The Buckminster Fuller Institute and the Cal-(IT)2 Game Culture & Technology Lab at UC Irvine are working on “The Spaceship Earth Game “a multi-player game whose goal is to save the world. To fulfill their missions, the players will have to deploy large numbers of people on multiple devices, via e-mail, blogs, Internet and SmartMob tactics.

The game is a sequel to the World Game, a board game of world resource distribution.

The new concept aims at creating a new type of online activisim: it will start by “edutaining” (helping people to visualize the interdependencies and limits of world resources), then build on the learning experience to lead to action.

Besides, the development of social networking and peer-pressure systems used so successfully in online games should help support a growing community of individuals who want to make a difference in the future of the planet, but recognize that a bottom up approach is the only way to accomplish something.