Basic Game Structure
The World in 20 Teams
Participants in the Simulation are divided into 20 teams: 10 regions of
the world, 4 multinational corporations , 4
non-governmental, human interest organizations (health, human
rights, environment and education), 1 Global
Foundation (a U.N.-type board of 3-5 players) and 1-2 World Span News reporters.
How is wealth really measured?
o.s.Earth designers experimented with a variety of methods over a span of years to solve the essential issues of the Simulation: what concepts and realities do the game pieces represent, how much are they worth and how are they to be allocated at the start?
The best available sources (GDP reports, quality-of-life indexes published by the UN and other international organizations) are combined to create a master o.s.Earth "wealth index," which is expressed as money, resource wealth, infrastructure wealth, technology and solution strategies.
The Haves and the Have-Nots
All teams (except for the Global Foundation team and the media team) begin the game with differing amounts of wealth, cards and chips. For the element of competion, corporate teams begin with the same amount of wealth, as do the organization teams.
Cards on the Table
Regions have individualized regional resource cards. Corporate teams have technology solution cards. Human interest organization teams have solution strategy cards specific to the team. (For example, the health team has "health solution cards," the environment team "environment solution cards," etc.) Corporations and organizations sell their solution cards to regions in exchange for the region's wealth (chips) and/or resources (cards).
What Is Your Level?
Regional teams have different infrastructure levels. There are 5 possible infrastructure levels, "1- low", "2- moderate", "3- high", "4- superpower", and "5- responsible." Infrastructure levels are represented by different colored development folders. Regions move up in infrastructure when they find "solutions" to all of their soceital problems--by filling up their development folders with the appropriate solution strategy cards from corporations and organizations.
From Low to Superpower
Regional resource cards have different values. The value of each region's resource cards depends on the region's infrastructure level. For example, if Africa is at a "low" level of infrastructure, each of its resource cards is worth 1 point. Japan, which is at a "superpower" level of infrastructure, has resource cards valued at 4 points each.
If a region moves up an infrastructure level during the game, the value of each of their own resource cards increases accordingly. If Africa, which begins at level 1 ("low), makes it to level 3 ("high"), each of its resource cards is worth 3 points instead of 1, regardless of which team is holding these cards.
Thus, a team that buys and trades for African resource cards ("investing in Africa") when it is still a low-development region stands to gain from that initial investment if Africa does well in the game later on, as long as it holds on to its African resource cards. Whenever Africa advances a level, all teams holding African cards will benefit.
This rule is one of the keys to the Simulation, and it keeps the Workshop from being a zero-sum game.
Making Hard Choices
There is no single "right" way to play, but there are some strategies that prove more effective than others. Throughout the game, players constantly make choices that reflect their own values and goals. Some players may try to make fair deals and to build good relationships to ensure future business from the other teams. Others might choose to sacrifice goodwill by maximizing short-term profit through price-inflation.
There are more sophisticated and creative strategies as well. A player might emerge as a world leader by brokering 3-way or multi-team deals. Some corporate and organizational teams may end up pooling their resources and forming alliances that help each other gain their respective objectives. Wealthy teams may become even more successful by investing in low-development regions and waiting for these regions to develop their infrastructure and their cards to increase in value.
Culture and Media
The media team reports on the world's notable events at the end of every decade. These news reports give the players a global perspective on their actions, and in turn influences how the players perceive each other.
Similarly, the cultural specialists from each team shape the world's opinion of their own teams by producing artworks that expresses the point of view of their teams. Poets, visual artists and even performance artists take their turn on the global stage; a Minister of Culture curates the presentations.
Just like in the real world, public opinion over a team's perceived motives and relationships translates directly into favored-trade status, boycotts, financial aid and economic warfare.
Corporations and organizations have artists as well, and the lines between artistic expression, cultural feeling and advertising can blur as regions and businesses battle for the world's attention.
Uniting to Save the Planet
Halfway into the game, the facilitator will tell the players that they must raise an unspecified but large number of points to avert a future global disaster. The Global Crisis Summit, which follows this announcement, is an occasion for all teams in the game to work together as one.
In the Global Crisis round, the potential conflict between a player's short-term self interest and the good of the world becomes the most dramatic and pronounced. Some teams will contribute so much of their wealth to solve the Crisis that they will have nothing left to trade with during the final round. Other teams use the Crisis Summit as additional trading time and do not contribute anything. How each team acts during the Global Crisis round affects how the world views it and may influence the outcome of the game profoundly.
