Mystified? Start Here

What exactly is WWO? It's not an easy question to answer. The simple answer: a realistic collaborative simulation of a global oil crisis. But as a serious game, and an alternate reality game, and a Web 2.0 project, and a transmedia or crossmedia experience, and an experiment in massively collaborative or crowd-sourced "anticipatory journalism," the game intertwines many of the Internet's hottest emerging concepts in one tight package. Try this page to get started on understanding the project and the structure of this site.

The Game's Goals and Methods

What did WWO aim to do, and how did it aim to accomplish it? It is a serious game for the public good, intending to "pre-create" a future scenario that could possibly come to pass. And by actively involving its players in creating the story of the game, WWO connected them with its issues in a visceral, personal way, which in turn led to creative, practical solutions. The result: WWO changed people's lives (or, more accurately, the game created an imaginative space where they could and did change their own lives).

What Is A Serious Game? What Is An Alternate Reality Game?

A Serious Game has a purpose beyond entertainment - it teaches or trains, for example. An Alternate Reality Game is a game that's played in the real world, with bits of "extra" reality that have been woven into the real world by the gamemasters. World Without Oil is the first game in both genres: the first major Serious Alternate Reality Game.

The Buzz About World Without Oil

Hundreds of press people and bloggers have reported on WWO, and more stories appear every month. Articles about WWO have appeared in the Wall Street Journal Online, in Le Monde, in Der Standard, in WIRED Online, in Salon, in BoingBoing, O'Reilly Radar, and many other newspapers and blogs. We've pulled the highlights for you on this page of snappy, pithy and thought-provoking quotations.

Listen: World Without Oil On The Air

Ken Eklund (Creative Director) and Jane McGonigal (Participation Architect) have appeared on radio shows nationally and internationally, talking about WWO and what it might signify for our common future. This page links to those radio programs and videoblogs that are archived online.

What The Game Demonstrates

Can an alternate reality game be used to address a real world problem? Can a game bring people together to collaborate on a trial run of their common future? What motivates people to play a game such as WWO, which doesn't have points or prizes or winners per se? WWO tested out many game and social networking concepts.

Credits

How many people does it take to stage an oil crisis? Who were they, and what did they do? All is revealed in our Credits.

Contact Us

Use this page to contact Ken Eklund and the WWO team.