World Without Oil

World Without Oil (WWO) is an alternate reality game (ARG) created to call attention to, spark dialogue about, plan for and engineer solutions to a possible near-future global oil shortage, post peak oil. It was the creation of San Jose game writer and designer Ken Eklund, and ARG veterans Jane McGonigal, Dee Cook, Marie Lamb, Michelle Senderhauf, and Krystyn Wells were on the puppetmaster team. [cite news
title = World Without Oil Contact and Credits
url = http://worldwithoutoil.org/metacontact.htm
work = WORLD WITHOUT OIL metawebsite
date = 2008-03-15
accessdate = 2008-03-15] "World Without Oil" was presented by Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The game's tagline is "Play it – before you live it." [cite news
title = World Without Oil
url = http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/world_without_o.php
work = Treehugger
date = 2007-05-06
accessdate = 2007-09-07]

The game concluded on June 1, 2007. Since that time, many of the events it envisioned have been validated by an unprecedented rise in global oil prices, leading many observers to note that "the game seems to be coming true." [cite news
title = Play it - before you live it!
url = http://shifted21.blogspot.com/2008/06/play-it-before-you-live-it.html
work = ShiftEd21
date = 2008-06-11
accessdate = 2008-07-09] [cite news
title = The War Is In Words: Beginning. Again.
url = http://thewarisinwords.blogspot.com/2008/05/beginning.html
work = The War Is In Words
date = 2008-03-31
accessdate = 2008-07-09] [cite news
title = WWO Lives: IsThisNotAGame?
url = http://wwolives.wordpress.com/category/isthisnotagame/
work = WWO Lives
date = 2008-07-09
accessdate = 2008-07-09]

The game

"World Without Oil" combined elements of an alternate reality game with those of a serious game. The game sketched out the overarching conditions of a realistic oil shock, then called upon players to imagine and document their lives under those conditions. Compelling player stories and ideas were incorporated into the official narrative, posted daily. Players could choose to post their stories as videos, images or blog entries, or to phone or email them to the WWO gamemasters. The game's central site linked to all the player material, and the game's characters documented their own lives, and commented on player stories, on a community blog and individual blogs, plus via IM, chat, Twitter and other media. [cite news
title = One story with 1700 authors
url = http://current.org/tech/tech0709itvsgame.shtml
work = CURRENT Magazine
date = 2007-05-29
accessdate = 2007-09-07]

The game was announced on March 2, 2007, and its [http://worldwithoutoil.org/teaser teaser site] went live at that time. A countdown site appeared approximately 2 weeks before the gamestart on April 30, 2007. The game concluded 32 days later, on June 1, 2007. [cite news
title = World Without Oil in retrospect
url = http://groupaction.blogspot.com/2007/06/world-without-oil-in-retrospect.html
work = Group Action
date = 2007-06-01
accessdate = 2007-09-07] The official site at [http://www.worldwithoutoil.org WorldWithoutOil.org] currently features meta pages including an [http://worldwithoutoil.org/metaabout.htm About] page, a [http://worldwithoutoil.org/metabuzz.htm Buzz] page compiling press and blogger comments, a [http://worldwithoutoil.org/metavideo.htm 7-minute video] about the game, and a [http://worldwithoutoil.org/metateachers.htm set of lesson plans] for high school teachers, as well as a [http://worldwithoutoil.org/default.aspx?week=1 time machine] that viewers use to access the game archive and re-experience the game week by week.

Goals

The "World Without Oil" game asked players to imagine a world reeling from a sudden oil shortage, describe how the crisis is unfolding where they live, and work together on simple and practical ways to adapt. By playing it out in a serious way, the game aimed to apply collective intelligence and imagination to the problem in advance, and create a record that has value for educators, policymakers, and the common people to help anticipate the future and prevent its worst outcomes. In sum, "World Without Oil" invited people to, per its slogan, “Play it before you live it.” [cite news
title = One Story with 1,700 Authors
url = http://www.current.org/tech/tech0709itvsgame.shtml
work = Current Magazine
date = 2007-04-19
accessdate = 2008-04-22] The experience aimed to cause real change in its participants by building community around a common, collaboratively constructed future-oriented game narrative. [cite news
title = Hollywood & Games: An Interview with Jesse Alexander
url = http://www.wonderlandblog.com/wonderland/2007/06/hollywood-games.html
work = Wonderland
date = 2007-06-27
accessdate = 2008-04-22]

"The goal of the game is to get real people around the world to start thinking about life without oil. To get them to answer questions like: How will they cope? What will they have to sacrifice? What can they do to help the world?" BRADY FORREST – O'REILLY RADAR [cite news
title = World Without Oil Launches
url = http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/04/world_without_o.html
work = O'Reilly Radar
date = 2007-04-30
accessdate = 2007-09-07]

"Funded by public service broadcasting in the US, this is quite the way to bring attention to a political (and ecological, and biological, and health, and etc etc) issue that would otherwise perhaps make people's hearts heavy with a mixture of apathy, fear and guilt." ALICE TAYLOR – WONDERLAND [cite news
title = World Without Oil goes live
url = http://www.wonderlandblog.com/wonderland/2007/04/world_without_o.html
work = WONDERLAND
date = 2007-04-30
accessdate = 2007-09-07]

"By playing it out in a serious way, the game aims to apply collective intelligence and imagination to the problem in advance, and to create a record that has value for educators, policymakers, and the common people." CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY [cite news
title = Drilling for collective wisdom
url = http://www.prwatch.org/node/6077
work = CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY
date = 2007-05-21
accessdate = 2007-09-07]

"Participatory, imaginative, and activist all at once!" JAMES DAVID MORGAN – THE GROUNDSWELL BLOG [cite news
title = WorldWithoutOil.Org
url = http://blog.groundswellcollective.com/2007/07/29/worldwithoutoilorg/
work = THE GROUNDSWELL COLLECTIVE
date = 2007-07-29
accessdate = 2008-03-31]

"'If you want to change the future, play with it first.'" STEFANIE OLSEN – CNET NEWS [cite news
title = Provocative politics in virtual games
url = http://news.com.com/Provocative+politics+in+virtual+games/2100-1043_3-6171089.html?tag=ne.gall.related
work = CNET NEWS
date = 2007-03-28
accessdate = 2007-09-07]

Acclaim

"World Without Oil" was a Awards Nominee in the Games category for a 2008 Webby Awards, earned an Honorable Mention for the Prix Green award for Environmental Art at the 01SJ 2008 festival, and was honored with a Special Mention in the Environment category for its contribution to humanity in the 2008 Stockholm Challenge. [cite news
title = World Without Oil | Stockholm Challenge Event 2008
url = http://event.stockholmchallenge.se/project/2008/Environment/World-Without-Oil
work = Stockholm Challenge official website
date = 2008-03-26
accessdate = 2008-03-31] The game won the award for Activism at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in March 2008. [cite news
title = World Without Oil wins Activism web award
url = http://www.itvs.org/pressroom/press_detail.php?pressId=6586
work = ITVS Interactive Press Release
date = 2008-03-11
accessdate = 2008-03-15]

References