To follow are pieces of a contest entry for Metropolis magazine I completed in late 2003. The call was for sustainable or environmentally minded projects, the prize money was to be put towards the realization of the winning project. I didn't win unfortunately but I still like the idea and want to explore the concept further.
the Masses is a massively multi player Real Time strategy (RTS) game designed to get people thinking more holistically about the environment. As is common in RTS games, players gather resources to build items and contraptions. Players operate a single type of unit called a bot. Players use these bots to for many different purposes, like gather resources, build items or contraptions, they can even act as motors or moving peices in the things that they build. It is the nature of these bots and the environment that they are set in that separates the Masses from more traditional RTS game.
Bots Have a life span. They reproduce. They die. A bots lifespan is very short compared to our human standards, and time itself moves much faster in their world. A player might experience several many generations worth of history during one sitting. This rapid succession of time is crucial to communicate the impact of ones decisions on an ecosystem and in turn the message of the game (take responsibility for your actions).
The Masses is a community based game, each player is part of a lineage. A lineage is similar in concept to that of a guild, the difference is, that players do not chose which linage they are a part of, not at first, rather it is given to them at "birth." Lineages tend to compete with other lineages for resources and ultimately growth. The competition aspect is familiar to RTS games, however unlike most RTS games the object of growth and building is not to out fight other lineages, but to out last them.
As mentioned, bots exist in an ecosystem. And because bots rely on the ecosystem for growth and survival each decision a player makes effects the environment and in turn neighboring players, this tension increases as populations boom and resources become scares. Players need resources not only to build but also to make more Bots! Bots reproduce using an equal portion of each resource. The resources exist in an environment, a dynamic cycle, where if thrown off balance a population of players could suffer.
The game will keep a record of each lineage and their interactions with each other. In addition, a record of the ecosystem itself will be kept and be presented along side the lineage record. Players will be able to compose narrative histories with these elements and draw conclusions about material usages and their effects on the health of the communities.
Below are graphics from the original contest submission. Don't miss the link to the story board at the bottom of the page.
Click here to see a prototype of the simulated eccosystem
