Disaster Dynamics:
The Hurricane Landfall Game
Seth McGinnis
Institute for the Study of
Science and Environment (ISSE)
Nov. 8, 2005
http://swiki.ucar.edu/dd
Overview
The Hurricane Landfall Game is a four-player virtual strategy game
about the interaction between natural disasters and urban
planning. Students who play the game learn about hazard
management through role-playing, negotiation, and experiencing
the sometimes unintended consequences of their decisions.
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Serious Games
Educational Objectives
Design Constraints
The Game
http://swiki.ucar.edu/dd
Why Serious Games?
• Engaging
• Experiential Learning
• Structure Matches
Content
• Soft Failure
• Topsight
• Practice Surprise
http://swiki.ucar.edu/dd
Educational Objectives
• Target Audience
– Undergraduates
– Future emergency
managers
– Future urban
planners
– Distance learning
students
• Teaching Goals
– Complex Systems &
Systems Thinking
– Human-Environment
Interactions
– Negotiation &
Collaboration
– Decision-Making Under
Uncertainty
– Importance of Recovery,
Big/Long Picture
http://swiki.ucar.edu/dd
Design Constraints
http://swiki.ucar.edu/dd
The Game
A networked virtual strategy boardgame where players take on
different roles in a small town on the coast. They must
negotiate community responses to hurricanes and other
extreme events. Their land-use decisions are played out over
many years and different situations.
• Gameplay
– Propose Projects
4 players/game
– Negotiate
45 minutes/turn
– Vote
http://swiki.ucar.edu/dd
DEMO!