This one is a bit different. It is an educational game, designed to teach the players about foreign policy and international relations. It takes place in meatspace as much as it does in cyberspace. It is run over the course of one or more days and requires a large number of students (70+).

Students are placed into groups that range in size from 1 to 6. Each group represents a different player in international politics. For example, the United States may be represented by a team of six students, while the Red Cross may be a single student. Possible groups include nations, NGOs, the UN, NATO, International Corporations, News Organizations, etc.

Within each team, individual students have their own role to play. (Queen, Homeland Security Director, Foreign Minister, CEO, etc.) Gameplay also happens within teams, as there may be members of a team who have contrary goals to the team as a whole. For example, the Iraqi team may contain a player representing the Kurdish minority, who has a personal goal of establishing an independent Kurdish state.

The game is coordinated through a central website where teams can submit actions and communicate with each other either publicly or secretly. In addition, the website allows countries to issue press releases and is where the news organizations publish their scoops.

Before the game begins teams meet to discuss strategy and set goals for themselves to accomplish during the game. Gamemasters assign point values to each of the goals students want to accomplish, and the students’ performance in the game is based on how many of their goals they accomplished and how difficult the goals were to accomplish. Meeting with each member of the EU would not be worth many points, but establishing a Palestinian state would. In addition, each teams loses or gains points based on the strength of their economy at the end of the game, which is determined by in-game factors like trade agreements.

In addition to the players, the game requires a number of GMs to coordinate actions. Gameplay is very free-form, with almost any action being possible. To take an action teams must complete a simple web form detailing what the action will entail. Examples include moving troops, signing an international agreement, launching nuclear weapons, holding peace talks, conducting a terrorist attack, or anything else the players can dream up. Once a GM has approved the action it is posted to a page that is constantly updated with everything that is happening. Actions may succeed or fail based on random chance or based on the whim of the GM. Actions happen on a FIFO basis.

Some organizations may want to conduct secret actions, such as terrorist activities or espionage. Many countries have a spy masquerading as a member of another country. Indeed there may be entire organizations in the game that are a secret to everyone but their members and the GMs.

The game represents the culmination of a series of lectures or perhaps even a whole class about international politics. Players also conduct independent research on the role they play in the game. The game gives the students a chance to apply the theories learned in class and in their own research in a fun interactive setting.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2006 at 11:06 am and is filed under politics, Game Idea of the Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.