MacDonald, Rod with Anthony Foretich, Sean Grier, Antoine Edelman and Joe Ziegler  "Stratagem Remastered", 2019 July 21 - 2019 July 25

Online content

Fullscreen
at lel: aE

’ [St ati a g p =m]

Stratagem Revised

Antoine Edelman, Anthony Foretich, Sean Grier, Joe Ziegler
Advisor: Rod MacDonald

/forio

Maximum Quality of — -
—————a

the Environment Ratio of
Envrionmental Quality ~ ./-
Energy Allocated to 4 a8 at %
Food Production —~_+ + Environmental
{ Regeneration
teamobj.wormOutEnergyProdCap[yr+1] = b! Land Food and Environment Goods and Services
Math floor((teamobj.totalProducingEnergyProdCap[yrt1]/aveLifeO fEnergyProdCapt+5)/10)*10: Effect or be on y \ +/ ‘ia | '
teamobj.newEnergyProdCap[yr+1] = teamoby.totalProducingEnergyProdCap[yrt1] - = je te rector! 5a + * + \ / 3 ‘ z z 3 ee
teamobj.wornOutEnergyProdCap[yrt+1]; \ | a : Se \ ' 3 3 s 3 7 5 | mad
| += bj.wornOutEnergyProdCap[yr+1]: 4 OU? a SE F
total += teamobj.wornOutEnergyProdCap[yrt1]: Energy read Energy Ln an ; Qualty of —
teamobj.totalProducingEnergyEffCap[yr] = teamobj.wornOutEnergyEffCap[yr] + « gpeaiieet Requirement Production . Gindreomential Environment
teamobj.newEnergyEffCap[yr]: bop a Quality and 7 ~
teamobj.wornOutEnergyEffCap[yr+1] = +f Effect of Food per \ Feed Loop (R) ;
Math floor((teamobj.totalProducingEnergyEffCap[yr+1 ]/aveLifeOfEnergyEffCap+5)/10)*10; ‘Jj feod toler Population on
teamobj.newEnergyEffCap[yr+1] = teamobj.totalProducingEnergyEffCap[yr+1] - Food Available | Productivity Productivity y.
teamobj.wornOutEnergyEffCap[yr+1]: Preduction Food \ Loop (R) A, t -
total += teamobj.wornOutEnergyEffCap[yr+1]: apita [eo Death
teamobj.tot WornOutCap[yr+1] = total: L \ Pe / Rate 2 iheeat "Y uunien —
= 2 Investment in Food Food for ener Environmental ic aA wy
Production Export : : Degeneration c or ,a fa
yectives rl of Poputarion E> / ee < a en ri
Total dinunt’ a ion Effect of Food Per / Barada Fie 8 f
5 . . , ‘ / virot E = i Goods For Population)
@ Update Stratagem using a Forio interface and Avaliable for, woale F 4 aL? Jc
investmen oe J + es Food Fo Population
7 e \ Birth Rate —
Vensim model to be made available through oh
. . Investment in j —
the system Dynamics S ociety a. Environmental Environmental (4 Envrionmental tt , Wattle waeesioue
Protection Capital —_ Protection Protection Capital
are Capital ~———_____— _ Depreciation y
@ Learn about human decision making and Population
improve it
Method Ch f Original G
5 <body data-f-model="CombinedModelMarchist.vmf"> g g
@ Extracted equations from the old code to help chbinister of Population./hi @ Smoother, more automated game requires less time
. <p>Population: <span data-f-bind="Population|#, ##0"></span></p>
develo Vensim model <p>Food Per Captia: <span data-f-bind="Food Per Capita per Year Last Cycle|#,###.#0 /p> ° * *
v <p>Goods Consumption Per Captia: <span data-f-bind="Goods Consumption Per a telee HHH #0" n></p> @ Game board and p1leces eliminated.

@ Created a website with Javascript, HTML,
and Forio packages to display decisions and
visualized data

@ Flow.js - Connects the Vensim model to the
User Interface to access desired variables

@ Contour.js - Graphed the data Flow,js
provided

@ Communication and support from Forio
allowed inquiries and errors to be solved
easily

@ Practiced a finished model to gain familiarity
with the FORIO packages while the
Stratagem Vensim model was in development

<p>Social Services Consumption Per Captia: <span data-f-bind="Social Services Per Capita This Cy vicleli, HHH #0"
<p>Births: <span data-f-bind="Births"></span></p>
<p>Deaths: <span data-f-bind="Deaths"></span></p>

Education

@Used to train and educate decision makers as

well as students about:
Dynamic

behavior
@ Feedback

Ackfliowmetitjements

@ Nonlinearities
@ Accumulations

@ Sustainable Development

@ The game’s user interface resides entirely online and is
managed through the Forio website.

Conclusions

Stratagem has been transformed into an entirely virtual
simulation game no longer requiring a game board or pieces and
has been made available through the Systems Dynamics Society.

(1)Dennis Meadows (2) Forio (3) James Madison University

Total Food Capital Available: 296/

Total Food Capital Left: 0

P9) Food for Population: |1667

P10) Food for Export: |1300

Population
600
500
400
E 300
200

Total Food Capital Available: 296/

Total Food Capital Left: 0

P9) Food for Population: 1667

P10) Food for Export: |1300

Capital

1500

1000

500

“After you have played Stratagem, you will know more about how to achieve sustainable
development than 99.9% of the public officials running countries today” (Meadows, 2000

nergy Efficiency Capital
sw Capital

Population: 200

ABuauz

Births: 8
Deaths: 3

Simulate Reset

Debi Repayment || Var Loan Avaliable

turroney 8
Fir
Energy
Imports

Trade and Finance

Foreign
Currency

Fir
Imports

Currency
For Goods je)
Imports

Currency
For Food
Imports

Goods For Investment

Goods ForPopulation
Food For Population

Total FoudAvailable Total Goods Available

Population

Energy ForPopulation
3
Energy Carry- Total Energy Available
Over

End Tum

Goods/Services

juntry's Currency ($) Trade Profits

Energy For
Conds
Production

Avaliable
Fur
Production

1881 1891 1901 1911 1921 1931 1951 1961

Total number of goods: 120

Profit made from trades: $12,340

130 .
120 + <
Graphs 110 +
2 Food from trade: 25
100 +
Energy Energy from trade: 30

sion || Fourth Decision || Fifth Decision

New Energy Production Capital

60

Capital

Would you like to take out a loan from the bank? (Will have to be paid back with intrest): YES/NO

How much: |Enter an amount

Who would you like to trade with? Enter another country

What would you like to trade?
© Food
Energy
Goods
Submit

New Social Services Capital

800

600

400

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Fi Energy 7 Popul
country’ y (8) Trade Protis
250 140
330 +
200 - fotal number of goods: 121
20}.
of les: $12
150 n0 .
fe: 2
300
a 2. Energy from trace: 30
90 +
30 go}
‘ 73 + —_—_—_—_—__—.
a 883 3901 62

[Fist Decision |[ Second Deesion | Third Dackton [Fourth Decsion | FithDeckon

First Decision

Would you like to take out a loan from the bank? (Vil have to be paid back with intrest):| VESINO

Dmnl

Quality of the Environment

@ Population

8

Population
N
8
4

8

i)
Ss
wud

10 15 20 25 30 35
Time (Years)

10 20 30 40 50

60

STRATAGEM GAME STRUCTURE

CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE

Input Output j Input Output } >| Input Output

DECISIONS DECISIONS


Metadata

Resource Type:
Document
Description:
The computer-aided board game Stratagem was originally developed in 1983 by Dennis Meadows in order to promote systems dynamics concepts from his famous book Limits to Growth and his WORLD3 model in a more understandable way (Meadows, 2000). Permission has been granted to our team from Dr. Meadows to recreate the game using modern applications such as Vensim and with support from Forio, which provides web-based hosting for the game and technical support for the development of the user interface. In the game, players are “ministers” of a developing nation and are responsible for allocating resources to grow their economy in an environmentally sustainable manner. Players gauge the repercussions of their decisions over 10 rounds and gain a general familiarity with feedback and nonlinearity. The structure of the game’s system is analyzed at the end against the decisions made by the players to learn about the capacity for human decision making and to improve it.
Rights:
Date Uploaded:
March 17, 2026

Using these materials

Access:
The archives are open to the public and anyone is welcome to visit and view the collections.
Collection restrictions:
Access to this collection is unrestricted unless otherwide denoted.
Collection terms of access:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access options

Ask an Archivist

Ask a question or schedule an individualized meeting to discuss archival materials and potential research needs.

Schedule a Visit

Archival materials can be viewed in-person in our reading room. We recommend making an appointment to ensure materials are available when you arrive.