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| Proposed | Celia Pearce |
| IM | |
| Keywords | Games, Education, Collective Intelligence, Common Adventure, Ecological Commons, Environmental Web Monitoring, Interactive Multimedia, Progressive Politics, Social Responsibility, collaborative tool interoperability, collaborative tools, disruptive techno |
| Theme | Online Activism |
| Title | Spaceship Earth: Play the Game/Save the World |
| Abstract | The the Buckminster Fuller Institute and the Cal-(IT)2 Game Culture & Technology Lab at UC Irvine are in the initial conceptualization of a massively multi-player game whose goal is to save the world. The game takes a bottom-up approach through missions in which players deploy large numbers of people on multiple devices, via e-mail, blogs, Internet and SmartMob tactics, to take positive action tow |
| Description | The Spaceship Earth Game was originally conceived as a digital sequel to the World Game, Buckminster Fuller’s large-scale board game of world resource distribution. As the idea evolved, we realized that rather than simply taking advantage of the computer as a simulation environment, by helping people to visualize the interdependencies and limits of world resrouces, we felt it would be incredibly powerful to leverage the social aspect of digital technology. Gaming is used as a framework because it is well established as a means of forming communities with a high level of mutually supported motivation. In addition, we saw the opportunity to integrate real-world data into a game of this sort, suggesting a novel convergence of technological features to create a new type of online activisim.
This project has a number of interesting aspects tha suggest a collectivist approach. In addition to modular game missions, we also imagine various aggregate group levels, from individual "crew members" to large-scale corporate or institutional "stewards." The game will include drawing current up-to-date data about real world environment systems, that then feed back into the game to provide real-time feedback to players as to the progress of their missions.
The game will be developed in a modular, open source format that allows groups with an interest in sustainability to sponsor and develop their own missions. This discussion will be an informal brainstorming about how to nurture an open source development community around this concept.
We also imagine this game as an art project in which, as Hardin Tibbs pointed out at last years' planetworks, the Earth can be regarded as a work of art. In addition, we would like to take advantage of the social networking and peer-pressure systems used so effectively in online games to help support a growing community of individuals who wish to make a difference in the future of the planet, but recognize that a bottom up approach is the only way to succeed.
We see this game as a new kind of activism—along the lines of "edutainment," but geared toward a learning experience that leads to action. It may be “active-tainment” or “enter-activism,” something along those lines. The idea is to create a game whose outcome is deadly serious. At the same time, we wish to experiment with the underlying technology through a parallel project in heterogeneous network gaming being developed through a partnership with Sun Microsoft by Cal-(IT)2's Game Culture & Technology Lab.
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