Green21 Game “Lifeboat”

The Green21 ecosystem includes an collaborative alternate reality game, “Lifeboat,” by Green21 Director of Game Design Ken Eklund. Check out Ken’s blog post, which features a slideshow teaser.

What Will Endure? What Will Have To Change?
In the alternate reality, a personable young adventurer sets out to explore the possible futures of our institutions, organizations, communities, lifestyles and culture. Which of them will float, and which will sink, in the years ahead? As the adventurer travels from place to place collecting information, he or she invites people to join the exploration by offering their stories and advice about the future via phone or computer. These contributions are grouped by theme and the best of them are edited into internet radio broadcasts and podcasts. As people listen and respond to them, the game amasses a body of networked fact, opinion, predictions and solutions that entices more people to follow the narrative and tell their stories. “Lifeboat” builds crowdsourced intelligence into collective wisdom, opening new paths to consensus and action on sustainability issues.

Collaboratively Visualizing the Future
Alternate reality games are emerging as a way to organically create massive collaborations on a theme. They have been used in the corporate world since 2001 as storytelling devices to engage audiences with entertainment or brands. In 2007, the first storymaking alternate reality game, “World Without Oil,” recruited thousands of people to witness and bear witness to an imagined global oil crisis. The game is hailed as a groundbreaking and remarkably effective way to collaboratively pre-visualize the complex interactions of present decisions with future outcomes – to “play it before you live it.”

Identifying What’s Sustainable
“Lifeboat” complements the Green21 broadcast series perfectly, following high-level overviews with streetlevel wisdom and awareness-raising visuals with open dialogues about action. As people join together to identify the sustainable elements in their communities, they bring the core concepts of sustainability from their television screens and online experiences into their homes and businesses.