Fix 11-12

Sustainable Engagement Economy

While this week was about a larger scale of sustainable engagement economy (crowdsourcing), in what ways do the following Settlers elements sustain this smaller scale of sustainable engagement economy within the game?

1. Good game world: Settlers has a good game world by continuously having to build your environment or land, while continuing to keep the production of the others building going, and defeat enemies to gain more land. 
2. Good game mechanics: Settlers had good game mechanics because each player has defines guidelines and results for actions taken or not taken.  It also tells which enemies to defeat but it doesn’t tell you the best ones to start with. 
3. Good game community: Settlers has a good game community by having guilds and helpful people to assist players with needs and questions. By being part of guild, it makes you do tasks to help out other members and others members help you. 

McGonigal says "also crucial to good community is the sense of meaning created by belonging and contributing to such an epic project.(p. 230)

More Epic Wins

1. Has this game made you curious about what more you can do? If so, in what way?  The game settlers have made me wonder what else I could possibly have to do on my settlement.  I feel that I just get where I have everything under control and then they throw more tasks my way to complete.  It also keeps me on my toes as well as being patient to getting things done.
2. How does this game harness the social participation of the masses?  The game has you participating socially with either your guild or help chat to get the tools or supplies you need in order to build the things you need.  It also draws you in to want to have conversations with the players on the game as you are waiting to complete your tasks or fighting and army. 

"Epic wins abound in gamers circles for two reasons. First, in the face of ridiculous challenges, long odds, or great uncertainty, gamers cultivates extreme optimism.  They have perfect confidence that even if success isn't probable, its at least possible.  So gamers' effort to achieve an epic win never feel pointless or hopeless.  second, gamers aren't afraid to fail.  failing in a good game is at the very least fun and interesting; it can also be instructive and even empowering. (McGonigal, 2011)(p. 248-9)

Crowdsourcing

Describe the crowdsourcing project you found and how it makes use of a sustainable engagement economy to achieve its goals.

The project I found on crowdsourcing was crowdfunding nutrition: using kickstarter to make kids healthier.  The project was put together by a person that wanted to change the way children eat and teach them about food.  She would come in on her days off to teach children about food and how to cook the food.  She wanted to raise money to fund a “food lab” in the school kitchen.  She would do her best to teach the children things with very little resources. She kick started the Kickstarter page to ask others for donations to get the program the supplied and equipment they need for the program in the school.  She realized that getting the word out with friends and family, it wasn’t enough so she turned to trying to get bigger sponsors or donations from larger companies.  She was only able to get one eighth of the funding she needed but she continues to look for further funding for the project and educated children on healthy food. 

It’s not easy to raise money for schools.  Many people have a hard time donating much money to school especially when they feel they already pay taxes towards their community schools.  Engaging the economy on building new ideas and programs n the school with help get the funding needed to support the ideas or programs.  It takes more than just a few people to make things happen.  Usually, it is beneficial to get the word out to larger corporations or businesses help with the funding.  Even though the lady that wanted to start this program didn’t get her full amount needed for the program, she still continues it just on a smaller scale and continues to look for other options to fund the programs. 

McGonigal(2011) states: Not all crowdsourcing projects are successful. working together on extreme scales is easier said than done.  you cant crowdsource without a crowd and it turns out that actively engaged crowds can be hard to come by. (p. 224)