated by players, combined with the game's ability to simulate real-world scenarios, offer a valuable resource for urban planners and policymakers alike. As cities continue to grow and face increasing challenges, these player-generated dreams might just hold the key to shaping a better urban future.