TBT – Wealth Builders Ford Foundation Project

By Kyle Patterson

For this throwback Thursday post we are focusing on the Wealth Builders game created by Champlain College’s Emergent Media Center with the Ford Foundation Project and Yellow Wood Associates. You can play Wealth Builders at this link.

FordScreen2

From the Emergent Media Center’s Gallery:

Background: In the summer of 2011 the Emergent Media Center began working on a project with The Ford Foundation and Yellow Wood Associates to create a game that explains the basis for their ongoing initiative for “Wealth Creation in Rural Communities,” and illustrate the effectiveness of “Wealth Creation Value Chain” concept. Since then, the team has worked to build a enjoyable, entertaining, and educational game founded in the concepts of this initiative. The game was launched online Fall of 2012.

Game Overview:

The Wealth Creation Game is a game about negotiations. You are an intermediary, and your rural community needs your help to develop their wealth creation value chain. By resolving the issues of the companies in your value chain, you can improve the seven (7) forms of wealth in your virtual community.

  • Built wealth is the stock of fully functioning infrastructure.
  • Financial wealth is the stock of freely flowing monetary assets at the individual and community level.
  • Individual wealth is the stock of skills and physical and mental health of people.
  • Intellectual wealth is the stock of knowledge, innovation, and creativity.
  • Natural wealth is the stock of unimpaired environmental assets.
  • Political wealth is the stock of power and goodwill held by individuals, groups, and/or organizations that can be wielded to achieve desired ends.
  • Social wealth is the stock of trust, relationships, and networks that support civil society.

Faculty:

  • Dean Lawson – Faculty Advisor

Students:

  • Matt Adamec – Lead Artist
  • Taylor Hadden – Designer
  • Kyle Marchev – Lead Programmer
  • Kevin Murakami – MFA Student
  • Connor Norman – Lead Designer
  • Nicole Thayer – Narrative Designer
  • Dave Mahoney – Designer
  • Ryan Leslie – Artist
  • Gunther Fox – Programmer
  • Hilary Hess – MFA Fellow
  • Coby Brownell – MFA Student
  • Jacob Neville – MFA Student