Word: transania
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Dates: during 1968-1968
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...easy to fall into the trap of believing the myths we created for world TV. Once Transania claimed they had shot down a New Zenith plane, and had captured the pilot. Five minutes later they "discovered" that it was really one of their own planes they had hit by mistake, but by that time New Zenith had accepted the "truth" of their accusation, and was claiming that it had been a Hamil plane with New Zenith markings, flown by a New Zenith defector...
There is a strategy planning period in between each step of the game, and this is when the TV audience gets to take part. Questions are posed by the Transanian ministers, and the political elite is asked to phone in their decisions. Transania generally follows their advice, making them active participants in a real sense. And the television viewers get almost as involved as the players: the one time when their advice was disregarded, they phoned in and demanded impeachment of their ministers...
Gordon then explained how the historical perspective restricts the possible outcomes of the game: "The situation must be analyzed with respect to what kinds of actions the real countries involved were reasonably open to take. Transania stood for Russia, New Zenith for the U.S., Nordo for India, Inland for North Korea, Outland for South Korea, and Hamil was Red China. Even though there were six teams, each with four policy choices, there actually were only ten or twelve separate possible outcomes...
After the fourth game in the series, we had a general debriefing. Many of us felt that using the same four action choices throughout the month had been very restrictive. Transania was indignant that her proposal to divide Hamil between herself and New Zenith could not be considered because it was not one of their four policy choices. The proscribed actions limited creative thinking, and prevented original solutions to the situation...
Each of us players also had to be actors; we were told what our country's aims were, and that we should act in trying to implement them. Thus the economic minister of Transania was insistent on holding out for peace, in opposition to most of his team members. It became clear that you learn more from a simulation when you are playing a well-defined role than when you are simply reacting personally, because the team objectives are often lost in the personal reactions. By adopting a character and a country, the player virtually submerges himself in the situation...