Скачать или смотреть First Contact - An Advanced Matrix Game

Overview
First Contact is a modified (advanced) matrix game about humanity’s first contact with an Unknown Alien Culture (UAC) from outside our galaxy. One month ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) using the James Webb Telescope discovered an unidentified object just inside the Oort cloud. The Oort Cloud is a shell of icy bodies that surround our Solar System, 100,000AU (astronomical unit) or about 9,300,000,000,000 miles or 1.87 light years from Earth.
Within two days of initial detection of the object, NASA contacted SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Indigence) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Upon review of the data, SETI set the Rio Scale to 3 identifying the object as of “minor” interest. In the following four weeks, NASA, ESA, and SETI monitored the object and witnessed unusual movement patterns that are not consistent with comets, asteroids, or any other known space objects. By the end of those four weeks, SETI changed the Rio Scale for the object to 6 or “noteworthy”. In those four weeks, the two agencies worked around the clock to review data, discuss implications, and identify a way ahead. Also within those four weeks, the heads of states for all nations were sent information on the object. 48 hours ago, SETI changed the Rio Scale to 10 or “Extraordinary” when the object stopped moving and remained in place while emitting a signal that carried the binary coding for the words, “We come in peace.” After 48 hours, the object began a trajectory that would intercept Earth. At its current speed, NASA estimates that the object would reach Earth in just under three years. In contrast, it would take NASA’s fastest spacecraft over 30,000 years to reach the Oort Cloud.

First Contact varies slightly from other matrix games in how the players make arguments and dynamically interact with one another during a player turn. In traditional matrix games players take turns making individual arguments; in First Contact players’ turns will be in random order and they may make multiple arguments in one turn based on their Diplomatic, Informational, Military, Economic, and Science power, as well as react to other player arguments during their turns. Additionally, First Contact includes several special rules and random events that may dramatically alter the trajectory of the game (as can happen in the real world).

First Contact is a matrix game developed by a team of wargamers, which aims to furnish a role-playing forum for examining aspects of decision making and critical thinking. In First Contact, the competition may be primarily diplomatic, but there are opportunities for other uses of the instruments of national power. With their abundant space for creative player actions, ease of production, and general lack of formal structures, matrix games are well-suited to replicate the ambiguity, complexity, and flexibility of diplomatic interactions. Finally, geopolitical matrix games can provide insights into strategic options and approaches at the national level, as well as frame of reference development through immersive role play.