Thread by @avantgame

In 2010, I designed a game for the World Bank set in the year 2020, in which the world faced a respiratory pandemic started in China, a massive disinformation and conspiracy theory campaign on social media by a group called Citizen X, and historic wildfires on US West Coast. 1/#

Players were asked how they would adapt to these challenges, what kinds of help they personally would need, and how they would try to help others. More than 20,000 players spent 10 weeks *in 2010* imagining these year 2020 scenarios together. 2/#

In early 2020 I wondered if I should share some of our findings about what surprising problems might unfold, what "irrational" actions people might take, what kinds of mutual aid and support might be most needed. But someone I respect said "Don't do it. That was just a game." 3/#

I didn't push it. But as the real pandemic and Q Anon and historic wildfires unfolded in the real year 2020, a huge range of our research bore out. People did what players said they would do. They needed what players said they would need. 4/#

But now we know that these kinds of "social simulation" games that help people imagine otherwise unimaginable future challenges do work. They help. Players also checked back in and said they felt less anxious, less stuck, more ready to adapt and help others. 5/#

This was the experience that inspired me to write my new book IMAGINABLE. I consider it the third and final book in a trilogy I didn't realize I was writing, my "Games for Change" trilogy. Games to change the world, games to change ourselves, games to change the future. 6/#

If my first book Reality is Broken or the SuperBetter game and book helped you or inspired you at some point in the past decade, I hope you'll join me on this final important stage of the journey to understand and honor the incredible power of games and gamers. #IMAGINABLE 7/#

A pre-order is the best way to support your favorite authors. Let's finish this together <3 amazon.com/Imaginable-Fut…

(Here are 2 images from that 2010 game, where we were looking at the need for an "infodemiology" response to misinformation about a hypothetical year 2020 pandemic, arguments about airborne spread, and how misinformation would make it harder for health workers to do their job.)