Environment - NitroGenius

Environment - "NitroGenius"

A multi-stakeholder, simulation game about Commissioned by the Dutch Government(solving) nitrogen problems.

Comissioned by the Dutch government. Developed by Play2Learn together with ECN (Energy Research Centre) and Alterra (Green World Research) for the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM, Volkshuisvesting, Ruimtelijke Ordening en Milieubeheer).

Demonstrated and played (by over fifty teams of experts) at the Second International Nitrogen Conference (N2001) in Potomac, Maryland, USA. A free single-player version of NitroGenius is available for download.

URL: NitroGenius

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2003-10-01 19:26:33 |

Epidemiology - EpiSims

Epidemiology - "EpiSims"

A tool for simulating the spread of epidemics at the level of individuals in a large urban region, taking into account realistic contact patterns and disease transmission characteristics.

From Los Alamos National Laboratories.

URL: Los Alamos Website

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2003-10-01 21:36:14 |

Ethics - Quandaries Ethics Training (Public Policy)

Ethics - "Quandaries Ethics Training"

A game to train Department of Justice employees and other Federal workers on ethical decisions.

Quandaries simulates a federal career. There are fifteen jobs, at five levels of increasing responsibility. When you begin, you choose one of the entry level jobs. In order to progress to the next level, you have to show that you know enough about the federal ethics rules to be “promoted.”

Created by ??? for the Department of Justice. Downloadable.

URL: Quandaries

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2003-09-13 12:31:55 |

Flood Control - FloodRanger

Flood Control - "FloodRanger"

A UK Game to help planners and engineers work out strategies to cope with real-life flooding.

Developed as part of the DTI's Foresight flood defense project, based on models devised by the UK Hadley Centre for Climate Change.

It is up to the player to decide where best to build appropriate sea or river flood defenses like dams, reservoirs or groynes, while keeping their public generally happy.

Developed by Discovery Software.

URL: Discovery Software

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2004-03-06 18:50:14 |

Governance - Topeka City Council Survivor

Governance - "Topeka City Council Survivor"

A game that ran in CJOnline, the online edition of the Topeka Capitol-Journal, in 2000-2001.

Designed to hold a spotlight to the council, the game, in which players banished two council members each week from a mythical island, resulted in a "lively online discussion about how council members should behave."

URL: Topeka City Council Survivor

also: Article

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2004-03-07 17:17:53 |

Health Care System - SimHealth (Public Policy)

Health Care System - "SimHealth"

Funded by the Markle Foundation, developed by Thinking Tools, and published by Maxis, Simhelath was released in 1994.

The game was designed to inform the debate in the summer of 1994 over what kind of health care system the United States should have. It gives you a chance to try your hand at patching up the current U.S. system, or creating your own.

URL: SimHealth

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2003-09-11 13:15:04 |

Home Water Conservation - Waterbusters

Home Water Conservation - "Waterbusters"

A game to teach tips for water conservation around the home. It is useful to compare this to another interesting, but less gamelike approach to the same subject used in Savannah.

From the Seattle(?) Saving Water Partnership, "A service of your local water utility."

URL: Waterbusters

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2004-03-07 15:58:06 |

International Diplomacy - Balance of Power

International Diplomacy - "Balance of Power"

A classic game from master designer Chris Crawford, updated in 1990

"The objective is the same as the original game, Balance of Power: use your military, covert, and industrial forces to make your country the most prestigious in the world while avoiding nuclear war. However, it is now 1989, and the Communist Block is crumbling... Chris Crawford, who rarely ever made a sequel to a computer game, was besieged by mail asking him to update his classic from a few years before to reflect the new state of the world. Russia was falling, the Iron Curtain was shattering, and smaller countries were beginning to assert their own regional power with more freedom from the bipolar world of the Cold War. The result was the 1990 edition."

URL: Moby Games

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2003-12-27 17:21:26 |

International Politics - Hidden Agenda

International Politics - "Hidden Agenda"

A classic game from Jim Gasparini.

"With Hidden Agenda, players can try their hands at governing a simulated country, Chimerica, and see for themselves what keeps the Central America region in endless turmoil. By taking a turn as president of Chimerica, students experience first-hand pressure facing a third-world country. They make decisions, make events happen, make headlines. As they become invested in the game, students will suspend their North American viewpoint and learn to empathize with the plight of a developing nation."

URL: Hidden Agenda

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2003-12-27 17:33:16 |

Kids - Global Kids Island

Kids: Global Kids Island: Fostering Public Diplomacy through Second Life

Second Life is a 3D virtual world in which the residents are provided with the tools required to literally shape the world around them. Teen Second Life is a space restricted to 13-17 year olds. Beginning in February, 2006, Global Kids has been exploring how to bring a youth development model around global issues into an island within this teen grid.

URL: Global Kids Island

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2006-07-16 13:40:55 |