Rivertown Simulation:

How It Works

Background

The Rivertown Simulation's purpose is to involve participants in making decisions to improve the health of the downtown district.

Rivertown is a fictional older downtown located at an indefinite location somewhere in the Midwest. The Rivertown Simulation attempts, in simplified form, to represent the process a community goes through in deciding on various revitalization strategies for their city and to show the outcome in a condensed time period. Over time, topics are presented (e.g., taxes, zoning, historic districts) and then incorporated in the interactive simulation. Decisions typically include issues such as electing a Mayor, saving a historic building, or even deciding whether to build a new parking lot.

Players can see the results of the decisions over a span of "years" (each week represents about one year). Participants can make individual decisions, such as buying and renovating an existing building, and/or take on community roles, such as members of City Council, the Planning Department, merchants, residents, etc.

Originally the Rivertown Simulation was run "by hand." During these years a number of attempts were made to computerize aspects of the simulation. In the Spring of 1996 it was loaded on WebCaucus (computer conferencing software) and linked it to Internet. WebCaucus allowed participants to sign in and introduce themselves, and then take on one of the Rivertown roles. Being on Internet meant that players could respond at their own convenience.

In 1998, the Simulation became integral with a new Internet-based book on Downtown Revitalization, one of the first of its kind. This allowed direct linkage from the Simulation to related topics. This CD-format book was designed for use in online courses now offered by the Urban and Regional Planning Program at Eastern Michigan University.

How it works

The Rivertown Simulation is not intended as a traditional board game, with absolute winners and losers. Rather, its purpose is to create a simulated setting--in this case a section of a city with older downtown buildings--and have participants become involved in making revitalization decisions in that setting. In simplified form, the Rivertown Simulation represents the process one would go through in deciding, for example, whether the rehabilitation of an older building would be a good investment strategy, or whether improvement districts should be established by the city.

The element of chance plays a minimal role in the simulation. There are some risk factors, but essentially the larger "risks" are inherent in how well development decisions are made in Rivertown's continuously changing economic micro-environment.

As in real life, not all the rules and strategies for involvement are apparent immediately. But as a participant gets experience, s/he is able work toward goals defined for him or herself and also to learn about issues of downtown revitalization.

Participants can see the results of the decisions over a span of "years." They can also observe how decisions of others can impact on these decisions, both directly and indirectly. They will continually assess the balance of competition vs. cooperation with other participants.

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