Maxis (comics)
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Maxis (comics)
Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including '' The Sims'', ''Spore'' and '' SimCity''. History Independent studio (1987–1997) Maxis was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun to help publish '' SimCity'' on home computers. Before then, the game was only available on a limited basis on the Commodore 64 due to few publishers showing any interest in porting a non-traditional game without definite "win" and "lose" conditions. The title went on to become one of the most popular and successful video games of all time. The ''SimCity'' series became a staple for the company and spawned multiple sequels and spin-offs. To name the company, Braun required that the name was "from 5-7 letters, mean nothing, be easy to remember and contain an x, z, or q"; the name "Maxis" was ...
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Division (business)
A division, sometimes called a business sector or business unit (segment), is one of the parts into which a business, organization or company is divided. Overview Divisions are distinct parts of a business. If these divisions are all part of the same company, then that company is legally responsible for all of the obligations and debts of the divisions. In the banking industry, an example would be East West Bancorp and its primary subsidiary, East West Bank. Legal responsibility Subsidiaries are separate, distinct legal entities for the purposes of tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...ation, regulation and Legal liability, liability. For this reason, they differ from divisions, which are businesses fully integrated within the main company, and not legally ...
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Video Game Publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer (the publisher calls this ''external development'') and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called a ''studio''. The large video game publishers also distribute the games they publish, while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies (or larger video game publishers) to distribute the games they publish. Other functions usually performed by the publisher include deciding on and paying for any licenses used by the game; paying for localization; layout, printing, and possibly the writing of the user manual; and the creation of graphic design elements such as the box design. Some large publishers with vertical structure also own publishing subsidiaries (labels). Large publishers may also attempt to boost effic ...
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Markle Foundation
Markle Foundation is a New York-based private foundation established in 1927 by American industrialist / financier John Markle and his wife, Mary. Its focus is technology, health care, and national security. History Formally incorporated on April 26, 1927,Markle Foundation Ready to Operate
. ''The New York Times''. April 30, 1927. p. 6.
as the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation, the organization began by funding traditional social welfare programs as well as projects that focused on medicine and medical research. In 1969, Lloyd Morrisett, the Markle Foundation's president at that time, shifted the foundation's focus to mass communications in a democratic society. In 1998, when beca ...
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SimHealth
''SimHealth: The National Health Care Simulation'' is a management simulation video game developed by Thinking Tools and published by Maxis in 1994 for MS-DOS with assistance from the Markle Foundation. It is a simulation of the United States healthcare system. The game was released during congressional debates on the Clinton health care plan. Due to the complexity of the game, ''SimHealth'' was seen as being very difficult. Armed with none of the tongue-in-cheek humor that Maxis' prior games were known for, the only real link to the franchise was the ''SimCity 2000''-inspired user interface. The game was seen as more serious than other Maxis games. Noel Fritzinger, who with Lyman Orton first conceptualized CommunityViz, says that his inspiration came from seeing ''SimHealth'' and wondering if the same concepts could be applied to real-world land-use planning. Reception ''Computer Gaming World''s Keith Schlesinger in June 1994 said that "''SimHealth'' is a trailblazer in the sim ...
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Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in San Ramon, California, and active in more than 180 countries. Chevron is engaged in every aspect of the oil and natural gas industries, including hydrocarbon exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. Chevron traces its history back to the 1870s. The company grew quickly after the breakup of Standard Oil by acquiring companies and partnering with others, especially Texaco. Socal was one of the Seven Sisters that dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s. In 1985, Socal merged with the Pittsburgh-based Gulf Oil and rebranded as Chevron; the newly-merged company later merged with Texaco in 2001. Today, Chevron manufactures and sells fu ...
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SimRefinery
''SimRefinery'' is a computer management simulation game designed to simulate Chevron's Richmond refinery operation. It was developed by the Maxis Business Simulations division of Maxis in 1993. John Hiles, who was the head of the Maxis division, was a lead designer on the project. Development After the success of '' SimCity'', Maxis received numerous requests from various companies to develop simulations for their industries. After rejecting many requests from other companies, the team eventually agreed to make a prototype of ''SimRefinery'' for Chevron: Release and rediscovery As a commissioned business aid, it was not made available to the public. Until 2020, little information about the game had existed, though Maxis had discussed its creation and some screenshots existed. Most of the assets stayed with Maxis Business Simulations, which Maxis eventually divested in 1996. The division rebranded itself as Thinking Tools Inc. and continued to develop similar corporate simul ...
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The Los Angeles Times
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ...
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The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ...
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Urban Planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks and their accessibility. Traditionally, urban planning followed a top-down approach in master planning the physical layout of human settlements. The primary concern was the public welfare, which included considerations of efficiency, sanitation, protection and use of the environment, as well as effects of the master plans on the social and economic activities. Over time, urban planning has adopted a focus on the social and environmental bottom-lines that focus on planning as a tool to improve the health and well-being of people while maintaining sustainability standards. Sustainable development was added as one of th ...
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Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek serves as a vibrant hub for its neighboring cities because of its location at the junction of the highways from Sacramento and San Jose ( I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland ( SR-24), and its accessibility by BART. Its active downtown neighborhood features hundred-year-old buildings and extensive high-end retail establishments. The city shares its borders with Clayton, Lafayette, Alamo, Pleasant Hill, and Concord. History There are three bands of Bay Miwok Native Americans associated with the area of Walnut Creek (the stream for which the city is named):Forester, 2006.Milliken, 1995 the '' Saclan'', whose territory extended through the hills east of present-day cities of Oakland, Rossmoor, Lafayette, Moraga and Walnut Creek; the ''Volv ...
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Orinda, California
Orinda is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city's population as of the 2020 census is estimated at 19,514 residents. History Orinda is located within four Mexican land grants: Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados, Rancho Acalanes, Rancho El Sobrante and Rancho Boca de la Cañada del Pinole. The area was originally rural, mainly known for ranching and summer cabins. The Moraga Adobe was built in 1841, and is the oldest building in the East Bay. In the late 19th century, the land was named by Alice Marsh Cameron, probably in honor of the poet Katherine Philips, who was also known as the "Matchless Orinda". In the 1880s, United States Surveyor General for California Theodore Wagner built an estate he named Orinda Park. The Orinda Park post office opened in 1888. The post office's name was changed to Orinda in 1895. Orinda was also the site of Bryant Station, a stop on the failed California and Nevada Railroad around the turn of the 20th century. La ...
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SimCity 2000
''SimCity 2000'' is a City-building game, city-building Simulation game, simulation video game jointly developed by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Fred Haslam (game designer), Fred Haslam of Maxis. It is the successor to ''SimCity (1989 video game), SimCity Classic'' and was released for Apple Macintosh personal computers in 1993, after which it was released on other platforms over the following years, such as the Sega Saturn and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, SNES game consoles in 1995 and the PlayStation (console), PlayStation in 1996. ''SimCity 2000'' is played from an isometric perspective as opposed to the previous title, which was played from a top-down perspective. The objective of the game is to create a city, develop residential and industrial areas, build infrastructure and collect taxes for further development of the city. Importance is put on increasing the standard of living of the population, maintaining a balance between the different sectors, an ...
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