Exploring a simulated environment helps in developing important learning outcomes. Zhaofeng Huang shares what he learnt about Sustainability while playing Stranded as part of the Young Sustainability Champion programme
The Stranded game is a very good game. I first time played it and I have learnt a lot from it.
First time I played by myself, and second time I invited 3 friends to join the game ID I created. It is a total different landscape we've created when 4 of us working together.
Here are my key learnings:
1. Each of the players has 3 actions, so the more people we have, the more actions we have on the same island and we will more chances to build the village.
2. With the number of actions we had, we have to balance among getting food, education and getting resources and exploring. Each of these impact the end goal of happiness.
3. After we played a few times of the game, we found out that fishing gives us more food than harvesting crops.
4. Entertainment eg. swimming and going to the theatre also has direct impact on the happiness and we have to let people relax instead of keep on working.
5. Education is crucial in developing the village. It was painful to use many actions to complete studying but it will grant us more actions afterwards which let us better develop the village and increase the happiness.
All in all, I think that people and people skill are fundamental to developing the society. Furthermore, people, resources and entertainment are all linked together and our ultimate achievement is to make people happy to live in the society.
