Willow Glen Resident

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Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Game makers: World Without Oil, an alternate reality game played on the Internet, was created by Ken Eklund (right), who recruited Mark Bracewell to help with the technical aspects. The game imagines the world facing an oil shortage and players enter the game and work collectively to solve the problems caused by the shortage.

Welcome to a World without Oil: fill it up?

By Alicia Upano

There's nothing like a crisis to bring a community together.

Online, more than 1,300 people across the world are facing a fictitious oil shock scenario. Reactions range from rage to cooperation. Gas is $6.18 a gallon and rising, and the ease of topping off a gas tank is becoming a thing of the past.

World Without Oil, at worldwithoutoil.org, is an alternate reality game that blends truth and fiction and has been quite timely. When North Willow Glen resident Ken Eklund imagined the game in 2005, concerns over oil were not as prevalent. But as gas prices climbed, Eklund's imagined world moved closer to reality. The game's motto is "Play it--before you live it." The crisis is fairly unscripted, leaving it up to the collective players to solve potential future problems.

"We're never going to run out of oil, but the flow is going to be less at some point," Eklund said. "When that happens, someone's going to have to go without."

According to Eklund, 96 percent of all transportation depends on oil, including commuting to work and transporting crops and goods. Some experts postulate the oil peak occurred in 2005, while others set the date as late as 2040, Eklund said.

Beyond the serious nature of the game, Eklund sees it as a way to bring people together during the month-long game that was launched on April 30.

In this cyber reality, participants take on the role of myriad fictitious characters and report on the crisis from wherever they are, from San Jose to Slovakia to Venezuela. Characters brainstorm to solve problems and complete tasks.

"If the game holds its promise, we're going to end up with communities, not only online but physical communities," Eklund said. "In the end, with the oil shock, it's all going to be about the communities that we have."

In the game some players envision a grim future from oil shock and are buying guns. Other characters are living lives in a way that reduces their dependence on gas--planting gardens, arranging community-wide potlucks and taking public transportation.

In the real world, communities can operate with the same cooperative spirit. This is what has happened in North Willow Glen, where the nerve center for World Without Oil was developed.

Before the game came to fruition, North Willow Glen neighbors formed the North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, and since then residents have actively tackled trash and crime, while building closer ties and pride in the older community.

Eklund has lived in the neighborhood since the early 1980s, and he met Atlanta Avenue neighbor Mark Bracewell at neighborhood association meetings. It wasn't until the bocce ball court went in on Fuller Avenue last year, though, that the two men got to know each other through the activity.

Both men had technical experience. Eklund, known as "Writerguy," has been writing for computer games since 1988, populating the games with characters and plots. Bracewell, who also telecommutes, writes collaborative web software that helps companies complete projects through a variety of technological means--e-mail, websites and chats.

So when Eklund was looking for a webmaster for his newest project, World Without Oil, he needed to look no farther than the bocce ball court.

Eklund had originally pitched the idea in 2005 to ITVS Interactive (Independent Television Service). He received the go-ahead last year. ITVS promotes the game, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is funding it.

Bracewell joined Eklund and has used his technical skills in this gaming venue, he said. Characters share their stories through blogs, photos and videos.

"I like projects where your hair is standing on end," Bracewell said.

Bracewell and Eklund are the "puppet masters" of the game they developed, working 24/7 as players send in hundreds of stories daily. Futurist Jane McGonigal also connected with the World Without Oil team as a participation architect, as well as a dozen people across the country who have worked on alternate reality games.

Bracewell and Eklund are also players in the game.

"I'm actually playing the game. In a way, I'm playing myself, a crabby programmer," Bracewell joked.

Eklund is the one who creates the crises.

Thus far, the game has exceeded their expectations, with an average of 4,500 hits a day. What's more, Eklund says, visitors tend to stay awhile to browse the content and revisit the site to see what is happening.

"We're hitting some sort of international nerve," Eklund said.

While the characters have make-believe fixes to a make-believe problem, Bracewell hopes the game's players find their ideas apply to their real lives. Bracewell and Eklund have found working on the game has made them conserve gas.

"We're kind of living it as we're playing it," Eklund said.

In the game, every one's a hero, as everyone contributes ideas that may stick, that may make a difference to a world in disarray. And the puppet masters' hopes?

"Save the world," Eklund says. Bracewell nods in agreement.

To become a hero, visit www.worldwithoutoil.org.