Balance of the Planet

Back in 1990 Cris Crawford (one of best of the first generation of computer game designers) published Balance of the Planet an environmental policy simulation game. I am on record that I wish every candidate for political office could be required to spend an afternoon playing that game. Not so much for the environmental policy aspects; but because it is the best teaching tool I have ever seen for the law of unintended consequences - you make the "obvious" policy changes and all sorts of things happen that you don't expect. The game also lets you fiddle with the scoring system, which lets you see what values you bring to the discussion ("hmmm - my policies work great if you place no value on 3rd world poverty").

I mention this because Chis is doing a new online version of BotP and is using Kickstarter to fund the server so he can make it available to schools (and everyone else) for free. He's also interacting very openly & directly with backers via Kickstarter on the design of MK II and the nature of the Kickstarter campaign.

Check it: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/544670315/balance-of-the-planet All the cool felines are!
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Only 23 days to go and still $140000+ to be funded! Even if you don't have a lot (or ANY) monies, spread the word!

A news story from the original game: