StarPower is an
educational game
Educational games are games explicitly designed with educational purposes, or which have incidental or secondary educational value. All types of games may be used in an educational environment, however educational games are games that are design ...
for 12 to 35 players, designed by R. Garry Shirts for Simulation Training Systems in 1969.
[
]
The game combines chance and skill at
trading
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exchan ...
to establish a
score. Players are assigned categories based upon their relative scores, with the highest scoring category being able to change the rules. The game is designed to illustrate the
behavior of human beings in a system that naturally stratifies them economically or politically.
Play
Players randomly draw lots of colored chips. These chips have different number value based on their color. Players are given the opportunity to trade these chips to increase their point total. Players are told to not share information
about their chips. While players
are told that the group assignment is based on "achievement"
or "merit", the initial
distribution dominates the resulting scores.
Each round, players draw random colored chips and trade them for
sets of points. At the end of each round players are assigned
one of three groups and given an associated badge based on their
score. The top scorers are red squares, the middle are blue
circles, and the low scorers are green triangles. Starting on
turn two (the first turn in which players are assigned to
groups), the red squares players draw from a bag with higher
scoring chips, while the green triangles draw from a bag with
lower scoring chips. As a result, movement between groups
becomes uncommon. Starting on the third round, the red
squares are free to change the rules however they
like.
[ (Date is date of first publication, not release to the web.)
][(Mukhopadhyay 2004)]
Key to the game's educational effectiveness is for those running the game to withhold details about the true nature and implementation.
["Much of the impact of the experience on players depends on the deliberate misinforming of participants as to the nature and outcomes of the game." ] That the red squares can change the rules is only revealed to players when the ability is added to the game.
Starpower is by design a very unbalanced game. Game designer
James Wallis has gone so far as to describe the game as "broken" "by all conventional standards of
game design
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
."
The unbalanced nature of the game reduces its
replayability. Shirts views StarPower as more of a
simulation
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...
than a game and as a result does not view replayability as an important goal.
Typical results
One commentator writing for the Sustainability Institute claimed that square players typically rigged the game to benefit squares, circles strove to become squares at which point they began to act like squares, and that triangles became angry and then apathetic, only becoming interested at the possibility of
cheating
Cheating generally describes various actions designed to subvert rules in order to obtain unfair advantages. This includes acts of bribery, cronyism and nepotism in any situation where individuals are given preference using inappropriate cr ...
or
revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
. At the end of the game, the squares seldom see the
oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment or exercise of power, often under the guise of governmental authority or cultural opprobrium. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. Oppression refers to discrimination w ...
they engaged in while the circles are viewed as sell-outs by the triangles and as incompetent by the squares.
Another commentator notes similar results. The squares create oppressive rules that make it difficult for lower groups to advance. Lower groups turn to cheating. The commentator also noted the lower groups becoming
apathetic
Apathy is a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern about something. It is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation, or passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interes ...
.
["As participants came to feel that there was essentially nothing that they could do that would lead to 'acceptable' levels of rewards, they increasingly tended to withdraw and/or act in hostile ways." (Feld 1997)]
The official site for the game lists eight lessons that StarPower teaches, mostly focused on the results of inequal distribution of power.
See also
*
BaFa' BaFa' - cross cultural competence game by R. Garry Shirts
References
References
* (Available online: )
*
External links
StarPower- official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Starpower (Game)
Board games introduced in 1969
Educational board games