-- a simulation of the early-90s US healthcare system at the time that Bill Clinton was proposing an overhaul. Gripping stuff.
If you have a minute, read up on the impact that SimCity had on actual municipal planning conversations at the time. Maxis responded by enthusiastically simulating everything that could be simulated -- also including an ant colony, a planet, and a Chevron refinery).
You get the picture that ideologies (or at least idealism) quickly became intertwined with the sim game fad -- suddenly, every individual could be a central planner, so more problems seemed central-plannable. But it's easy to forget that you're only responding to the incentives of a small and crude system, not designing a whole new system within the complexity of the real world. It's a teaching tool. All models are wrong, but some are useful.
And fun. SimCity 2000 is hands-down my favorite game ever. Go play it on the Internet Archive!
