Future Oil Wars Made Fun

Oil Wars Overtake the World in Video Game That Jumps Off Current Concerns

…To devise the game’s geopolitical context, he said, developers “read everything we could get our hands on.”

That included the books “The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies,” by Richard Heinberg, and “Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict,” by Michael Klare.


Heinberg, a senior fellow at the California-based Post Carbon Institute, was surprised but pleased to learn that his book helped to inspire a video game.

“I think anything that helps people understand the situation that we’re facing is, in general, good,” he said. “My hope would be that people who play the game then take the time and trouble to actually research some of these issues and look both into the science of oil depletion and the implications for our economy and our future.”

Klare, a professor at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, called the prospect of a world war over oil “very plausible” and said he saw potential for the game to raise awareness of the issue among young people.

“If you want to have an impact on young people on important issues, it’s important to reach them outside the classroom as well as inside the classroom,” he said, “Therefore entertainment has to be part of the mix.”

Klare is hoping another form of entertainment will turn more people on to his research: movies. His book Blood & Oil is being made into a documentary.

“I know the power of visual imagery,” he said.

Still, both Klare and Heinberg conceded that once Frontlines comes out, they probably won’t be rushing to the nearest Xbox.

“I’m too busy reading the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times,” Klare huffed.

ABC News