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Multiplayer Online Earthquake Game Trains Californians for Disaster

by Tim Stevens on November 14, 2008 at 01:32 PM


What would happen if a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Southern California? We certainly can't think of anything good, and our thoughts are echoed by the findings of a 300-page study from the U.S. Geological Survey, which detailed the likely resulting damage should such a disaster hit along the San Andreas Fault. That inspired the Institute for the Future and the Art Center College of Design to create 'Aftershock', a sort of massively multiplayer game in which everyone logs onto the site to simulate the social fallout.

The idea, in a nutshell, is for people to sign in and post their experiences during and after the imagined quake, which "hit" yesterday. Some are playing along, like this posting which tells the imagined tale of the results during a college class. Other posts, though, range from the offensive to the humorously confused, but it's all part of the peoples' reaction. Anyone can "play," even if you're nowhere near SoCal -- so we'd only ask that you play nice. [From: Boing Boing]

Tags: aftershock, art center college of design, ArtCenterCollegeOfDesign, disaster tech, disasters, DisasterTech, earthquake, institute for the future, InstituteForTheFuture, massively multiplayer, MassivelyMultiplayer, mmog, socal, southern california, SouthernCalifornia

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