Hi class, Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
While in the World Sim (Fall 2006), the main objective seemed to be decolonization. After that, we seemed to reach Marx's "end of history." Obviously, this was not the case in reality. In order to make the World Sim more realistic (and applicable to today's post-colonial problems), I suggest adding rules to allow colonizers to import and export people as well as goods. This would allow for the creation of multi-national states after decolonization, and even create the possibility of internal conflict (by far the most common form of conflict in the world today). Further, adding rules to allow for independence movements will realistically simulate the challenges of post-colonial governance. So far, the World Sim has been a system-level simulation. By expanding its scope to include regional-level situations, it will better simulate current global conditions. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I had an idea when I played the game that might effect the outcome of events. I think that nature has a lot to do with the economy in certain countries and some natural disasters make a country change how it works and what it does. Some how I think it would be more realistic to add natural disasters to the game. It costs countries time and hard power to rebuild after that and it also can bring people together if a nation goes out and asks for help from a neighbor. It might create different ties between countries than just the little vs big guys. It brings a different dynamic to the game but I dont quite know how it would work out. Any ideas? mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I think that it would be interesting to see how religion would play into the world system. It is possible that we would see alliances and divisions based on differences in religion. Maybe when each culture is being created and they decide on a religion, they can determine if they would be the kind of culture that would want to prostelytize those with different beliefs or if they would just keep to themsleves in that sense. Because as we look at colonization and globalization I think that we see that especially with Christianity, as commerce spreads so does Chrisitanity. Also as we have immigrations of refugees they would bring with them their religion into their new state, and so there could be internal divisions based on differences in beliefs. So as the world sim plays out we will see how different states/the world reacts to differences in beliefs, and how they can either work together, or how it may keep a state from functioning as a whole. One example of how religion has played into the globalization of our world is in Ecuador(and elsewhere) where missionaries (working with the monetary aid of oil companies) witnessed to and pacified the Huaorani indians who had previouslly resisted the encroachment of oil companies. After they were pacified the oil companies could then begin drilling in the area without fear of the Indians, and now the land has been destroyed and the Huaorani culture has been completely chaned. And so in this case the spread of Christianity facilitated the work of the oil companies. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I agree with Lyndee on the fact that natural disasters seem to be a major event that effects most countries at one poin in time and causes them to have to work together to overcome such a tragedy. I really think this would be a good addition to the game which would give us a chance to learn how the countries interact when an event interrupts the "everyday life". An idea that I had and this could be not good at all but I thought about how we could add some sort of authority figure to each country. In today's world most if not all countries have some sort of power and control run by a specific person. If it be a President, King, Emperor, or whatever this person as well as those close/ under him/her have the authority and control to decide such laws or how the country should work. If we added/elected a person to "preside over an organized body of persons" then we can see first hand the difficulties and struggles of ruling a country and what goes into it... what laws or rules are in effect, how to change laws, or even dictates large decidsions about this when, where, and how to conquer. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
What I woul like to see is the introduction of vassal states, because some countries were somewhat independent, but where heavliy influenced by more powerfull states, and had to do what they said first. Also I believe if we really are changing the game drastically then we need to add more time to the simulation itself, as I believe jumping 200 years at a time is to fast to incorperate new ideas. Also we should us a real world map, to better simulate how the world came to be and then the future.
I think that the rules should include multinational corporations. MNC's have been important to the world in good and bad ways. On the good side, they help to create employment opportunities in the poor countries, they import capital to the third world, introduce new technology and manufacturing techniques to developing nations, etc. But, despite their contributions, MNC's have created negative conditions in the world by promoting greater dependence of 3rd world countries on the wealthier 1st world nations, they oftentimes exploit the workers who reside in poor areas, we hear of local, small-town businesses being so overwhelmed by the MNC's that they end up losing those businesses, etc. I just think that, in order to establish a more realistic world simulation, we will need to add multinational corporations to the mix.
I also wanted to add to anscott's incorporation of religion...One idea for rewriting the rules would involve simulating the expansion and influence of religion (and other beliefs) on people. As was said in class on Friday: One of the possible reasons that it was Europe that decided to colonize instead of China was due to the Chinese peoples' beliefs. Notably, Buddhism and Confucianism were the predominate forms of belief. Also, as was said in class, the main beliefs that the Chinese had were that China was the place in the world that was closest to heaven...Therefore, there was no need or drive to colonize other areas of the world.
mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
i think we should impliment the idea of having a slave trade as well to make the world simulation more realistic. We could even go as far as some one migrating to other colonies so they can get a job, though it may not pay much that person will have a means to survive. Maybe the youngest person in the group can be the one who migrates, this will prevent the entire colony from being killed or dying off, we will have at least one survivor.
mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I think that adding slave trade would be an excellent idea. I think that we can still see evidence today from how slave trading negativley affected Africa and positivley affected many European countries. Slave trading was one of the first "big businesses" our world has ever experienced and not including it directly in the World Simulation isn't realistic. I know colonizers have the oppotunity to "take-over" countries and force them to work, but historically the slave trading business worked a little differently. I personally feel that when playing the World Simulation colonizers should just start randomly taking a person here and there and force them to go to some other area. Also I think that when these countries steal particular individuals a certian number of the "slaves" should die before they even get to their new land area. .This will represent the horrible conditions that slaves experienced when traveling across the sea. Maybe the "dead" indviduals could wear something (like a black shirt or hat) that would symbolically show to the entire world that they had died due to horrible treatment.
Then eventually with time, I think that certain colonizers should receive a peice of paper in their envelope that says that they decided to abolish slavery/slave trading. It would be interesting to see how this would affect the dynamics of the country. (economically, socially, and politically)
naytanda wrote: > i think we should impliment the idea of having a slave trade as well to make the world simulation more realistic. We could even go as far as some one migrating to other colonies so they can get a job, though it may not pay much that person will have a means to survive. Maybe the youngest person in the group can be the one who migrates, this will prevent the entire colony from being killed or dying off, we will have at least one survivor. > > mwesch wrote: > > Hi class, > > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
One idea that I came up with had to deal with the establishment of taxes for citizens of a country. Taxes have been and still remain a huge factor within all major countries. My idea is that ever individual within a "colonizer" country will be given a particular number of "food" items during the beginning of each round. (This could be done at random.) Then during the end of each round every citizen has to have at least two peices of food . One peice of food is used for them to "eat" and the other peice of food goes to the government or person in control. If the individual has more than one peice of food they get to keep 50% of the food and the other 50% goes to the government. This taxed food would then add to the country's structural and hard power. (For example, ever 25 peices of collected taxes equals 100 points of power for the country or something to that extent.) Thus the country would have more influence/power over its own citizens and the rest of the world. This would also create social classes, which historically has been a major issue. I think this would also make particular individuals want to leave their country and find better places to live. I think adding taxes would make the World Simulation more realistic and socially diverse. Taxes honestly wouldn't make our "world" better, but I think taxation is an important issue that needs to be address in some way.
mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I would have to agree with Lynndee and epeel on the use of natural disasters being a factor for production. I was thinking that we could incorporate it into the game by you having cards between rounds. A colony would then be able to choose between 2 cards and one being a natural disaster or something negative and the other card being something positive to the colony. Another idea could be the possibility of unleashing diseases and famine upon colonies or the whole world. With the amount of agriculture and larbor workers causing the decline of wages to occur I am sure that lower class citizens become poor and thus suffered health wise. Due to the lack of money flowing into families I am sure that diseases slowly took over areas and killed off workers and others that contributed to society. Thus the succession of a country would decline or even die off. It looks like the agriculture aspect of colonies and the greed of power and money slowly took over the world in the readings. The more money regions obtained the more "things" they wanted. From the readings I read; I realized alot of countries grew crops (cash crops) that they could prosper off of and it seems they only grew one crop at a time in some countries. But the country was able to grow so much more. WIth that being said, I think with the crops we are able to produce; you could possibly give us the option to rebel and grow more crops that suit our culture and this could possibly give new ways of strategy to different colonies. I also agree with cheitman on the implementation of taxes for countries. Taxes at this time were becoming a very good way to gain revenue for themselves. The Middle East and Europe used taxes and they grew very wealthy and powerful. I think maybe a new concept could be to have you hand pick certain countries that are able to enforce taxes and see what they do with their power and their excess cash. It just seemed that the money revolved around the success and failure of countries so that is why I came up with the ideas that I did. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
As Lynndee suggested adding natural disasters to the game, I will suggest how to go about doing so. Since these types of events scatter resources, the sacred animals, fruit loop necklaces and cocoa puffs should end up on different lands than they were previously on. First, it would simulate how some 'minority' (or less powerful) cultures have resources, but do not necessarily have the means to continue reproducing them and thus, get sucked into slave labor and taxation such as the Dutch exercised upon their inferiors. Secondly, it would demonstrate how cultures, which lose the valuable resources, find alternative means of production, sometimes at the cost of their less powerful entities.
Someone mentioned having an authority figure, but what if that authority figure were to be a peaceful one, like Gandhi? I am merely throwing this out there in hopes that there is a possibility to resolve conflicts in the World Sim without warfare, although this seems to go against what has actually happened in our world thus far.
mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
One idea that I came up with is to have a group of peace keepers for the little places that do not get colonized. This would be like the United Nations or something. I haven't really figured out how it would work, but I don't think there is anything really like that in the world simulation. Anyone have any ideas? Or maybe a way to expand on it? mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I think that culture has a lot to do with how a country acts and reacts to other countries. I think that we should try to bring out the culture in each region as a part of the world simulation. This is kind of an all encompasing term, but after reading everyone's responses, it seems like people have the same idea. Incorporating religion, marriage, holiday's, etc. I also think that a great thing to incorporate into the simulation would be agriculture, like coryclem84 said. Like the reading said, agriculture is so very important to a region in terms of food and also economy. A country with a strong crop and strong turnouts each year could potentially be very successful. But, it could also drain them of their money because other wealthier countries could take over them and buy the crops for not enough money, and take advantage of them. This is a real problem that occurs today in society and has occured for centuries. It is not fair, but if we are truly trying to recreate an accurate world simulation, I believe this would be important. And lastly, I believe that we should try to work to make the different governments of each nation more prominent in the simulation. Government is a very big part of each nation and has a huge impact on everyone's lives. The government, depending on where you are, determines how you can trace, how you can act as a citizen, and what you can do. I think incorporating this would be beneficial. Overall, after reading over everyone's ideas it was great to see what everyone had to write. I love this collective knowledge database. It really helps to spark my ideas after reading what others have written down, so thanks to those who wrote on the forum before me! It allowed me to really think through and visualize all of my ideas!!!
mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Hey Class, Something I was thinking about to maybe try out was making conflicts within the countries themselves, I think if we were to simulate such things as the civil war, government issues in iraq, or terrorism it might help us see the worldwide issues that spawn from such issues. Just a thought maybe someone else could elaborate some more ideas on it. ~Kyle mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
HARD POWER SUB-CATEOGRIES: Wolf's break-down of different types of power and Lynndee's idea of natural disasters got me thinking of the post-effects of war disasters. Specifically Nuclear War. I've been to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and am familiar with the drastic effects of this technology.
So, what if the "Hard Power" had some break downs on types of power. And then certain kinds of Hard Power have prolonged effects. For example, if you use "Nuclear Hard Power" of "Chemical Hard Power", then you have high numbers on the cards, plus you have the effects of diseases (coryclem84's idea).
CIVIL STRIFE: What if some countries had certain levels of Civil Strife. So, they would be unstable coutries where the goals fo the coutry could drastically change (threat from within). This could be regulated with rolling dice at certain times (ie- before every decision, every 5 minutes, etc.). So, take like 3 dice with an outcome of 18 total, and then your country had a 35% possibility of being overrun by a coup; so if you roll 13 or more, your country is now reformed under new rules.
Along with cheitman's mention of slaves, maybe your possibility of civil unrest increases when you take on slaves (or controversial methods); so it becomes closer to 50/50.
As people have mentioned before i think having a type of slave trade or use of indentured servants. That way people of lesser nattions have a chance to migrate to a nation which is rich. I also like the idea to have some natural disasters or viruses that can affect a nation. It would add excitement to the game if nations had to worry about natural disasters. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
*This is a great idea, except that you might want to hand out cards to certain people telling them they need to do this, because after working on this project all semester together (I know my group) would not be willing to split up easily! But I really like this idea. mud212 wrote: > While in the World Sim (Fall 2006), the main objective seemed to be decolonization. After that, we seemed to reach Marx's "end of history." Obviously, this was not the case in reality. In order to make the World Sim more realistic (and applicable to today's post-colonial problems), I suggest adding rules to allow colonizers to import and export people as well as goods. This would allow for the creation of multi-national states after decolonization, and even create the possibility of internal conflict (by far the most common form of conflict in the world today). Further, adding rules to allow for independence movements will realistically simulate the challenges of post-colonial governance. So far, the World Sim has been a system-level simulation. By expanding its scope to include regional-level situations, it will better simulate current global conditions. > mwesch wrote: > > Hi class, > > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Soooo.... maybe in video reality terms we should allow the person to deal with struggles inside a region/nation of their choice (let them be a ruler) and then they would be interlinked with peoples representing the other nations or using the computer to simulate problems they would encounter with the other nations. Other options they could choose would to be a world leader and as time progresses they have to attempt to better solve the world's problems at the time, taking into account cause and effect all over. They could also choose to create their own nation and world,not a representation of our world today, with or without being linked to other people, and they would encounter common problems but not linked to any particular time space or region. etc... etc..... I have lots of those ideas...
I also agree with Sara that a United Nations type assembly is needed (for class).
Slave/able body person trade would add a unique spin and along with that adding in a civil war within a country(s) would be fun as well.
And of course as many others have stated already the environment plays a major factor (maybe the player could choose the epoch in which they will play in)
Building: we could have economy enhanced by travel in certain countries, so other countries can use their resources and trading to build "monumental" sites.
The video game should be kind of like our website building it will become "easier" more fun and challenging as you progress and feel out the game. (should be able to pretty much self teach or the game will prompt you throughout with you options and choices.)
mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Maybe we should also analyze and critique pros and cons of governments and their rule, and look at books like Animal Farm.
mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
MORAL FACTOR: Also, just wanted to add, that we could also have a "moral factor" to measure scrupulousness. So, whenever a country decided to make certain decisions that are controversial (like war, genocide, etc.), they have to pass their moral factor rating to do it. So, like a boyscout might be 22/24 (so would have to roll the dice to get 22-24 in order to kill someone), versus Hitler who would be more like 2/24. This would prevent peopel from committing genocide on a whim. Maybe they could re-roll after a period of time?
I think you have some great ideas! I think that the slave trade would be really beneficial to people of lesser nations. It would allow migration and those people to create a better life for themselves after some time. About the natural disasters, I think that that is such a huge part of our world now that it would be almost silly not to include that into our simulation. Since global warming is a hot topic today and is truly happening, incorporating natural disasters into the world simulation would really bring what is happening NOW in our world to life in the simulation. Those natural disasters could happen at any time and would affect the nation and that nation would have to get back on their feet...this ties in culture, government, religion, etc. It would really show how each nation deals with disasters.
Great ideas!
tfritz wrote: > As people have mentioned before i think having a type of slave trade or use of indentured servants. That way people of lesser nattions have a chance to migrate to a nation which is rich. I also like the idea to have some natural disasters or viruses that can affect a nation. It would add excitement to the game if nations had to worry about natural disasters. > mwesch wrote: > > Hi class, > > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I believe that natural causes and disasters should play a role in this game. Each country should get three lives. These causes will determine whether they survive or not. If they are attacked by one of the diseases or natural causes then they must use one of their lives. Also once one of them may be destroyed- other countries may help you if they want, or if you have no help you must find the means on your own to rebuild all that you lost. If all 3 of your lives are lost then your village will desimated.
I really like Seiji's Idea of adding a "point" system. My brother and his friends play a lot of games, so I am familiar with the concept. When you attack, you have to tap manna, or land, to do so. If you tap all of your land to attack, you leave yourself open to attack because the game requires you to tap manna for defense. I'm not saying that we need to incorporate all the rules of games like Magic, for instance the stack rules. Don't ask. seiji306 wrote: > MORAL FACTOR: > Also, just wanted to add, that we could also have a "moral factor" to measure scrupulousness. So, whenever a country decided to make certain decisions that are controversial (like war, genocide, etc.), they have to pass their moral factor rating to do it. So, like a boyscout might be 22/24 (so would have to roll the dice to get 22-24 in order to kill someone), versus Hitler who would be more like 2/24. This would prevent peopel from committing genocide on a whim. Maybe they could re-roll after a period of time?
Wow. There are lots of great ideas here...where to start?
So I definitely agree that the WorldSim should be longer. Not terribly so, but enough longer so that interactions can develop a little more complexity. I think one of the major problems with the "game" is that people act in ways that they would not act in real life because it is "only a game". That said, I think the video game idea would be really interesting to explore: it would allow the simulation to be longer and more complex. However, I feel the face-to-face personal interactions are an important component of the simulation.
I also agree that some sort of slavery system should be included, as well as natural disasters, religion and its affect on internal and external strife (the Crusades, many nations that have conflict because there is not one dominant religion), mult-national corporations (Coca-Colonization is becoming increasingly prevalent), different types of hard power, and disease/famine. The disease/famine aspect could play out as a card that reads "Your country just experienced a flu epidemic. 50% are dead. Next round." However, in today's global age, it seems important to look at the affects of different types of pandemics: such as the AIDs situation, bird flu/SARS, and more regional afflictions such as malaria.
I also like the idea of some sort of moral factor governing individual decisions. And, there almost certainly has to be some sort of multi-national governing body, such as the UN, WTO, NAFTA, EU... Finally, what about tourism? Americans visit almost every country, and do "missionary" work of some sort in nearly every country, but how often does one see a Nicaraguan touring the Statue of Liberty or helping the homeless in Central Park?
mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I talked to a friend that I work with who participated in the simulation and we thought it would be interesting if there was a way to represent an insurgent power after a colony was taken over. That way the conquerors would have to focus some attention on the land taken instead of just winning a battle and not worrying about the peolple living there. I think the fighting power of the people trying to revolt would be greater becuase they are fighting for their homeland. Maybe you could incorporate spies in some manner in order to figure out how much hard power rival nations have or where they plan on colonizing next. Perhaps you could bribe a rival nations member to join your nation becuase you are more powerful or bu offering them a poeition of power. Also, I dont know how the fighting all works exactly but what if you coulod give a smaller nation more hard power by enabling them the ability to do suicide bombings which might take out a lot of rival members or production plants, and at the same time lowering the "moral" of your hard power. Moral could influence the amount of hard power you get. I also like the idea of making the simulation last longer because the idea of the entire thing is really amazing. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
First and foremost, I am not sure that I am doing this right, so I guess we'll find out shortly. At any rate....
I entirely agree with Cory about the natural disasters and diseases. Hunger is obviously a world issue as well. It sounds as though I might be focusing primarily on negative ideas, but these are definitely things we should consider because there is no denying that natural disasters, diseases, and hunger have all had their effects on different countries and with different levels of severity, too. We are dealing with several different countries in the World Simulation, and to make it as realistic as possible, I think it is important to bring in all details as possible.
coryclem84 wrote: > I would have to agree with Lynndee and epeel on the use of natural disasters being a factor for production. I was thinking that we could incorporate it into the game by you having cards between rounds. A colony would then be able to choose between 2 cards and one being a natural disaster or something negative and the other card being something positive to the colony. > Another idea could be the possibility of unleashing diseases and famine upon colonies or the whole world. With the amount of agriculture and larbor workers causing the decline of wages to occur I am sure that lower class citizens become poor and thus suffered health wise. Due to the lack of money flowing into families I am sure that diseases slowly took over areas and killed off workers and others that contributed to society. Thus the succession of a country would decline or even die off. > It looks like the agriculture aspect of colonies and the greed of power and money slowly took over the world in the readings. The more money regions obtained the more "things" they wanted. From the readings I read; I realized alot of countries grew crops (cash crops) that they could prosper off of and it seems they only grew one crop at a time in some countries. But the country was able to grow so much more. WIth that being said, I think with the crops we are able to produce; you could possibly give us the option to rebel and grow more crops that suit our culture and this could possibly give new ways of strategy to different colonies. > I also agree with cheitman on the implementation of taxes for countries. Taxes at this time were becoming a very good way to gain revenue for themselves. The Middle East and Europe used taxes and they grew very wealthy and powerful. I think maybe a new concept could be to have you hand pick certain countries that are able to enforce taxes and see what they do with their power and their excess cash. > It just seemed that the money revolved around the success and failure of countries so that is why I came up with the ideas that I did. > mwesch wrote: > > Hi class, > > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
In last fall's simulation, if you had the most hard power, you pretty much did whatever you wanted to. This meant that the underdog could never really win, thus they would always be colonized. Is there any way to change that? If our wars/battles come to a display of hard power, will this be the same as it was last fall and in previous simulations? I'm not saying that I want the underdog to have nuclear weapons stashed away or anything, but in our real world, it seems as though something to that effect could be possible. Any input?
bmk9777 wrote: > First and foremost, I am not sure that I am doing this right, so I guess we'll find out shortly. At any rate.... > > I entirely agree with Cory about the natural disasters and diseases. Hunger is obviously a world issue as well. It sounds as though I might be focusing primarily on negative ideas, but these are definitely things we should consider because there is no denying that natural disasters, diseases, and hunger have all had their effects on different countries and with different levels of severity, too. We are dealing with several different countries in the World Simulation, and to make it as realistic as possible, I think it is important to bring in all details as possible. > > > coryclem84 wrote: > > I would have to agree with Lynndee and epeel on the use of natural disasters being a factor for production. I was thinking that we could incorporate it into the game by you having cards between rounds. A colony would then be able to choose between 2 cards and one being a natural disaster or something negative and the other card being something positive to the colony. > > Another idea could be the possibility of unleashing diseases and famine upon colonies or the whole world. With the amount of agriculture and larbor workers causing the decline of wages to occur I am sure that lower class citizens become poor and thus suffered health wise. Due to the lack of money flowing into families I am sure that diseases slowly took over areas and killed off workers and others that contributed to society. Thus the succession of a country would decline or even die off. > > It looks like the agriculture aspect of colonies and the greed of power and money slowly took over the world in the readings. The more money regions obtained the more "things" they wanted. From the readings I read; I realized alot of countries grew crops (cash crops) that they could prosper off of and it seems they only grew one crop at a time in some countries. But the country was able to grow so much more. WIth that being said, I think with the crops we are able to produce; you could possibly give us the option to rebel and grow more crops that suit our culture and this could possibly give new ways of strategy to different colonies. > > I also agree with cheitman on the implementation of taxes for countries. Taxes at this time were becoming a very good way to gain revenue for themselves. The Middle East and Europe used taxes and they grew very wealthy and powerful. I think maybe a new concept could be to have you hand pick certain countries that are able to enforce taxes and see what they do with their power and their excess cash. > > It just seemed that the money revolved around the success and failure of countries so that is why I came up with the ideas that I did. > > mwesch wrote: > > > Hi class, > > > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Rules of war: When I was a part of the World Sim (fall 06) the battles only lasted one round. The aggressor threw all they had at the defender and the conflict was over one way or another. I think a best two out of three approach could be a little better. The warring parties take all of the hard power that they intend to use and split it into three piles (battles). They proceed to fight the first battle. The victor from the first battle does not get to add that hard power to their pile yet. They move to the second, and then the third. This would force both sides to fight a little bit more strategically. A defender could use a very small amount of hard power in the first battle leaving quite a bit for rounds two and three. If the attacker uses too much of their power initially, the defender could actually win the war with less hard power. In the end the team that won two of the three battles would take the hard power from all three rounds. This would give the defender a slight advantage and make the aggressor be a little bit more cautious about how they approach colonization. Retreat would be an option for the attacker after each round. Also, I know time is of the essence, but it would be nice to be able to extend the game by a couple of minutes for each round. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Just to add on to what jkHelden is saying about the battles. I also think that the wherever the battle is being taken place whoevers home it is should get a break on the hard power because they know there land better then anyone and would be able to put up a better fight without needing as much hard power to win the battle. Just as the Americans were able to do against the British. So I'm trying to say maybe we should find a way to have some sort of ratio of hardpower instead of just straight up having more than the defender. This could also be reflected in multiple battles.
Going off of the religion idea...I wonder what would happen if we gave each group a chance to create their own religious beliefs and made those belief systems rule the game. Like was said, it was against the Chinese beliefs to colonize like the European countries. Would we be as willing to stick to our religous beliefs we have in the game if it meant that wealth and power was not what controlled our actions?
bmoran wrote: > I think that the rules should include multinational corporations. MNC's have been important to the world in good and bad ways. On the good side, they help to create employment opportunities in the poor countries, they import capital to the third world, introduce new technology and manufacturing techniques to developing nations, etc. But, despite their contributions, MNC's have created negative conditions in the world by promoting greater dependence of 3rd world countries on the wealthier 1st world nations, they oftentimes exploit the workers who reside in poor areas, we hear of local, small-town businesses being so overwhelmed by the MNC's that they end up losing those businesses, etc. I just think that, in order to establish a more realistic world simulation, we will need to add multinational corporations to the mix. > > I also wanted to add to anscott's incorporation of religion...One idea for rewriting the rules would involve simulating the expansion and influence of religion (and other beliefs) on people. As was said in class on Friday: One of the possible reasons that it was Europe that decided to colonize instead of China was due to the Chinese peoples' beliefs. Notably, Buddhism and Confucianism were the predominate forms of belief. Also, as was said in class, the main beliefs that the Chinese had were that China was the place in the world that was closest to heaven...Therefore, there was no need or drive to colonize other areas of the world. > > mwesch wrote: > > Hi class, > > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
So how can we incorporate our technology into making the simulation more successful? I was really interested when Prof Wesch mentioned the real world. I think it would be really awesome to do the simulation in public. If you think about it, the sim would be so much more life like if you are surrounded by people who aren't knowling playing the sim. It makes it real because there are so many people who are just living their lives and not thinking about the bigger picture. This is just an example: Lets say that our colonies are each assigned a location in Manhattan. Our first task is to make it to a computer or specified location using only the technology that our colonies have created so far. For instance, if your colony can only travel by canoes, then they must bike everywhere, but if they have ships, then they can drive, etc. So then the rate at which you make it to these different locations, that is how you gain power and goods, etc. I may need to explain my thoughts in class...
I think it would be a good idea if we incorporated religion, poverty, natural diasters, and other things that our word has. I think the idea of natural disasters was a great idea. We cant help natural disaters and instead a country having all the power and killing all the people, these natural disasters could be a way to. I think it would also be interesting if some regions had some good resourses that could save them from natural disaters. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Two of the ideas that I've seen come up often that I really like are 1) simulating internal strife, such as civil wars and ethnic division and 2) adding in some kind of simulated slave trade. I think that you can see how much of a huge impact slavery can have on a country if you look at structural racism in America.
One other idea I had had to do with communication. If we incorporated cell phones into the game to communicate, we could maybe add them in post-industrial revolution, but only for the colonizers. And then each round, the colonizers would get the newest update in communication, and the colonized would get the one that the colonizers had the round before. Because in the U.S., we have an average of 3 t.v.'s per household, and almost every household has a computer, but in some of the poorest parts of the world, they don't even have telephone lines. Countries need to be notified when their technology updates, and need to know how this affects their abilities. For example, if a country that could previously only journey to the neighboring country receives technology from their colonizers that enables them to travel longer distances, then they need to know how far they can travel, so that near the end, when we start to try and find solutions, everyone can be involved. Knowing your technological capabilities can affect the way you offer to help change the world. I also think the game could be improved if we added the ideas of semi-periphery and external countries to the game. I know that if my country had used our hard power in a smarter way, we could probably have resisted colonization past the point where the colonizers cared. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I think it would be great to add more natural disasters, along with trying to bring out the slave trade, I think we could make the slave trade more part of the game. Also I think it would be great to have more military action in the game, also trying to use certain country's military tactics. mwesch wrote: > Hi class, > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
started by Mike Wesch on 18 May 07
Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
One example of how religion has played into the globalization of our world is in Ecuador(and elsewhere) where missionaries (working with the monetary aid of oil companies) witnessed to and pacified the Huaorani indians who had previouslly resisted the encroachment of oil companies. After they were pacified the oil companies could then begin drilling in the area without fear of the Indians, and now the land has been destroyed and the Huaorani culture has been completely chaned. And so in this case the spread of Christianity facilitated the work of the oil companies.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
An idea that I had and this could be not good at all but I thought about how we could add some sort of authority figure to each country. In today's world most if not all countries have some sort of power and control run by a specific person. If it be a President, King, Emperor, or whatever this person as well as those close/ under him/her have the authority and control to decide such laws or how the country should work. If we added/elected a person to "preside over an organized body of persons" then we can see first hand the difficulties and struggles of ruling a country and what goes into it... what laws or rules are in effect, how to change laws, or even dictates large decidsions about this when, where, and how to conquer.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I also wanted to add to anscott's incorporation of religion...One idea for rewriting the rules would involve simulating the expansion and influence of religion (and other beliefs) on people. As was said in class on Friday: One of the possible reasons that it was Europe that decided to colonize instead of China was due to the Chinese peoples' beliefs. Notably, Buddhism and Confucianism were the predominate forms of belief. Also, as was said in class, the main beliefs that the Chinese had were that China was the place in the world that was closest to heaven...Therefore, there was no need or drive to colonize other areas of the world.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Then eventually with time, I think that certain colonizers should receive a peice of paper in their envelope that says that they decided to abolish slavery/slave trading. It would be interesting to see how this would affect the dynamics of the country. (economically, socially, and politically)
naytanda wrote:
> i think we should impliment the idea of having a slave trade as well to make the world simulation more realistic. We could even go as far as some one migrating to other colonies so they can get a job, though it may not pay much that person will have a means to survive. Maybe the youngest person in the group can be the one who migrates, this will prevent the entire colony from being killed or dying off, we will have at least one survivor.
>
> mwesch wrote:
> > Hi class,
> > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Another idea could be the possibility of unleashing diseases and famine upon colonies or the whole world. With the amount of agriculture and larbor workers causing the decline of wages to occur I am sure that lower class citizens become poor and thus suffered health wise. Due to the lack of money flowing into families I am sure that diseases slowly took over areas and killed off workers and others that contributed to society. Thus the succession of a country would decline or even die off.
It looks like the agriculture aspect of colonies and the greed of power and money slowly took over the world in the readings. The more money regions obtained the more "things" they wanted. From the readings I read; I realized alot of countries grew crops (cash crops) that they could prosper off of and it seems they only grew one crop at a time in some countries. But the country was able to grow so much more. WIth that being said, I think with the crops we are able to produce; you could possibly give us the option to rebel and grow more crops that suit our culture and this could possibly give new ways of strategy to different colonies.
I also agree with cheitman on the implementation of taxes for countries. Taxes at this time were becoming a very good way to gain revenue for themselves. The Middle East and Europe used taxes and they grew very wealthy and powerful. I think maybe a new concept could be to have you hand pick certain countries that are able to enforce taxes and see what they do with their power and their excess cash.
It just seemed that the money revolved around the success and failure of countries so that is why I came up with the ideas that I did.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Someone mentioned having an authority figure, but what if that authority figure were to be a peaceful one, like Gandhi? I am merely throwing this out there in hopes that there is a possibility to resolve conflicts in the World Sim without warfare, although this seems to go against what has actually happened in our world thus far.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I also think that a great thing to incorporate into the simulation would be agriculture, like coryclem84 said. Like the reading said, agriculture is so very important to a region in terms of food and also economy. A country with a strong crop and strong turnouts each year could potentially be very successful. But, it could also drain them of their money because other wealthier countries could take over them and buy the crops for not enough money, and take advantage of them. This is a real problem that occurs today in society and has occured for centuries. It is not fair, but if we are truly trying to recreate an accurate world simulation, I believe this would be important.
And lastly, I believe that we should try to work to make the different governments of each nation more prominent in the simulation. Government is a very big part of each nation and has a huge impact on everyone's lives. The government, depending on where you are, determines how you can trace, how you can act as a citizen, and what you can do. I think incorporating this would be beneficial.
Overall, after reading over everyone's ideas it was great to see what everyone had to write. I love this collective knowledge database. It really helps to spark my ideas after reading what others have written down, so thanks to those who wrote on the forum before me! It allowed me to really think through and visualize all of my ideas!!!
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Something I was thinking about to maybe try out was making conflicts within the countries themselves, I think if we were to simulate such things as the civil war, government issues in iraq, or terrorism it might help us see the worldwide issues that spawn from such issues. Just a thought maybe someone else could elaborate some more ideas on it.
~Kyle
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Wolf's break-down of different types of power and Lynndee's idea of natural disasters got me thinking of the post-effects of war disasters. Specifically Nuclear War. I've been to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and am familiar with the drastic effects of this technology.
So, what if the "Hard Power" had some break downs on types of power. And then certain kinds of Hard Power have prolonged effects. For example, if you use "Nuclear Hard Power" of "Chemical Hard Power", then you have high numbers on the cards, plus you have the effects of diseases (coryclem84's idea).
CIVIL STRIFE:
What if some countries had certain levels of Civil Strife. So, they would be unstable coutries where the goals fo the coutry could drastically change (threat from within). This could be regulated with rolling dice at certain times (ie- before every decision, every 5 minutes, etc.). So, take like 3 dice with an outcome of 18 total, and then your country had a 35% possibility of being overrun by a coup; so if you roll 13 or more, your country is now reformed under new rules.
Along with cheitman's mention of slaves, maybe your possibility of civil unrest increases when you take on slaves (or controversial methods); so it becomes closer to 50/50.
Also,
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
mud212 wrote:
> While in the World Sim (Fall 2006), the main objective seemed to be decolonization. After that, we seemed to reach Marx's "end of history." Obviously, this was not the case in reality. In order to make the World Sim more realistic (and applicable to today's post-colonial problems), I suggest adding rules to allow colonizers to import and export people as well as goods. This would allow for the creation of multi-national states after decolonization, and even create the possibility of internal conflict (by far the most common form of conflict in the world today). Further, adding rules to allow for independence movements will realistically simulate the challenges of post-colonial governance. So far, the World Sim has been a system-level simulation. By expanding its scope to include regional-level situations, it will better simulate current global conditions.
> mwesch wrote:
> > Hi class,
> > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
maybe in video reality terms we should allow the person to deal with struggles inside a region/nation of their choice (let them be a ruler) and then they would be interlinked with peoples representing the other nations or using the computer to simulate problems they would encounter with the other nations.
Other options they could choose would to be a world leader and as time progresses they have to attempt to better solve the world's problems at the time, taking into account cause and effect all over.
They could also choose to create their own nation and world,not a representation of our world today, with or without being linked to other people, and they would encounter common problems but not linked to any particular time space or region. etc... etc..... I have lots of those ideas...
I also agree with Sara that a United Nations type assembly is needed (for class).
Slave/able body person trade would add a unique spin and along with that adding in a civil war within a country(s) would be fun as well.
And of course as many others have stated already the environment plays a major factor (maybe the player could choose the epoch in which they will play in)
Building: we could have economy enhanced by travel in certain countries, so other countries can use their resources and trading to build "monumental" sites.
The video game should be kind of like our website building it will become "easier" more fun and challenging as you progress and feel out the game. (should be able to pretty much self teach or the game will prompt you throughout with you options and choices.)
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
Also, just wanted to add, that we could also have a "moral factor" to measure scrupulousness. So, whenever a country decided to make certain decisions that are controversial (like war, genocide, etc.), they have to pass their moral factor rating to do it. So, like a boyscout might be 22/24 (so would have to roll the dice to get 22-24 in order to kill someone), versus Hitler who would be more like 2/24. This would prevent peopel from committing genocide on a whim. Maybe they could re-roll after a period of time?
About the natural disasters, I think that that is such a huge part of our world now that it would be almost silly not to include that into our simulation. Since global warming is a hot topic today and is truly happening, incorporating natural disasters into the world simulation would really bring what is happening NOW in our world to life in the simulation. Those natural disasters could happen at any time and would affect the nation and that nation would have to get back on their feet...this ties in culture, government, religion, etc. It would really show how each nation deals with disasters.
Great ideas!
tfritz wrote:
> As people have mentioned before i think having a type of slave trade or use of indentured servants. That way people of lesser nattions have a chance to migrate to a nation which is rich. I also like the idea to have some natural disasters or viruses that can affect a nation. It would add excitement to the game if nations had to worry about natural disasters.
> mwesch wrote:
> > Hi class,
> > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
seiji306 wrote:
> MORAL FACTOR:
> Also, just wanted to add, that we could also have a "moral factor" to measure scrupulousness. So, whenever a country decided to make certain decisions that are controversial (like war, genocide, etc.), they have to pass their moral factor rating to do it. So, like a boyscout might be 22/24 (so would have to roll the dice to get 22-24 in order to kill someone), versus Hitler who would be more like 2/24. This would prevent peopel from committing genocide on a whim. Maybe they could re-roll after a period of time?
So I definitely agree that the WorldSim should be longer. Not terribly so, but enough longer so that interactions can develop a little more complexity. I think one of the major problems with the "game" is that people act in ways that they would not act in real life because it is "only a game". That said, I think the video game idea would be really interesting to explore: it would allow the simulation to be longer and more complex. However, I feel the face-to-face personal interactions are an important component of the simulation.
I also agree that some sort of slavery system should be included, as well as natural disasters, religion and its affect on internal and external strife (the Crusades, many nations that have conflict because there is not one dominant religion), mult-national corporations (Coca-Colonization is becoming increasingly prevalent), different types of hard power, and disease/famine. The disease/famine aspect could play out as a card that reads "Your country just experienced a flu epidemic. 50% are dead. Next round." However, in today's global age, it seems important to look at the affects of different types of pandemics: such as the AIDs situation, bird flu/SARS, and more regional afflictions such as malaria.
I also like the idea of some sort of moral factor governing individual decisions. And, there almost certainly has to be some sort of multi-national governing body, such as the UN, WTO, NAFTA, EU...
Finally, what about tourism? Americans visit almost every country, and do "missionary" work of some sort in nearly every country, but how often does one see a Nicaraguan touring the Statue of Liberty or helping the homeless in Central Park?
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
I entirely agree with Cory about the natural disasters and diseases. Hunger is obviously a world issue as well. It sounds as though I might be focusing primarily on negative ideas, but these are definitely things we should consider because there is no denying that natural disasters, diseases, and hunger have all had their effects on different countries and with different levels of severity, too. We are dealing with several different countries in the World Simulation, and to make it as realistic as possible, I think it is important to bring in all details as possible.
coryclem84 wrote:
> I would have to agree with Lynndee and epeel on the use of natural disasters being a factor for production. I was thinking that we could incorporate it into the game by you having cards between rounds. A colony would then be able to choose between 2 cards and one being a natural disaster or something negative and the other card being something positive to the colony.
> Another idea could be the possibility of unleashing diseases and famine upon colonies or the whole world. With the amount of agriculture and larbor workers causing the decline of wages to occur I am sure that lower class citizens become poor and thus suffered health wise. Due to the lack of money flowing into families I am sure that diseases slowly took over areas and killed off workers and others that contributed to society. Thus the succession of a country would decline or even die off.
> It looks like the agriculture aspect of colonies and the greed of power and money slowly took over the world in the readings. The more money regions obtained the more "things" they wanted. From the readings I read; I realized alot of countries grew crops (cash crops) that they could prosper off of and it seems they only grew one crop at a time in some countries. But the country was able to grow so much more. WIth that being said, I think with the crops we are able to produce; you could possibly give us the option to rebel and grow more crops that suit our culture and this could possibly give new ways of strategy to different colonies.
> I also agree with cheitman on the implementation of taxes for countries. Taxes at this time were becoming a very good way to gain revenue for themselves. The Middle East and Europe used taxes and they grew very wealthy and powerful. I think maybe a new concept could be to have you hand pick certain countries that are able to enforce taxes and see what they do with their power and their excess cash.
> It just seemed that the money revolved around the success and failure of countries so that is why I came up with the ideas that I did.
> mwesch wrote:
> > Hi class,
> > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
In last fall's simulation, if you had the most hard power, you pretty much did whatever you wanted to. This meant that the underdog could never really win, thus they would always be colonized. Is there any way to change that? If our wars/battles come to a display of hard power, will this be the same as it was last fall and in previous simulations? I'm not saying that I want the underdog to have nuclear weapons stashed away or anything, but in our real world, it seems as though something to that effect could be possible. Any input?
bmk9777 wrote:
> First and foremost, I am not sure that I am doing this right, so I guess we'll find out shortly. At any rate....
>
> I entirely agree with Cory about the natural disasters and diseases. Hunger is obviously a world issue as well. It sounds as though I might be focusing primarily on negative ideas, but these are definitely things we should consider because there is no denying that natural disasters, diseases, and hunger have all had their effects on different countries and with different levels of severity, too. We are dealing with several different countries in the World Simulation, and to make it as realistic as possible, I think it is important to bring in all details as possible.
>
>
> coryclem84 wrote:
> > I would have to agree with Lynndee and epeel on the use of natural disasters being a factor for production. I was thinking that we could incorporate it into the game by you having cards between rounds. A colony would then be able to choose between 2 cards and one being a natural disaster or something negative and the other card being something positive to the colony.
> > Another idea could be the possibility of unleashing diseases and famine upon colonies or the whole world. With the amount of agriculture and larbor workers causing the decline of wages to occur I am sure that lower class citizens become poor and thus suffered health wise. Due to the lack of money flowing into families I am sure that diseases slowly took over areas and killed off workers and others that contributed to society. Thus the succession of a country would decline or even die off.
> > It looks like the agriculture aspect of colonies and the greed of power and money slowly took over the world in the readings. The more money regions obtained the more "things" they wanted. From the readings I read; I realized alot of countries grew crops (cash crops) that they could prosper off of and it seems they only grew one crop at a time in some countries. But the country was able to grow so much more. WIth that being said, I think with the crops we are able to produce; you could possibly give us the option to rebel and grow more crops that suit our culture and this could possibly give new ways of strategy to different colonies.
> > I also agree with cheitman on the implementation of taxes for countries. Taxes at this time were becoming a very good way to gain revenue for themselves. The Middle East and Europe used taxes and they grew very wealthy and powerful. I think maybe a new concept could be to have you hand pick certain countries that are able to enforce taxes and see what they do with their power and their excess cash.
> > It just seemed that the money revolved around the success and failure of countries so that is why I came up with the ideas that I did.
> > mwesch wrote:
> > > Hi class,
> > > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
When I was a part of the World Sim (fall 06) the battles only lasted one round. The aggressor threw all they had at the defender and the conflict was over one way or another. I think a best two out of three approach could be a little better. The warring parties take all of the hard power that they intend to use and split it into three piles (battles). They proceed to fight the first battle. The victor from the first battle does not get to add that hard power to their pile yet. They move to the second, and then the third. This would force both sides to fight a little bit more strategically. A defender could use a very small amount of hard power in the first battle leaving quite a bit for rounds two and three. If the attacker uses too much of their power initially, the defender could actually win the war with less hard power. In the end the team that won two of the three battles would take the hard power from all three rounds. This would give the defender a slight advantage and make the aggressor be a little bit more cautious about how they approach colonization. Retreat would be an option for the attacker after each round.
Also, I know time is of the essence, but it would be nice to be able to extend the game by a couple of minutes for each round.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
bmoran wrote:
> I think that the rules should include multinational corporations. MNC's have been important to the world in good and bad ways. On the good side, they help to create employment opportunities in the poor countries, they import capital to the third world, introduce new technology and manufacturing techniques to developing nations, etc. But, despite their contributions, MNC's have created negative conditions in the world by promoting greater dependence of 3rd world countries on the wealthier 1st world nations, they oftentimes exploit the workers who reside in poor areas, we hear of local, small-town businesses being so overwhelmed by the MNC's that they end up losing those businesses, etc. I just think that, in order to establish a more realistic world simulation, we will need to add multinational corporations to the mix.
>
> I also wanted to add to anscott's incorporation of religion...One idea for rewriting the rules would involve simulating the expansion and influence of religion (and other beliefs) on people. As was said in class on Friday: One of the possible reasons that it was Europe that decided to colonize instead of China was due to the Chinese peoples' beliefs. Notably, Buddhism and Confucianism were the predominate forms of belief. Also, as was said in class, the main beliefs that the Chinese had were that China was the place in the world that was closest to heaven...Therefore, there was no need or drive to colonize other areas of the world.
>
> mwesch wrote:
> > Hi class,
> > Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
This is just an example: Lets say that our colonies are each assigned a location in Manhattan. Our first task is to make it to a computer or specified location using only the technology that our colonies have created so far. For instance, if your colony can only travel by canoes, then they must bike everywhere, but if they have ships, then they can drive, etc. So then the rate at which you make it to these different locations, that is how you gain power and goods, etc.
I may need to explain my thoughts in class...
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
One other idea I had had to do with communication. If we incorporated cell phones into the game to communicate, we could maybe add them in post-industrial revolution, but only for the colonizers. And then each round, the colonizers would get the newest update in communication, and the colonized would get the one that the colonizers had the round before. Because in the U.S., we have an average of 3 t.v.'s per household, and almost every household has a computer, but in some of the poorest parts of the world, they don't even have telephone lines.
Countries need to be notified when their technology updates, and need to know how this affects their abilities. For example, if a country that could previously only journey to the neighboring country receives technology from their colonizers that enables them to travel longer distances, then they need to know how far they can travel, so that near the end, when we start to try and find solutions, everyone can be involved. Knowing your technological capabilities can affect the way you offer to help change the world.
I also think the game could be improved if we added the ideas of semi-periphery and external countries to the game. I know that if my country had used our hard power in a smarter way, we could probably have resisted colonization past the point where the colonizers cared.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.
mwesch wrote:
> Hi class,
> Post your world simulation ideas here. Read Wallerstein, Lappe & Collins, and the first 2 pages of Wolf. Using the ideas you gather there, re-write the rules and post them here.