I have an hard time to invent a good game for the development of my thesis. Today, after a brainstorm session at CRAFT, I rested with the idea of the ubiquitous monopoly like game.

In SimCity, the simulator is modeled on real phenomena. There the land price is regulated by a couple of factors.  Land value is one of the most fundamental aspects of urban structure. The land value of an area affects how that area is used. In this simulation the land value of an area is based on terrain, accessibility, pollution, and distance to downtown.

The farther the residents have to go to work, the lower the land value where they live, due in part to transportation costs. The value of commercial zones depends greatly on accessibility by the populace.

Land value is also affected by surrounding terrain. If land is closer to water, trees, agricultural areas, or parks, its value will rise.

We can sketch these four elements like:

– terrain (proximity to water, trees, agricoltural areas, parks, …)

– accessibility (the ease with which is possible to reach it)

– pollution (environmental conditions at the place)

– distance to downtown (where downtown stays for all the socially defined places)

– distance from work (related to working areas)

Subsequently we can categorise factors contributing to the price of the land as:

– fixed: like the terrain parameter, which is related to defined and static natural characteristic of the place;

– user defined: like the accessibility and pollution, that may be defined on how the user moves into the city;

– socially defined: like the landmarks defined by the interaction with the group;

– game defined: users may buy or sell a particular block, putting an industry or an hotel there.

-> the social value of a place can be defined by several parameters like: the user’s permanence time on that spot; the message density on that area; the number of meeting messages on the same area.