Somewhere between a happening and fan fiction, World Without Oil is an alternate reality ‘game’ where users simulate living online during a global petroleum price shock. ‘Players’ produce movies, blog posts, and other media about the (fictional) world they live in with the goal of producing some sort of “larger truth” about how individuals could adapt to a frightening new world.

It’s hard to say whether the ‘game’ contrivance makes World Without Oil more or less effective in planning for an oil-less society down the road. Do people really need such a heavy-handed framework to rally around environmental issues or is it just easier to understand? Does framing something as a game, as fictional, make the reality of the problem seem less important?

World Without Oil raises many questions, both about its form and its function. Give them credit for being bold and different; two qualities we will all need as the planet moves forward.

Link to World Without Oil

Popularity: 7% [?]

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See Also: Coconut Oil as Biodiesel,DIY Biodiesel,A Green Oil Company?,

This entry was posted by Jeffrey Goodman on Thursday, May 10th, 2007 at 9:03 am and is filed under Environment, Social Change, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.