Megagames demo with Ola Leifler
27 curious teachers joined Ola Leifler‘s demonstration of large-scale social simulations (“Megagames”) yesterday. Can you imagine playing a game with 180 people in individual roles for a full day? Me not really, but at least a little bit more after yesterday’s demonstration.
On the image above you see part of the setup: There were three main areas on big tables where most of the discussion during game rounds happens, and where there are boardgame-like elements — a geography, cards that represent resources like fossil fuels or college graduated, plans of what to collect in order to be able to buy something, and much more. Facilitators organize the game in rounds and can intervene in the game in many ways, for example by closing down a stock exchange due to extreme weather, or just by ending the game a round before everybody expects it to end. Participants get individual role descriptions (1-2 pages long) with different pieces of background information and cues to how their role might act. Mine was a low-income senior citizen who had worked hard all their life to create the country we all live in, with a lot of time on their hands to attend meetings and let others know about the experiences they have collected. Another senior citizen had the superpower of rolling a dice once every round to make the choice between different options that the facilitator offers! Other roles included politicians or climate activists. Between rounds, participants can check in with their team mates (for example all the other low-income citizens) and discuss strategies for the next round.
The experience — even though it was just a demo and not the actual game, and even though we were way fewer people than can be engaged in the game — was chaotic. But that is also the point: This is not a game where we can understand the complexity and optimize strategy; the experience really drives home the need for conversation and collaboration. You definitely do experience complexity, even though the system is extremely simplified compared to the real world; for example international trade is just a mechanic in the game and not an active player, and there is only a handful of companies that work on non-overlapping products and services. The game is intentionally set up in the sweet spot between role playing, board games and simulations — not as overwhelming and complex as a full-on simulation, but more free than a classical boardgame, and with some of the creativity but much less of the performance aspect of role plays. And it is really engaging, even just in the demo version! And we get to practice all those key competencies for sustainability, like systems thinking and communication…
More about the game here, and we are working on bringing Ola back to Lund to play a full game!