|
Maxis Sim Games
Maxis is an American video game developer and a Division (business), division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including ''The Sims'', ''Spore (2008 video game), Spore'' and ''SimCity''. History Independent studio (1987–1997) Maxis was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun to help publish ''SimCity (1989 video game), SimCity'' on home computers. Before then, the game was only available on a limited basis on the Commodore 64 due to few video game publisher, 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, ''SimCity'' series became a staple for the company and spawned multiple sequels and spin-offs. To n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Commercial law, legal entities for the purposes of taxation, regulation and Legal liability, liability. For this reason, they differ from divisions, which are businesses fully integrated within the main company, and not legally or otherwise distinct from it. The ''Houston Chronicle'' highlighted that the creation of a division "is substantially easier than developing subsidiaries. Because a division is an internal segment of a company, not an entirely separate enti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 that are 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 also attempt to boos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Markle Foundation
Markle Foundation is a New York–based private foundation established in 1927 by American industrialist and financier John Markle and his wife, Mary. Its focus is technology, health care, and national security National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of .... 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 Foun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. 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 active in more than 180 countries. Within oil and gas, Chevron is vertically integrated and is involved in hydrocarbon exploration, production, refining, marketing and transport, chemicals manufacturing and sales, and power generation. Founded originally in Southern California during the 1870s, the company was then based for many decades in San Francisco, California, before moving its corporate offices to San Ramon, California, in 2001; on August 2, 2024, Chevron announced that it would be relocating its headquarters from California to Houston, Texas. Chevron traces its history back to the second half of the 19th century to small California-based oil companies which were acquired by Standard and merged into St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 1992. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the largest in the Western United States with a print circulation of 118,760. It has 500,000 online subscribers, the fifth-largest among U.S. newspapers. Owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by California Times, the paper has won over 40 Pulitzer Prizes since its founding. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. As with other regional newspapers in California and the United States, the paper's readership has declined since 2010. It has also been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. 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 its 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. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urban Planning
Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing 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 taking account of 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 focuses on using planning as a tool to improve the health and well-being of people and maintain sustainability standards. In the early 21st century, urban planning experts such as Jane Jacobs called on urban planners to take ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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, California, Oakland. Walnut Creek has a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, is located at the junction of the highways from Sacramento, California, Sacramento and San Jose, California, San Jose (Interstate 680 (California), I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (California State Route 24, SR-24), and is accessible by Bay Area Rapid Transit, BART. The city shares its borders with Clayton, California, Clayton, Lafayette, California, Lafayette, Alamo, California, Alamo, Pleasant Hill, California, Pleasant Hill, and Concord, California, 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 ''Saklan tribe, Saclan'', whose territory extended through ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orinda, California
Orinda is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, 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 tur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
