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Jane’s Agenda: Games and Happiness

April 6, 2008 in game design, Immersion gaming, Press, world without oil | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

with Steve PaikinGames make us happy. A simple enough premise when the game is football or soccer or chess or Monopoly. Can the idea be extended? Can it get serious? Can it get real? Can it go global on the Internets? Why not?

Jane McGonigal talks ARGs, WWO and happiness with Steve Paikin of The Agenda (Canada’s biggest news magazine). Roll tape!

It was the world's first serious alternate reality game, a cooperative pre-imagining of a global oil crisis. Over 1900 players collaborated in May 2007 to chronicle the oil crisis with their own personal blog posts, videos, images and voicemails. The game ended after simulating the first 32 weeks of the oil shock, but its effects continue, as game designers analyze its unique gameplay and we all watch the continuing drama with global oil prices and supply.

THE CLASSICS

How we got into the 2008 oil crisis

Offshore drilling vs. men in speedboats

Bush in Saudi Arabia: the bank owns us

Oil crisis: internal truth vs. external truth

"Making the world a better place"

The future of alternate reality games

The Petrol War, 2000

"The future is getting closer" (WWO lesson plans)

The subprime energy crisis

The tragedy of lower oil prices