• Ben Matthews
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    10 months ago

    OK, so I tried this, able to win on the second round. :-)
    First time you risk to do some things too early, others you must do early, but I won’t spoil the challenge by giving details.
    Good emphasis on land-use limitations.

    Concept is nicer than ‘fate of the world’ which was rather similar (and even fotw told me their idea was partly inspired by an idea on my website about 23 years ago). Both this and fotw based on ‘cards’, while prefer to adjust levers gradually, and see graphs move in real-time.
    (btw going back even further, does anybody remember ‘lincity’ )?

    Some things confusing - e.g. you adjust percentages not totals, but totals change, which hits limits in not-obvious ways. No mention of space-heating challenge eg heat-pumps (suggests made in tropics?), no modal-shift in transport (except inside cities). I’d like to see whether the numbers reflect current emissions of China, and Arabia (I doubt it, doesn’t fit the ‘south is good’ narrative). Overall I suspect that the calculations are too optimistic, but can’t say more without detailed plots of changes over time, or a view of the engine code.

    But biggest unrealities:

    • We don’t have such a scenario - there is no global planner - “god games” are too easy concept.
    • The fraction of contrarians is larger (than the 3 groups I couldn’t satisfy in this game), maybe increasing (?).
    • Some of the ‘mandates’ are far too easily implemented.

    I ponder how to design a game which is more realistic in these respects.
    Having said that, I think the ‘magic card’ has some merits, if everybody would play, maybe that helps tip the balance.

      • Ben Matthews
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        210 months ago

        Thanks, I’m having a look.
        Some elements quite sophisticated, seems a good use for wasm (although I prefer scala.js for an interactive model).
        Use of Hector makes sense, but seems emissions drop more negative than I can get from my model, maybe it lacks some feedbacks, or has some double-counting of policy-impacts?
        Are developers still active in this project - discussion of issues mostly a year or more ago ?

    • @[email protected]
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      310 months ago

      Game design has to thread a line between realism and fun. This is not supposed to be realistic but a way to tinker with scenarios

      • Ben Matthews
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        110 months ago

        Sure, but this is also a real game we need to win (well, maybe not <1C in that timeframe) , and we only get one chance to play. This example helps people learn, but there are things to adjust.
        Another (I didn’t mention above) is that construction (including new energy, ‘green’ cities etc.) takes massive time, energy, materials - it’s not clear that’s sufficiently taken into account, and likewise not by real “socialist” planners.