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Best Social Media Crowdsourcing Game

Award Won!

Best Student-Developed Game (Available 2008-present)

SIGNAL - Strategic Interaction Game between Nuclear Armed Lands

SIGNAL – Strategic Interaction Game between Nuclear Armed Lands

Organization:

Project on Nuclear Gaming

Dev Category:

Release Year:

SIGNAL is a 3-player experimental wargame, a wargame built for the purpose of investigating a research question, in which 3 countries,some armed with nuclear weapons, attempt to achieve national goals through diplomacy and conflict. The game consists of 5 rounds with each round having 3 phases:

  • The Diplomatic/Signaling Phase: players signal their intentions by placing signaling tokens on the game map, staging capabilities, making trades, and engaging in diplomacy with one another.
  • The Resolution Phase: the players execute actions prepared during the Diplomatic/Signaling phase.
  • The Upkeep Phase: each player reconciles with the result of the Resolution Phase.

During the game, the players compete with one another to achieve 3 national goals: maximize resources available to your country, maximize the amount of infrastructure built in your country, and ensure the territorial integrity of your country. After the 5 rounds, the players are ranked based on how well they achieved the 3 goals.

Game Overview

Through engaging in diplomacy and conflict within the game, players are introduced to key concepts in modern international diplomacy and conflict such as deterrence, conflict escalation, and signaling. The kind of strategic thinking necessary to be successful in SIGNAL is the same kind of strategic thinking that security practitioners in US government consider when forming military doctrine, engaging in international diplomacy, and building strategic alliances. The game is accessible in such a way that both security experts and those unfamiliar with international politics can learn about these concepts.

The goal of the game is to maximize resources available to your country, maximize the amount of infrastructure built in your country, andensure the territorial integrity of your country through diplomacy and conflict. The player who maximizes these 3 criteria the best wins.

aged 18+

Detail

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Game Video

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