World Without Oil

It was the creation of San Jose game writer and designer Ken Eklund, and ARG veterans Jane McGonigal, Dee Cook, Marie Lamb, Michelle Senderhauf, and Krystyn Wells were on the puppetmaster team.

[1] World Without Oil was presented by Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Compelling player stories and ideas were incorporated into the official narrative, posted daily.

Players could choose to post their stories as videos, images or blog entries, or to phone or email them to the WWO gamemasters.

By playing it out in a serious way, the game aimed to apply collective intelligence and imagination to the problem in advance, and create a record that has value for educators, policymakers, and the common people to help anticipate the future and prevent its worst outcomes.