Simulation games can model real-world environmental and geopolitical tradeoffs
Evidence
The game is complex and challenging and has struck knowledgeable people as surprisingly realistic. Latin America, for instance, must focus on economic development while bearing in mind problems of deforestation, water pollution, desertification, and population control. When a team has developed a proposal, one of the facilitators will question it at length, trying to make sure the plan is feasible and sustainable. The facilitator can reward good proposals and also punish regions with famine, strife, and pestilence if they have terribly abused the environment. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1691
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- FICTION: The Global Change Game’s mechanics — facilitators punishing regions with famine and plague, elites hoarding assets — could seed a story about a game that turns all too real.
- SHARE: Someone designing educational simulations or serious games would enjoy the design details here, particularly the facilitator-as-fate mechanic.