New York City's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, may have prepared for his current role with SimCity 3000 as a kid

This Tuesday was an election day in the United States. Not for President, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important. There were various elections across the country on different topics, but one in particular stood out: the mayoral race for New York City. On Tuesday evening, it was declared that Zohran Mamdani was the winner, defeating the former Governor Andrew Cuomo for a second time. Some people may find this surprising, but given Mamdani’s past choices of video games, it may not be as surprising as you think.

Apparently, newly elected Mayor of NYC, Zohran Mamdani, was interested in SimCity growing up

Earlier this year, as the Democratic Primaries were being decided in New York, Screen Rant reported on a social media post about Mamdani. The post refers back to a 2002 New York Magazine article in which the reporter interviewed a group of kids living in New York City, including a young Mamdani. The reporter asked them what they wanted for the upcoming Winter holidays. According to the social media post, Mamdani, who was 11 years old at the time, said: “Books, FIFA 2003, and SimCity 3000 computer games.” At first glance, it’s a kid who wants video games and books for the holidays. Something that any kid in the early 2000s might ask for. But perhaps it is fortuitous that a young Mamdani had an interest in running a virtual city and will now be the Mayor of one of the world’s largest cities.

Images of the original article, courtesy of Sami Gold.Source: Twitter / X

Of course, this is not a 1-to-1 comparison. SimCity 3000 is a video game. While it simulates a real city and is based on reality, there are far fewer consequences, and the player has far more power than any one person would have. SimCity 3000 was a popular game, too. Millions of people in the U.S. played that game, and I don’t know this for sure, but I would imagine that a very small percentage of those players have gone on to work in city management. But it’s still interesting that a young Mamdani called it out specifically.

SimCity 3000 was released in 1999, but around the time Mamdani asked for it in 2002, he may have been thinking about the Unlimited Edition, which was released a year later in 2000. These days, with so many new games releasing all the time, it is kind of amazing to think that at one point, a game could stay at the top of a kid’s mind for at least two years.

Could city-building games have inspired a generation of kids? Maybe. Maybe not. We can’t even confirm that Mamdani actually played SimCity 3000 back in 2002. But the fact that this is at least an interesting discussion suggests there could be value in video games like these. City builders, especially games like SimCity or the popular modern franchise Cities: Skylines, force players to make important decisions about their city's future. This isn’t a perfect plan for turning kids into responsible adults or city planners, but at least not all video games are mindless entertainment. These games can have some educational value.

SimCity 3000

January 27, 1999

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• Overview

• SimCity (franchise)
• simulator games