Online Scenario Game Resources
A collection of resources related to scenario gaming.
Blogs
Terranova
Terranova is a group blog dedicated to computer based games research. It is authored by academic and professional games researchers. The posts range from industry gossip to serious intellectual discussions. It appears to
be updated every 2-3 days on average. The comments are generally of high quality.
Future Now (Institute for the Future)
http://future.iftf.org/
Institute for the Future assists its clients in making informed decisions about the future. The blog
covers a wide ranging set of topics, most not directly applicable to this research project. They do
work similar to what Peter Schwartz describes in "The Art of the Long View." It is useful for getting an
example of the informal thought processes and interests of a professional futurist.
Simulation Gaming
http://simgame.blogspot.com
My simulation gaming blog. It is an open personal notebook in which I plan to record current simulation
gaming news stories along with my comments. It is experimental. I will update as long as it is useful.
Online Journals and Papers
Game Studies (Free)
http://gamestudies.org
The international journal of computer game research. New volumes released on an annual basis usually.
Our Mission - To explore the rich cultural genre of games; to give scholars a peer-reviewed forum for their ideas and theories; to provide an academic channel for the ongoing discussions on games and gaming.
Game Studies is a crossdisciplinary journal dedicated to games research, web-published several times a year at www.gamestudies.org.
Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focused on games and gaming is welcome. Proposed articles should be jargon-free, and should attempt to shed new light on games, rather than simply use games as metaphor or illustration of some other theory or phenomenon.
Games and Culture (Subscription )
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsProdDesc.nav?prodId=Journal201757
...
One of the primary goals of the journal is to foster dialogue among the academic, design, development, and research communities that will influence both game design and research about games within various public contexts. A second goal is to examine how gaming and interactive media are being used outside of entertainment, including in education, for the purposes of training, for military simulation, and for political action.
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Experimental Economics Center - Georgia State University
http://expecon.gsu.edu/
The website for the Experimental Economics Center of the Andrew Young School of Policy at GSU.
Includes links to working papers and software. They have NSF sponsorship for running workshops on
using computerized experiments to teach economics.
Online Games and Interactive Material
World Without Oil
http://worldwithoutoil.org/
An online group interactive game. This game was a group collaboration between players. It was free of charge and open to the public. Players play through the imaginary scenario of a world oil crisis. Played over 32 weeks information was given to the players each week to which they would respond with blogs, videos and photos. The game's focii are on imagination and creativity rather than strategy. Players are rewarded by public recognition by the game's community and organizers.
Here is a sample from a site recognized "top blog:"
The Atlanta Protests
Back in Atlanta. The house was okay when we got back, and the weather was a cool 52 degrees. It reminds me that winter will soon be around the corner. It's jacket-wearing weather right now.
What I missed was the huge protest in downtown Atlanta. (There was a similar protest in Phoenix.) No fewer than 50,000 Atlanteans gathered to protest the lack of action by the Atlanta City Government regarding the Energy Crisis. However, it wasn't one's usual protest.
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- http://ceegeepeakoil.blogspot.com/2007/05/atlanta-protests.html
Foresight Exchange
http://www.ideosphere.com/fx/
A free prediction market site. Players are given $50 to buy contracts on various predictions ( e.g. "Democrat wins Presidency in 2008", "10 Mhz CPU by 2009") that cost from $0.01 to $1 each. If the prediction comes true the player receives $1 per share, if not the player gets nothing. Players can buy and sell contracts at any time so they do not have to wait months or years for the predictions to be sorted out. Money can be made buying and selling on trends. The site interface is clunky, but it is interesting and does give the sort of collaborative predictions on the future that have proven to be prescient in research.
Cyber Nations
http://cybernations.net/
This is an online nation simulator. Players design their own nations choosing government type, religion, ethnicity, currency, tax rate and a number of other characteristics. The player manages his nation's prosperity by meeting the needs of his population and by interacting with the other players in the game (30000+). The simulation is complex but it can be stripped down enough that a novice can register their nation and play a first move in less than 20 minutes.
Players interact in the user forum where they can negotiate and coordinate with other players.
Donald Gautier, USGS geologist, presents on petroleum in the arctic