Want To Save The World? Sign Up To Play

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. 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. The people behind the project saw also the unique 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 activism. 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 project ushers a new kind of activism--along the lines of "edutainment," but geared toward a learning experience that leads to action. The idea is to create a game whose outcome is deadly serious.