The Big Eco Game: It’s Gonna Be a Thing

The Big Eco Game: It’s Gonna Be a Thing

Have you ever watched some sort of disaster movie? Maybe one set in space. The crew, usually a small number of highly skilled folks all have to work to solve the crisis using their specializations within the length of the movie, and usually at the end a bunch of people have died but a few survive, and the disaster is averted. If it’s paced especially well, the disaster is averted right as the final bits of popcorn are finished, and everyone is ready to leave the theatre, their time and money well spent.

I wanted to call it “Rebel Giant Waypoint Rocket Friends Battle Royale (Not Actually a Battle Royale Game) 30 Day Extravaganza” but was unjustly overruled, along with #rgwrfbr(naabrg)3de on twitter. The real hashtag is #TBEG.

 

This? This won’t be that.

On January 23, a huge collection of mostly unskilled personalities from around the internet will be getting together to reincarnate on an idyllic planet, only to discover a giant, holy meteor in the sky. Below the meteor is a countdown, translated from whatever celestial language it’s actually displayed in, and translated through incredibly divine means to our own language(s). Thirty days until the meteor impacts the planet, and delivers the cleansing fires needed to wash away the sins of all of us.

It comes to deliver us all from this twisted hellscape of our own creation.

In those thirty days, every player will be assembling skills needed to progress up through the tech trees, to fully exploit the natural resources of the planet, like the criminals they are, with the ultimate goal of building some giant lasers to shoot down the meteor before holy retribution can be delivered. In that month, viewers will get to witness the worst of human nature, as forests get deforested, animals get hunted to extinction, and toxic waste gets dumped in Jeff Grubb’s yard. Thirty days to see whether or not a disparate group of naturally competitive individuals can work together to fight a god, or whether or not capitalism will reign supreme and destroy what little goodwill might exist.

It’s going to be poorly paced. There probably won’t be any deaths. Meteor willing, the disaster will not be averted. There may or may not be popcorn — that part is up to you. It is going to be streamed.

Come to watch us use capitalism to destroy ourselves in real time. Stay for when we turn the lessons learned outward onto the other players. Also check out other coverage of the event that will surely pop up on the various Twitter accounts linked above, and also Jeff’s coverage over at GamesBeat.

Praise the meteor.