[Sencha]

My idea for Peak Oil: the Videogame

In this game, you travel back in time to just before oil was first discovered. Your job is to prevent that discovery from ever happening. You can do whatever you want to accomplish this. (Freeform, like GTA)

The more successful you are at preventing the discovery of oil, the more difficult the game gets. More and more people will begin scouring the globe in search of the next best form of energy. Each attempt will be in the form of a new and ambitious project.

When the game starts, you'll be alone. But as the game progresses, you'll eventually have team members sent back to you to help you out. You can't really win. Eventually, oil will be discovered and you'll lose. You just have to see how far into the future you can prevent the discovery.

The sequel:
In the sequel to this game, oil has been discovered and its started to become the source of energy that the world depends on to survive. Your job will be to convince the politicians and big business to ration oil in such a way as to extend its use and supply as far as possible.

Again, this will be a freeform game. There's more than one way to be successful. You could use violence, wit or whatever else at your disposal. In this game, it is actually possible to win and restructure the way energy is used and conserved. But the game would get increasingly hard, because the politicians and corporations will do whatever they can to stop you.

[marek]

Great idea. I was thinking about a game myself. Although it might be difficult to have the computer gaming industry come up with such a game, there are no barriers in terms of playing it "verbally," e.g. as an RPG.

[Tyler_JC]

What is your budget for the game. If it's over, say, 80 million, I'd buy a nuclear bomb or two and blow up a few major cities every time civilization is getting complex enough to need oil.
Just kidding.
But that does sound like a good idea, go for it.

[TrueKaiser]

no offence but if your sucsessfull in the game you create a paradox. by stoping the use of oil to begin with you stop peak oil thus the need for you to go back in the first place to stop it.

[Falconoffury]

Some of the best post apocalyptic games I've seen are the "Fallout" series.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TrueKaiser', 'n')o offence but if your sucsessfull in the game you create a paradox. by stoping the use of oil to begin with you stop peak oil thus the need for you to go back in the first place to stop it.

[somethingtosay]

I used to play Warcraft - I found it funny when the peons stripped the land of all resources - they just stopped. The peons allowed me to build an overwelming force and win the episode. Magically a new episode would start and all the resources needed would reapear and I could continue on.

I always wondered if the average player reflected on the implications of the game (or games that are like it) and how they distort the truths of the modern world. Running out of resources in the modern world has very serious consequences, and societies cannot export excess population off to unexplored lands anymore to fix local resource depletion problems.

[skateari]

im afraid this game woulden't sell that good because theres no killing and glamor of violence. I dont really get how the sequal you are speeking of would work. How would you go about convincing people in a video game?

But heres an idea. The year: 2010. The point of the game will be a military style game of a Post-peak world. Securing food supplies, stopping riots, controlling the chaos and military style capuring of oil sources. Each level would be different, from the oil feilds of saudi arabia to securing oil pipeline centers in Russia. Controlling mobs and roits in the cities, or putting down protests, or even under cover operations of overthrowing a government. You could have it all. And I bet this game would seriously sell if it was made good enough

[Sencha]

The game would sell extremely well, as there would be killing and violence. "Convincing" people can be taken different ways and since the game would be freeform, anything goes. You can whack an oil producer, or bribe him out of it. Y'know, multiple options.

I said in the sequel that the corporations would do anything to stop you from trying to convince them not to invest in the industry, and you know how ethical corporations are...