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The rental prices are excessively inflated, even within virtual environments. For an extended period, gamers of Colossal Order’s 2023 urban planning simulator, Urban Centers: Horizons II, have been grappling with exorbitant housing expenses. Online forums flooded with users disheartened by the cost of living being too steep in their growing urban landscapes and voiced their frustration over the absence of a solution. This week, the game developer finally revealed a remedy: casting away the game’s landlords.
“Primarily, we eliminated the virtual landlord so that the maintenance costs of a building are now evenly distributed among all tenants,” the developer announced in a blog post on the game’s Steam page. “Secondly, we revised the method of rent calculation.” Currently, Colossal Order states, it will be based on a household’s earnings: “Even if they are currently financially short to cover rent, they will not lodge complaints and will instead reduce their spending on resource consumption.”
The rent dilemma in the city simulation is almost uncannily relatable. Over recent years, real-world rental charges have skyrocketed—sometimes escalating quicker than wages. In urban areas like New York, advocates and lessees alike are actively combatting the surcharges, rendering housing progressively less affordable; in the UK, rent is almost 10 percent higher than a year ago. From Hawaii to Berlin, the cost of living is exorbitant. While landlords may not always be at fault, they are frequently the easiest scapegoats for tenants.
From this angle, perhaps the simulator in Urban Centers is excessively detailed. Prior to this week’s update, players found themselves encountering analogous challenges to those confronted by government officials and urban designers. “I am at a loss trying to resolve the high rental fees,” penned one player in a forum in April. “No matter what I do—rezone, derezone, increase jobs, decrease jobs, raise or lower taxes, adjust game time. Enhance education, diminish education. Municipal services have no effect. It appears that all my attempts end in vain.”
In the game’s community, players have also raised concerns about “how the game’s interpretation of ‘high rent’ contrasts with reality,” with a player acknowledging that prime locations with amenities will inevitably hold higher property values. “However, this game presumes a hyper-capitalist dystopia where all land is controlled by speculative profit-seeking property owners who unhesitatingly tend towards homelessness rather than providing housing as needed,” the player elaborated. “In reality, communal housing can be established centrally.”
This is factual. Such a system exists in Vienna, which The New York Times honored as “a haven for renters” last year. Yet, in Vienna, the city serves as the landlord (possessing approximately 220,000 apartments). In Urban Centers: Horizons II, the developers completely did away with landlords.
The in-game modification will experience “a period of adjustment as the simulation accommodates the alterations,” as mentioned by Colossal Order in its blog, and the developer points out it “cannot provide any assurances” regarding its effects on games with modifications. Although the update strives to rectify most of the existing issues, this does not imply that players will never again encounter complaints about rent. When household incomes fall below the threshold of affordability, tenants will voice their discontent loudly. “Only when their earnings are insufficient to cover rental costs will they raise concerns about ‘High Rent’ and seek more affordable housing or depart the city.” Perhaps it’s time players establish their own in-game tenant advocacy groups.
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