SIMCITY 4: PLAYER IMPACT GUIDE Ages 10+

Managing Money SIMCITY 4: PLAYER IMPACT GUIDE Ages 10+ | 1-2 Hours “City planning just doesn’t sound that interesting, but when you’re actually the one making all the decisions and deciding where to put the freeways, all of a sudden it gets extremely interesting.” --Will Wright, creator In SimCity 4, you are the mayor of your own town! Design and manage your city toward growth and prosperity. Just like in the real world, money management plays a big role in the success of a city over time. You will need to make sure your city has enough money for important services, such as fire departments and police forces, while still expanding and growing your city zones. A prosperous city comes from a well-balanced, profitable economy where funds can be shared between maintaining the city and creating new residential, commercial, and industrial zones to stimulate growth. In this guide we challenge and invite you to think about SimCity 4 from an economic perspective. As you play, reflect on HOW TO your experience. How important is money to a growing city? In what ways does managing the finances of a city mirror managing your own finances? How did you learn about how your own city manages its finances by playing the game? USE THIS In what ways does a budget limit what cities can do? GUIDE Answer the questions below and add up your points when you’re finished! Start collecting money for your city by instituting a few taxes. What are some more ways to make money? [+1] How do you know when you’re spending too much money? [+1] GAME What happens when you have a lot of extra money? What can you do with it? [+2] Change the tax rate. How did your population respond? What does a high tax rate do? A low tax rate? [+1] Build up your city then take a look at what types of properties produced profits. What are the differences between your residential, commercial, and industrial zones? Why do you think that is? [+3] Did you ever do something that resulted in over-spending? Why were you doing it? [+2] What types of things did you build when you had extra money in the bank? [+1] How did you change the city based on how much money you were making? Did your changes help you make even PLAYER more money or not? Why do you think that is? [+2] While you played, did you find yourself wishing you had more control of your city’s economy or less? If you wished that you had more control, why would you add to the game to give yourself greater power and why? If you wished you had less, what do you think should have been left out of your control? Why? [+4] How can people manage their money in the real world, like in SimCity4? [+2] Is a tax system necessary for a real-life city to function? Why or why not? [+2] WORLD If you were a citizen of the city you made in the game, what would you want your mayor to spend money on? [+2] How would you manage money if you were the mayor of your real-life city? What sorts of things would you invest in and what would you avoid investing in? What would you want to add or change? [+3] Bonus Level Challenge: Create a city designed after the one you live in. Think about your city’s biome and specific needs or resources. When you’re done, make a screencast of your city and talk about why you designed it the way you did. Post it on YouTube and share with your friends and family. .

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Simcity 2000 Manual
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