Gaming simulation: a tool for empower social scale-free networks. Some reflections on the impact in urban planning

Urban Gaming-Simulation stands as an alternative method to forecasting techniques and large-scale territorial models that in the ‘70s got in crisis. But in the early ‘80s UGSs got in crisis themselves because of the decline of algorithmic models of social systems. By the end of ‘90s sciences of complex networks puts more attention and give more persuasive mathematical explanation on such phenomenon called “small-world” and on the properties of scale-free networks. The paper discusses the application of small-world model and scale-free networks concepts in urban planning describing also two examples. Conclusions, by a vision of the urban environment as a genetic system based on complex social relationships, starts a reflection on how is possible to replace old social model in UGS by the small-world model tuning the overall with scale-free networks properties.