William Robinson is an inaugural Concordia Public Scholar. He works in the Centre for Technoculture, Art and Games. He has recently launched a card game with the Centre for Learning and Performance about federal politics called Cabinet Shuffle.
Blog post
A Serious Climate Change Game
On How to Avoid Killing Billions Through Clever Policy
October 19, 2017
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In this image, the player has two policies in play in a content North America. They are currently contemplating five different strategies for future development.
Fate of the World is a playable climate change simulator
Based on academic climate models, FOTW usually asks players prevent a 3°C warming over a hundred years. Game reviewers have noted the focus isn’t on “fun.” They caution that only some few, intelligent, educated and patient players will enjoy themselves. This results in a below average review, with an aggregate of 70/100 on Metacritic (the industry’s preferred standardizer). That said, I would panning FOTW is like poo-pooing a chemistry textbook for failing to accommodate fourth-graders. While my work does not normally consist of recommending games, my expertise in rules analysis (combined with the wide variety of games I play) has me doing so here.
The Research
As I write this blog, the results of a Concordia study on FOTW are being published. Dr. David Waddington and Dr. Tom Fennewald, examined 30 recruited players to see the impact FOTW had on their learning. While this is not my own research, I was one of those recruited subjects. At the heart of those scholars’ work is a fundamental question: can games teach differently than other media? While there are many variables traced throughout, the following table excites me most:
Ι think that I am better informed about climate change than most people |
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Group |
Pre |
Post |
Delay |
Control |
3.33 |
3.87 |
3.80 |
FOTW Players |
4.35 |
4.88 |
5.00 |
The control group received a text including facts about climate change. Both groups were asked questions before, immediately after and then some time after. FOTW Players had a higher "Pre" score because of the recruiting process.
The exciting result: they were more likely to know more about climate change months after having played the game. While this evidence supports my own thoughts on the game, they do not strictly indicate what I am about to say. That is, FOTW forces successful players to learn a few valuable lessons.
The Lessons
On Frenemies
Without much guidance, players are dropped into the simulator. The conceit is that the UN created a new organization capable of deploying targeted policies across the world. Your budget is a percentage of each state’s GDP. You can continue to work in that state, so long as you do not alienate it to the point of exit. Essentially, you need to keep each state wealthy and happy. The problem is, everyone is going to die if you do that. Your actual task is to keep everyone on the cusp of poverty and disgust. The second a state begins to love your leadership, cut their coal or tax them senseless. Anything less, and the planet fizzles. This is decidedly not “fun” for players as you continually damage what little alliances you are capable of creating.
On Digging
FOTW does not tell you how its policies will impact the world. If you want to know how some law works, you need to guess what variables it will affect. Then you need to open a detailed list of available data, then see what data affects that data. You then need to chart how that policy affects all that data. This is also decidedly not fun. However, this is a necessary life skill for combatting climate change. Learning the importance of empirical research and corroborating theories to results is the only way to make sound political decisions. Here we are not looking at content, but learning about method!
On Time
When you inherit the world in 2020, people are still ignorant and selfish. If you try to impose vegetarianism and one-child policies willy-nilly, you will get kicked out of states too quickly to actually see those programs have an impact. To get legislation like that moving, the first step is funding awareness initiatives. It can take twenty years of re-education before a people starts to warm to your ideas (pun intended). Which actually means that by the time serious policies can hit the table, the game is already half way over, with millions or billions dead. This kind of framework forces players to think generations into the future, as opposed to five-year solutions.
Where to Play
Recently, FOTW has launched a new kickstarter. The game is already 6 years old, and could use a sequel. However, if I have convinced you to play the current version, it is available here. Good luck.
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