Institute For The Future

SUPERSTRUCT – World's First Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game Announced Today

Superstruct in the News

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Superstruct: Crowdsource the Future, O'Reilly Radar

 

Gamers’ scores will reflect personal role in humankind’s survival

Palo Alto, CA - (Sept 22, 2008) — The Institute for the Future (IFTF) announced today the launch of Superstruct, the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game (MMFG). Designed by renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, PhD., and IFTF lead forecaster Kathi Vian PhD., Superstruct invites players to imagine life in 2019 and to document and record how they, their families, local communities, or extended social networks might respond to a catastrophic population collapse. Beginning today players can register at www.superstructgame.org. Six-weeks of global gameplay will begin on Monday, October 6, 2008.

About the Game:

Set in the grim future of 2019, Superstruct begins with the findings of a fictional supercomputer that, after a year-long analysis, predicts the extinction of the human population in 23 years. A potentially terminal combination of five so-called “super-threats,” which represent the collision of environmental, economic, and social risks, are causing massive disruptions of global society. The existing structures of human civilization—from families and language to corporate society and technological infrastructures—just aren’t enough. Superstruct is played on forums, blogs, videos, wikis, and other familiar online spaces. We show you the world as it might look in 2019. You show us what it’s like to live there. Bring what you know and who you know, and we’ll all figure out how to make 2019 a world we want to live in.

“Superstruct is mass collaboration wrapped in a high-stakes, challenging game environment that will appeal to gamers, but also to creative thinkers of all ages and types,” said McGonigal. “By harnessing the thinking and input of thousands, or millions, of minds, research shows that we can tackle massive problems faster and find tenable solutions.”

“IFTF has always been interested in participatory forecasting—in bringing people together to imagine and even invent the future,” said Vian. “With massively multiplayer forecasting games, we suddenly have thousands of people turning their attention to the big challenges of the coming decades. All those eyes on the future will give us a view that none of us individually could imagine.”

"Superstruct is about inventing new ways to collaborate in the future. Every superstructure proposed by the players is a new idea for how to combine strengths and resources at really big scales. They're plans for how to cooperate with people we don’t normally cooperate with,” said Wikipedia Founder and Superstruct judge, Jimmy Wales. “The game will generate tons of new ideas that we might be able to actually implement someday to help invent a more intelligent global culture."

Superstruct is being developed by the Ten-Year Forecast team at the Institute for the Future, a not-for-profit think tank based in Palo Alto, California. Project leads include TYF program director Kathi Vian, blogger and futurist Jamais Cascio, and game designer Jane McGonigal.

About the Institute for the Future

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is an independent, nonprofit research group with 40 years of forecasting experience. IFTF focuses on identifying emerging trends and discontinuities that will transform global society and the global marketplace. We provide insights into business strategy, design process, innovation, and social dilemmas. Our research generates the foresight needed to create insights that lead to action. Our research spans a broad territory of deeply transformative trends, from health and health care to technology, the workplace, and human identity. The Institute for the Future is located in Palo Alto, CA