SimCity Used in Autism Research Project

[expectingrain5 0]

This is interesting:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703422904575039351632663996.html?mod=rss_Personal_Journal

"As part of their work, the Columbia researchers constructed a "SimCity map of California," referring to the city-building simulation game, says Peter Bearman, the lead investigator. They assembled data pinpointing not just where children with autism were born and diagnosed but also all the parks, day-care centers, doctors' offices, autism-advocacy groups and other gathering places."

[jabezscratch 159]

Interesting. I wonder what version of SC they used. I hope it wasn't Societies!

[Yonk 2]

They made a map of the entire state of California...? to exact scale...? and pinpointed each house where an autistic child was born, as well as where all parks, clinics, and day-care centers are? I don't believe it.

Either they've got a supercomputer up there and hundreds of researchers working day and night since SC4 came out, or they're fudging something. The article seemed mostly about the LA-area, and that would at least be plausible for a recreation of this level of detail.

- Yonk

[His Divine Hand 244]

You know, I think you may have read a little too much into that one statement. I suspect that the article was using a pop culture reference for something more like a google map, not any actual Sim City game.

[DPMorse 2]

Originally posted by: His Divine Hand

You know, I think you may have read a little too much into that one statement. I suspect that the article was using a pop culture reference for something more like a google map, not any actual Sim City game.quote>

I agree.

They did not use SimCity, they simply mapped out a 'SimCity like' scenario using data at hand.

"As part of their work, the Columbia researchers constructed a "SimCity map of California," referring to the city-building simulation game, says Peter Bearman, the lead investigator. They assembled data pinpointing not just where children with autism were born and diagnosed but also all the parks, day-care centers, doctors' offices, autism-advocacy groups and other gathering places."

No super-computer can enhance the hard-coded capabilities of a game, and no version of SimCity allows for that kind of detail.

[ScaryMonkey 0]

Originally posted by: DPMorse

Originally posted by: His Divine Hand

You know, I think you may have read a little too much into that one statement. I suspect that the article was using a pop culture reference for something more like a google map, not any actual Sim City game.quote>

I agree.

They did not use SimCity, they simply mapped out a 'SimCity like' scenario using data at hand.

"As part of their work, the Columbia researchers constructed a "SimCity map of California," referring to the city-building simulation game, says Peter Bearman, the lead investigator. They assembled data pinpointing not just where children with autism were born and diagnosed but also all the parks, day-care centers, doctors' offices, autism-advocacy groups and other gathering places."

No super-computer can enhance the hard-coded capabilities of a game, and no version of SimCity allows for that kind of detail.

quote>

Exactly, it would be wildly impractical to use Sim City for something like that.  On the other hand, I'm pretty curious to know what software they *were* using.