Gameful Learning: Fishbanks Simulation Game

No preparation is required and no prior knowledge is assumed. The rules are explained at the start and the first round is played slowly as a walkthrough.

If you want to read something first, one short piece on common-pool resources is enough — see Learning Material. Come willing to negotiate out loud and to have your reasoning examined afterwards; the discussion is the substance of the session, not an add-on.

By the end of the session you will be able to:

• describe how a shared renewable resource can be depleted while every individual decision still looks reasonable
• explain why delayed and partial feedback makes overuse hard to detect in time
• distinguish between depleting a replenishing stock and damaging the habitat that produces it
• relate the dynamics you experienced to a real resource system you know

Background reading about the original:

• Fishbanks, the simulation this session is loosely based on. Originally developed by Dennis Meadows; a web version was developed by John Sterman at MIT Sloan. Commercial version at forio.com
• OpenFishbanks (openfishbanks.org) — an open-source asynchronous extension of the MIT version. I haven't checked its licence or how well maintained it is.

Resources on systems:

• Sustainability Institute, 2003, Commodity Systems Challenges [Download]
• Kim, D.H and Anderson, V., 1998, System Archetypes Basics: From Story to Structure [Download]

The session is completed by taking part in the structured debrief that follows play. The debrief covers:

• what each group's position looked like at the end, and against what goals
• the reveal: the actual stock and habitat trajectory across the whole game, shown against what you could see at the time
• when you first suspected something was wrong, what information you were using, and what you would have needed instead
• what agreements formed, and why they held or broke
• one resource system from your own context that behaves similarly

Participants should submit a short reflection (half a page, please include an image from the game!) on one decision they made and what they would now do differently.