Game Demo Page
Note:
This page will soon contain some demo code to show some elements of the gameplay. As of April 20, 2007, the demo isn’t quite at the state where I feel comfortable letting it be used standalone. I will update this page as soon as possible with a running demo. In the meanwhile, here’s some text we’re working on to describe the game.
Background
The public is beginning to come to a general belief that climate change is real,
and that a significant fraction of the change is caused by human action. As a
society, we’re very close to deciding we have a problem to solve. We are now
turning to the question of what to do about it. There are many questions:
- How big is the problem?
- What are the possible solutions?
- Who should be responsible?
- What will it cost?
- How long will it take?
- What if we do nothing?
These are tough questions, and they have generated a truly bewildering array
of responses in the form of scientific research, policy proposals,
misinformation, and outright lies. It takes considerable work and study to
even begin to understand the landscape of the science, the economics, and the
politics of the problem. When there are so many possible and often
contradictory proposed solutions to a problem, it’s hard to figure out which
ones are worth pursuing and which ones will be a waste of time and
money.
The Melting Point project proposes to provide
some of the tools to take us to the next level—mapping the landscape of
possible solutions and deciding which of them are worthwhile. Because it is
clear that most of the human-caused climate change comes from our use of
energy, and in particular, that portion of the energy budget that comes from
fossil fuels, Melting Point is a computer
simulation game that will let web-connected players experiment with the
problems of energy production and use on a global scale.
The goal of the game is to manage energy production and use for several regions
of the world, trying to keep the economies of individual countries intact, while
also limiting the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. The game
is a balancing act, and the score depends on how well the player manages the
task.
The goal of the Melting Point project is
to use the game to build greater awareness of the issues associated with
climate change and to engage users in a process of becoming better informed
about the challenges facing the world’s populations and the effective means
for addressing those challenges. Since the world that is changing rapidly
today is the world in which young people in our schools today will live, the
Melting Point project hopes especially to engage them and their parents
and teachers.
The Web Game
The big idea
The Melting Point web game is designed
to provide a gentle introduction to the biggest issue around human-caused
global warming — the problem of energy. It asks players to balance the energy
needs and economic growth of regions around the world against the accumulation
of carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the leading greenhouse gases.
The game is built in Flash and designed to be embedded in a web site. It takes
5 minutes to play through a single scenario (50 years in game time). As the
clock runs, players make changes in the growth rates of several world
economies while trying to limit the total accumulation of CO2.
One of the interesting characteristics of the game is that players make
large-scale macroscopic decisions, such as promoting the growth of nuclear
power. The game will translate those decisions into news headlines that
indicate various strategies for achieving those goals. For example, if the
player decides to reduce the growth rate of transportation, that action might
show up in the news headlines as “Europe improves fuel economy standards for
2010 and beyond.”
Target player
The target player for the web game is someone of any age who is interested in
the problem of global warming and would like to learn a little more.
By playing this game, players will learn:
- That human-caused climate change comes largely from carbon dioxide
- That carbon dioxide is thrown off in large quantities by energy production
from fossil fuels - That there are energy sources that do not generate carbon dioxide
- The current relative proportions of different types of energy generation
and consumption - Some of the strategies and policies being proposed to induce change
- Some of the consequences of not addressing the problem soon enough
- That “clean” energy sources may have high costs associated with them
- That strategies and policies for change may have significant economic
consequences.