Electronic Arts has announced that it will donate its original SimCity game to be pre-loaded on to each computer in the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) non-for-profit initiative by Nicholas Negroponte.
EA hopes that by offering its SimCity City game on the OLPC laptops, the youth around the world will develop their decision-making skills and hone their creativity at the same time.
In fact, the idea to connect SimCity with OLPC came from Internet pioneer, activist and OLPC advisor John Gilmore who knew the game’s history and recognized its potential relevance to the non-profit OLPC project.
In EA’s SimCity, the player takes on the role of mayor of a new municipality, and he/she will be responsible for building and maintaining a place where citizens can work and live happily. Doing so requires laying out essentials such as housing, transport links, schools, factories and shops. The job also requires an ability to choose wisely — for example, some power sources pollute, while others do not but are more expensive.
Players must also be financially savvy — raising taxes enough to guarantee an income that can be allocated to public services such as policing and road repair, but not so high that business growth is hampered or that citizens revolt.
The mayor must always be prepared for emergency situations as well, as earthquakes, floods and fires can wreak havoc on the town and require an immediate response so that fallout can be contained.
Steve Seabolt is the vice president of global brand development of The Sims Label. He said, ““SimCity is entertainment that’s unintentionally educational. Players learn to use limited resources to build and customize their cities. There are choices and consequences, but in the end, it’s a creativity tool that’s only limited by the player’s imagination. “The game should prove to be an incredibly effective way of making the laptop relevant, engaging, and fun, particularly for first time players. We are thrilled to be making this contribution to OLPC to help meet their goal of educating the children of the world.”
As previously decided, the OLPC laptops will initially be distributed in Uruguay, Peru, India, Mexico, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Haiti and Cambodia- all by the end of 2007.
We think it’s great that the OLPC laptop initiative will now include EA’s SimCity, as it will help build a foundation to tackle real life issues, and make kids more aware of what is really going on.