Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity

Here is an interesting story for all the fans of SimCity and similar games, as well as for anyone who still thinks that computer games are a useless time waste.  I’d like to see you try doing something even remotely close to this:

This story reminds me of all the time I spent playing Transport Tycoon Deluxe and OpenTTD.  The game is fun and I learned a lot about transportation.  But no matter how hard I tried, I never came close to the real pros (there are many actual professionals from the transportation industry playing the game and trying things out).  Have a look at this monster train station, for example (found in this forum thread):

Just stop and think for a moment.  How much do you really know about transportation? Trucks, buses, trains, ships, airplanes and helicopters?  Roads, maintenance, history and technology change?  Road planning, bridges, tunnels, semaphores, roundabouts, ports, loading stations, warehouse? I can go on …

These games teach you a great deal about the complex world around you.

Sleepless night

Yesterday I made a big mistake. After I came home from work and found everyone sleeping, I should have gone to bed myself. But instead I went to see the list of things that I wanted to do, but skipped. And I found this post bookmarked there.

Transport Tycoon Deluxe is one of the most addictive games I ever played. Fromt the first sight it looks overly complicated. After an hour or so it looks oversimplified. And than you just lose the track of time. I knew that, because I played it many times before.

And even knowing that I still did the download. It installed easily without any problems what-so-ever. And I decided to try if it runs OK…

10 hours later Olga was trying to kick me out for a walk with Maxim. After a short battle she succeded. But I was back in three hours. And played for 4 more. Than I just had to go to sleep…