The next time somebody tells you that games serve no educational purpose (trust us, it'll happen), you can point to this bit of trivia with a knowing "told ya so" smirk on your face...

　　The sixth annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition in Washington D.C. saw groups of seventh and eighth graders design cities of the future using Maxis' SimCity 2000. The students have to meet the game's goals of low crime and unemployment; they then build 3D scale models of the cities they have put together.

　　And the winning city? It was designed by students from Glencoe, Illinois' Central School. Their metropolis, Seolforis, is Middle English for "silver ice."

　　The students describe their city as being "built by colonists from Earth to exploit tremendous resources of pure silver on the ice-covered planet of the same name. Extracted from pockets of pure silver in the ice, the silver is exported to Earth for use in electronic devices, replacing modern alloys. Since there is no natural soil on the surface, hydroponics plantations provide fruits and vegetables for the city and bioengineered plants provide attractive landscaping. Advanced engineering and design techniques plus a variety of entertainment and recreation complexes make Seolforis a desirable place to live."

　　Other entries suggested our descendants might live in a domed colony on the moon or within a submersible city located in the Gulf of Mexico.

　　In other news from Maxis, the company announced that it today launched its redesigned Web site, presumably in the real world.