Editing World Game (section)

==History and use==
Fuller first publicly proposed the concept in 1967 as the [[core curriculum]] at the (then new) [[Southern Illinois University Carbondale]], in reaction to extensive news coverage of [[the Pentagon]]'s war games.<ref name="Perry 1995"/> He founded there, together with its then executive director [[John McHale (artist)|John McHale]], the World Resources Inventory, an institute responsible for conducting the research required for the game launch. In 1964, Fuller had proposed to hold a session of the World Game in the U.S. pavilion (later known as the [[Montreal Biosphere]]) at the 1967 [[Expo 67|International and Universal Exposition]] in [[Montreal]], Quebec, Canada, but the project was eventually rejected.<ref name="Stott 2021"/>

In a preamble to World Game documents for the curriculum released in 1971, Fuller identified it very closely with his "Guinea Pig 'B' experiment" and his "Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science" lifework. He claimed intellectual property rights as well to control what he considered to be misapplication of his idea by others. He also claimed he had been playing it "longhand" without the assistance of computers since 1927.<ref name="BFI"/><ref name="SIU curriculum 1971"/> Nevertheless, Fuller's proposal imagined "a vast computerized network that could process, map, and visualize environmental information drawn from, among other sources, Russian and American spy satellites. Fuller claimed that their optical sensors and thermographic scanners could detect the location and quantity of water, grain, metals, livestock, human populations, or any other conceivable form of energy."<ref name="Columbia GSAPP">{{cite web | title=Buckminster Fuller's World Game | website=Columbia GSAPP | url=https://www.arch.columbia.edu/exhibitions/43-buckminster-fullers-world-game | access-date=August 28, 2024}}</ref> The Game would, according to Fuller, transcend human perception's limits in the electromagnetic spectrum, and allow a rich dataset of global environmental trends.<ref name="Columbia GSAPP"/>

Over fifty hours from June 12 to July 31, 1969, Fuller and 27 grad students from a variety of disciplines met on the court of the [[New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture]], to play the first instance of the World Game, the goal being to end [[energy poverty]] by giving all the world population 2000 gigawatt-hours per person per year by 1980; the final strategy revolved around constructing more hydropower. Footage was captured by [[Herbert Matter]] for the documentary ''The World Game''.<ref name="Schlossberg"/><ref name="Matter 1969"/><ref name="SIU curriculum 1971"/>

In 1972, the World Game Institute was founded in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]], by Fuller, [[Medard Gabel]], [[Howard J. Brown (businessman)|Howard J. Brown]] and others.<ref name="Stott 2021"/>

In 1980, the World Game Institute and the World Resources Inventory published the World Energy Data Sheet. The World Energy Data Sheet compiled a nation by nation summary of energy production, resources, and consumption. The information was compiled in tables and map formats. The project was researched by Seth Snyder and overseen by Medard Gabel. The work was used during a World Game in Philadelphia, in the summer of 1980.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

By 1993, the World Game Institute developed and sold an educational software package called Global Recall, which contained global data, maps, an encyclopedia of world problems, and tools for developing solutions to world problems.  The package was a computer-based simulation game intended for use by high school and college students in learning about world problems and how to solve them.<ref name="Software">{{cite web|last=Vitez|first=Michael|title=Software Provides Opportunity To Think Globally The World Game Institute Has Put Its Ideas On Computer Disk|url=http://articles.philly.com/1993-05-20/news/25966386_1_world-game-global-citizens-software|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218205858/http://articles.philly.com/1993-05-20/news/25966386_1_world-game-global-citizens-software|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 18, 2014|publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer|access-date=19 January 2014|date=May 20, 1993}}</ref>

In 2001, a for-profit educational company named o.s. Earth Inc. purchased the principal assets of the World Game Institute and offered a Global Simulation Workshop that is a "direct descendant of Buckminster Fuller's famous World Game."<ref>[http://www.osearth.com/ o.s.Earth Inc.]</ref> In 2019, the company transferred its assets to the [[Schumacher Center for New Economics]].<ref name="Workshop History"/>

In 2021, Gabel's new organization, the Global Solutions Lab, announced their own revamp of the World Game, titled ''WorldGame 2.0''.<ref name="Workshop History">{{cite web | title=A Brief History Of World The Game Workshop | website=World Game™ Workshop |date=2021| url=https://worldgameworkshop.org/brief-history | access-date=August 27, 2024}}</ref>