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

We humans are becoming an urban species. So cities are natural habitat that is where we live. In 2014, over 50% of the world population was living in cities. And I can bet you that so many of these people have thought of how they would do things differently. Like if I only had the tools to change things in my city, what would I do? What would my dream city be like? In this tool, this is just what we gave them. Two years ago, my team and I, we only used to game cities, guidelines. It is a game about building cities. So I have always been interested in cities as systems. It's something that I find immensely interesting. But what I didn't understand was that I am not alone in this. People love cities. They are interested. They have ideas. The game was an instant hit. So far, over 30 and a half million people have played it.

我们人类正在变成一个城市物种，因此城市成为我们生活的自然栖息地。在2014年，全球超过50%的人口居住在城市。我敢打赌，这些人中有很多都曾想过如何以不同的方式改变他们的城市。比如，如果我有工具来改变城市，我会怎么做？我理想的城市会是什么样子？在这个工具中，这正是我们给他们提供的。两年前，我和我的团队只是在模拟游戏里设计城市。这个游戏是关于建设城市的。我一直以来都对城市作为一个系统很感兴趣，这让我感到极大的兴趣。但让我意外的是，我并不是唯一一个感兴趣的人。人们热爱城市，他们有自己的想法和创意。这个游戏一推出就大受欢迎，截至目前，已经有超过三千零五十万人玩过。

And it's not just about playing. We also have really awesome sharing systems. So people play, they create cities, and then they are sharing these creations, showing off what they have made. What I will show you is some of these cities created by the players. So the game is about self-expression, creativity, not just overcoming the challenges posed by the simulation. It is about showing what your cities look like. So I have a couple of videos. These are from YouTube. And these are some of the most interesting city designs that I have seen. So they are all different. And I hope you like all of these. This one is called The Netherlands. It's by Silvaren. And when you start the game, you have an empty piece of land. This land, it can be based on the real world. It can be handcrafted in the map editor. You can download a city made by someone else and play on that.

这不仅仅是关于玩游戏。我们也有非常棒的分享系统。人们在游戏中建造城市，然后分享他们的创作，展示他们所做的一切。我会向你展示一些由玩家们创建的城市。所以，这款游戏不仅仅是克服模拟带来的挑战，更重要的是自我表达和创意展现。展示你的城市是什么样子的。我还有几个视频，这些都来自YouTube。这些是我见过的最有趣的城市设计，它们各不相同。希望你喜欢这些。其中一个叫做“荷兰”，由Silvaren创建。在你开始游戏时，你会有一块空地。这块地可以基于现实世界，也可以在地图编辑器中手工制作。你还可以下载其他人创建的城市，基于此进行游戏。

But what Silvaren has done here is that what he wanted to make was not a real city. This is a fantasy city, even though it looks real. So what he wanted to do was a fantasy city that could be in the Netherlands. So he investigated what are the characteristics of cities in the Netherlands and combined a couple of those. And this is what he created. So it is a city that is not a real city, but it could be. It looks just like the Netherlands. So the place is only densely populated. So what you need is highways, trains, anything connecting these small town centers together. Lots of people, lots of moving. So transportation is the key here.

然而，Silvaren 在这里所做的并不是建造一个真实的城市。他想打造的是一座看起来真实但实际上却是虚构的城市。这座城市是一个虚构的荷兰城市。因此，他研究了荷兰城市的特点，并将几个特点结合在一起，创造了这座城市。尽管并不是真实存在的城市，但它看起来就像在荷兰。这个地方人口稠密，因此你需要的是高速公路、火车以及连接这些小城镇中心的各种交通工具。人多、流动性大，所以交通是这里的关键。

But then let's go even more on the fantasy side. Let's go into the future. This is one of my personal favorites. This city designs what I love the most. So this is a tiered city by Conflict Nerd. And the basic idea is that you have call centric circle routes. So the city is a big circle with tiny circles inside. And the thing is that you put all of the services in the center and then people actually live on the outer ring. Because there is less traffic, less noise, less pollution. So that is where you want to live. But the services are still really close by. They are in the center. And this is the soul of the game. The player has to understand what are the wishes, what are the needs of the tiny people living in the cities.

接下来我们更深入地进入幻想世界，展望未来。这是我个人的最爱之一。我最喜欢的城市设计就是这样的：这座城市是由Conflict Nerd设计的分层城市。其基本构想是使用同心圆路线。城市整体为一个大圆形，内部有许多小圆形。所有服务设施都放在中心，而人们则住在外环，因为那里车流量更小，噪音和污染也更少。所以那是你想居住的地方，但服务设施仍然很近，就在中心。这就是游戏的核心所在。玩家需要理解居住在城市里小人物们的愿望和需求。

So you need to know where you should put the things. Like it's not enough to have a hospital. It needs to be accessible. Citizens need to reach the hospital. And this is one way to do it. So maybe this is something that we might be seeing someday. And then even more into the future. Astaria by Yutou. So Yutou does YouTube videos and plays the game. What he did here was actually 12 prime sea areas of creating this city. So what he does is he plays the game. He records it. And he explains as he's going what he's doing and why. And as a part of this scene is he actually did an interview with an actual urban planner called Jeff Speck.

你需要知道如何合理安排物品的位置。比如说，单纯建造一所医院还不够，它还需要是交通便利的，市民要能够方便地到达医院。这是实现这一目标的方法之一。有一天我们可能会看到这样的场景，并且将来会有更多的可能性。Yutou 的“Astaria”。Yutou 在 YouTube 上制作视频并玩游戏。他在这里做了一个关于创建城市的 12 个重要海域的项目。Yutou 玩游戏时，会录制视频并边玩边解释他在做什么以及为什么这样做。在这个场景的一部分内容中，他还采访了一位名叫 Jeff Speck 的城市规划专家。

Speck is an expert on the concept of walkability. The basic idea is that if you want citizens to walk, which is kind of beneficial, you actually need to have walking as a reasonable means of transportation. It should be a good way to reach places. So what Yutou did was that he explained this concept. He had Speck explained too. And then he applied it to the city that he was building. So what we're seeing is Yutou's vision of the future. Lots of public transportation, walkways, plazas, connecting high-rise buildings. Maybe this is what the future might look like. And the game system works really well for this.

斯佩克是步行适宜性概念的专家。这个概念的基本思想是，如果你希望市民步行，也就是一种有益的行为，那么就必须把步行作为一种合理的交通方式，使其成为抵达各个地方的好方法。因此，Yutou所做的是解释这一概念。他还让斯佩克也进行了说明。随后，Yutou将这个理念应用到他正在建设的城市中。所以，我们所看到的是Yutou对未来的愿景：充足的公共交通、步行道、广场，以及连接高层建筑的通道。也许这就是未来的样子。而且，游戏系统在这个对未来的模拟中运作得相当出色。

We are seeing some real world uses to this game. So we know that some urban planners are using it as a sketching tool. So while the simulation is not completely realistic, it is realistic enough that if something works in the game, it is highly likely that it will also work in the real world. So that you can actually try out things. See if this intersection might fit this kind of situation. If we build a new road, would it help? And this is what you can do with this game.

我们发现这个游戏在现实世界中有一些实际用途。据我们所知，一些城市规划师正在将其用作草图工具。虽然模拟并不是完全逼真，但逼真度足够高，以至于如果某个方案在游戏中有效，那么在现实世界中也很可能有效。你可以用这个游戏实际尝试各种方案，比如看看某个交叉路口是否适合某种情况，或者建一条新路是否有帮助。这就是你可以用这个游戏做的事情。

There was one only interesting contest held by the Finnish city of Hamelina. So what they did was they had a new area that they wanted to develop in the city. They made a map with the existing city. They left empty the area that they wanted to develop and shared this map. So anyone could download the map, play the game, build the area and submit donations to the city council. So they have not yet built anything, but it might just be that they use one of these plans made with the game to actually build the real city.

芬兰城市哈梅利纳举办了一场有趣的比赛。他们计划开发一个新的城市区域，为此制作了一张包含现有城市的地图，并将待开发区域留空，然后分享这张地图。任何人都可以下载这张地图，通过游戏进行设计，建造这个区域，并将设计方案提交给市议会。目前，他们还没有开始实际建设，但有可能会采用其中一个通过游戏制作的计划来真正建设城市。

And these videos that I have shown you, these are the people who are coming up with new kinds of solutions. We know that cities are growing. They are getting bigger as we go. And the percentage of population living in cities is projected to rise. So we need the solutions. And these people playing the game, they are trying out different kinds of solutions. They might have something that is really important.

我给你们看的这些视频展示了一些人正在提出新的解决方案。我们知道城市在不断发展壮大，未来生活在城市的人口比例预计还会增加。因此，我们需要解决方案。而这些尝试新方法的人们，可能正在测试各种不同的解决办法，也许他们会发现一些非常重要的东西。

So what we are seeing here is dreams it is that might be real one day. So it might be that this is not just a game. It might be a way to decide our fate. Thank you.

我们在这里看到的是可能有一天会成真的梦想。所以这可能不仅仅是一个游戏，而是一种决定我们命运的方法。谢谢。