Massive Multiplayer Forecasting Games

This is a new one:

Superstruct, an online game about global issues developed at the Institute For the Future (IFTF), a non-profit think-tank specializing in forecasting, is one of four “massively multiplayer forecasting games” (MMFGs) IFTF is pioneering as part of a “new research platform.”

The organization describes MMFGs as “collaborative, open-source simulations of imagined future scenarios,” which are “designed to address real world problems by harnessing the wisdom of crowds.”

Superstruct, which was introduced October 6, is a six-week experiment that will end November 17. Its premise is to challenge players to save a world on the verge of oblivion due to an imminent population collapse in 2019. In that capacity, they must work collaboratively to stave off disaster posed by five so-called “SuperThreats”: widespread famine (called Ravenous in the game); “crippling pandemics” (Quarantine); natural disaster leading to “mass homelessness” (Generation Exile); rampant computer crime that leads to major breakdowns in key networks and the political process (Outlaw Planet); and a “global fuel war” (Power Struggle). In the game, existing family, governmental, and corporate structures are insufficient to meet these crises. Users plan their personal futures by creating Websites, producing blogs and wikis, and uploading podcasts and videos.

I’ve heard of crowdsourcing, but this is pretty interesting.

Virtually Criminal

Woman arrested for killing virtual husband:

A Japanese piano teacher has been arrested for the murder of her virtual husband after an abrupt but messy online divorce.

The 43-year-old from Kyushu province in southern Japan faces a maximum sentence of five years in jail if she is found guilty of killing off her digital partner.

The spurned make-believe wife was so angry at being jilted that she logged into the game using her partner’s password and destroyed the character that he had spent a year creating.