6th Assignment

 The Harvest Game!

This week’s assignment reads as follows:

In the classroom, we played the game of harvest without allowing teams to communicate. The end result was that the resource system collapsed.

We now allow for communication among teams [this is the ONLY change in the set up!]. Think up a set of additional rules for the game that effectively ensures that teams collectively do not exceed the sustainable yield. Within the context of the game, teams may create new entities (a policing force, a common meeting, etc.); you CANNOT assume something like a government already exist; if you need it, the teams will have to create it by themselves

The Harvest Game:

Last class we played The Harvest Game, we divided the group into six groups, each group represents a fishing boat, every boat goes out once a year to fish and comes back with a certain bounty, the purpose is to get the most amount of fish.

The rules of the game are:

-Each round is one year. Each team decides how many fish they want to catch. Write down this number and put it in your boat

-Facilitator takes boats and gives fish randomly to teams until they are gone. Rest of teams receive nothing

-You get back your boat + harvest. Write down your profit

- The sea starts with the maximum number of fish: 50. Each year, the remaining fish are able to produce one new fish, with a maximum of 50.

Purposefully, the aim of the game was set as “getting the most amount of fish”, this goal can be open for interpretation, most of the groups decided that getting the “most amount of fish” meant an individual effort, that each team should focus on getting more fish than the others, and consequently doing it in the least amount of time, because as time went by, the least certainty of the number of fish in the sea, and the more risk of another team outdoing yo

However, another mentality could have risen while playing this game, I guess only until we had fished the sea empty did any of us realized that another approach to this game was actually possible “getting the highest amount of fish” meant, making our fish resources last for several rounds without “depleting” the fish, hence getting the most fish from the sea as a hole.

This way we ALL win, the fish is always plentiful, and we can go on for several rounds, getting the highest amount of fish possible.

This is easier said than done, maybe our group would stick to fishing only the “sustainable” amount of fish, if the game was played the second time… but this would make for a very boring game, and it’s actually not fair because we had already fished the sea empty, so in real life… there is no second chance.

How then could we possibly re structure this game so it can go ideally for ever (or at least several rounds) without exhausting the number of fish available?

We don’t know how many fish are in the sea at every round, but we do know that we start with 50 fish and that for every fish left after every round, you would get double the amount next year.

We know then that the only way that the game can last “forever” is if every round boats only fish half or less than half of the initial amount of fish and no more.

Boats are free to fish whatever they want, but maybe there is a way to deviate their attention from wanting to get the most fish they can every round and try to make them think on a long run strategy.

With this in mind, new rules are set:

We can divide the teams into two sectors, A and B, half of the teams will be in sector A and the other half on sector B.

Each sector has exactly half of the total initial amount of fish and boats can only go out to fish on their own sector.

Sector A will go out to fish first followed by Sector B.

Each team will still be going out to fish on their own, but the teams that empty their sector first will get automatically disqualified.

Teams can now communicate with the other teams in their sector (only the ones on their sector) to make sure they can go out for more rounds.

When one of the sectors is depleted, the teams on the competing sector get one more round, this time without communication. In this round they can take as many fish as they want, BUT if they too empty their sector in this final round, they are all eliminated and the team with the most fish in the previously disqualified sector wins, otherwise, the team with the most fish in the standing sector wins the game.

Admittedly this does not make for the most fun game ever played, but adds a factor that will (if not forever) ensure that the game goes on for more rounds than the original version.

Now each boat should think not only for itself but as a team with their sector, and should try to self organize in order to avoid being disqualified. At the same time, the final round after one sector is emptied will help make the game more interesting. Each team would now be thinking on individual victory, but at the same time has to be careful not to empty their own sector and forfeiting the game to the boat with most fish on the other sector.

These rules certainly do not translate to a real life scenario, but might teach us a lesson that can apply to real life. If each team only seeks individual glory, the game will not last more that a few rounds, however, when you are faced with the challenge of thinking as a team, and realize the harm of emptying the sea and how it impacts you… then you are bound to join forces.

The goal is still fishing and getting as much fish as possible, but the scope of our goal is set on a framework where people realize that emptying the sea comes to the detriment of all (much as in real life).

So hopefully, there is a chance to play the game with this set of rules and try to see what the outcome may be.