WWO invited people from all walks of life to contribute “collective imagination” to confront a real-world issue: the risk our unbridled thirst for oil poses to our economy, climate and quality of life. It’s a milestone in the quest to use games as democratic, collaborative platforms for exploring possible futures and sparking future-changing action… WORLD WITHOUT OIL simulated the first 32 weeks of a global oil crisis. It established a citizen “nerve center” to track events and share solutions. Anybody could play by creating a personal story – an email or phone call, or for advanced users a blog post, video, photo, podcast, twitter, whatever – that chronicled the imagined reality of their life in the crisis.…

When WWO concluded on June 1, 2007, its detailed vision of a possible future, expressed in 1,500 personal chronicles posted across the Web, had immersed 68,000 viewers (over 110,000 by year end)

No one today has a clear picture of oil availability or what will happen when demand inevitably outstrips supply. That will largely depend on how well people prepare, cooperate, and collectively create solutions, and before WWO, no one had ever thought to ask them what they might do.

By playing it out ‘for real’, WWO evoked collective intelligence and the wisdom of crowds in advance. Players worked together to gain grassroots insights into the forces that will rule at street level in a crisis. Their solutions – acts that mold communities, slash wasteful consumption and create more “elastic” lives – stand as vibrant antidotes to official paralysis.

WWO didn’t only “raise awareness” about oil dependence. By creating a simple nonpartisan framework that focused thousands of people from all walks of life upon this common issue, WWO sparked peer learning and inquiry-based exploration of the roots, outcomes, and prevention of an oil crisis. By “rousing our democratic imagination,” WWO fostered deep engagement and changed people’s lives. Via a game, players made themselves better citizens.

The team developed lessons to go along with the story, on topics made vivid and relevant in the game plot, like Oil Dependency Among Nations and Food Without Oil.

Find The Future at NYPL brings visitors to the Library together with players around the world to tap into the creative power of the Library’s collections.

It is the first game in the world in which winning the game means writing a book together — a collection of 100 ways to make history and change the future, inspired by 100 of the most intriguing works of the past.

Starting May 21, 2011, visitors to the Stephen A. Schwarzman branch of the NYPL can play the game with their personal smartphones or on Library computers. Global players will join the game with any computer that has access to the Internet. The game is free to play.

The game is designed to empower players to find inspiration for their own extraordinary futures by bringing them face-to-face with the writings and personal objects of people who made an extraordinary difference in the past.

The game starts with a special, invitation-only event on May 20, 2011. As part of the Centennial celebration weekend, hundreds of gamers will earn the chance to join a special once-in-a-lifetime event: an “overnight lock-in” at NYPL’s Stephen A. Schwarzman building. This “write all night” lock in will serve as the official kick-off for the Find The Future game.