Fishing Game and Fishbanks Project:

Fishbanks is a game designed to illustrate the "Tragedy of the Commons" and give players and idea of some of the issues that affect the management of fisheries for sustainability. The standard game is described here<link>. Download the standard game <Windows Version><Macintosh OSX Version>. <Download participant handouts: opens with Adobe Reader 9 on Windows OS>.

Shortcomings of the standard game: The usual way of playing Fishbanks is in a group of up to 30 players. They are divided into groups, each one representing a fishing company. Each company decides how many ships to sell, purchase, and send to the fishing areas. Company decisions are entered into a computer program (by a single person) that computes the fish caught and resulting bank balances of each company. The results are printed and distributed to each company team, where the next round (or year's fishing) is discussed and planned. The process of entering the data for each round is time-consuming and player interest cannot always be maintained during the game. The slow game play also makes it difficult to play the game multiple times, enabling companies to try different strategies.

Multi-User game development: In order to shorten the time for entering the game decisions, and to make the game playable by players at remote locations, a multi-player game is being developed. Each player (optionally only the company leader) enters decisions into the computer program, which computes the results for a year's fishing when all teams have entered their decisions. Play by a single player, teams of players in a lab setting, and remote play by multiple players at a distance will be supported. In addition to the normal play, a prediction tool will be provided. This tool will allow students to predict fisheries health based on their estimate of initial fish population, fishing activity, and population model parameters. This capability will provide students with a greater ability to predict the potential outcomes of their fishing decisions. I hope that this game will be released late summer of 2008.

The Fishbanks MU version is being developed by Art Clifford and William Prothero.