StarPower

Players randomly draw lots of colored chips. These chips have different number value based on their color. Players are given the opportunity to trade these chips to increase their point total. Players are told to not share information

about their chips."They were told not to tell the others about

their cards...."(Feld 1997) While players

are told that the group assignment is based on "achievement"

or "merit", the initial

distribution dominates the resulting scores."Although

the original distribution of the chips largely determined the

individual point totals and resulting group assignments, the

participants were told that they were being placed

in groups according to their levels of achievement." (Feld

1997)"Variations in wealth are ostensibly based on

'“merit' [success at trading chips] but most members of each

'strata' [squares, triangles, circles] unknowingly receive

different resources [trading chips] at the beginning of the

game and at each subsequent 'trading session."

(Mukhopadhyay 2004)

Each round, players draw random colored chips and trade them for

sets of points. At the end of each round players are assigned

one of three groups and given an associated badge based on their

score. The top scorers are red squares, the middle are blue

circles, and the low scorers are green triangles. Starting on

turn two (the first turn in which players are assigned to

groups), the red squares players draw from a bag with higher

scoring chips, while the green triangles draw from a bag with

lower scoring chips. As a result, movement between groups

becomes uncommon. Starting on the third round, the red

squares are free to change the rules however they

like.

{{cite web

| url = http://www.sustainer.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=vn151starpowered

| title = Why Would Anyone Want to Play Starpower?

| accessdate = 2007-05-14

| date = 1986-12-04

| last = Meadows

| first = Donella

| authorlink = Donella Meadows

}} (Date is date of first publication, not release to the web.)

(Mukhopadhyay 2004)

Key to the game's educational effectiveness is for those running the game to withhold details about the true nature and implementation."Much of the impact of the experience on players depends on the deliberate misinforming of participants as to the nature and outcomes of the game." {{cite web

| url = http://www.gamestudies.org/0401/woods/

| title = Loading the Dice: The Challenge of Serious Videogames

| accessdate = 2007-05-14

|date=November 2004

| last = Woods

| first = Stewart

| work = Game Studies

}} That the red squares can change the rules is only revealed to players when the ability is added to the game.

Starpower is by design a very unbalanced game. Game designer James Wallis has gone so far as to describe the game as "broken" "by all conventional standards of game design." The unbalanced nature of the game reduces its replayability. Shirts views StarPower as more of a simulation than a game and as a result does not view replayability as an important goal.{{cite web

| url = http://www.deepfun.com/2005/10/guest-wisdom-from-garry-shirts.html

| title = Guest Wisdom from Garry Shirts

| accessdate = 2007-05-14

| date = 2006-10-20

| last = Shirts

| first = Garry

|author2=Bernie DeKoven

| work = Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

}}

One commentator writing for the Sustainability Institute claimed that square players typically rigged the game to benefit squares, circles strove to become squares at which point they began to act like squares, and that triangles became angry and then apathetic, only becoming interested at the possibility of cheating or revolution. At the end of the game, the squares seldom see the oppression they engaged in while the circles are viewed as sell-outs by the triangles and as incompetent by the squares.

Another commentator notes similar results. The squares create oppressive rules that make it difficult for lower groups to advance."This particular play of the game was typical. After a very short time, the top group made increasingly oppressive rules, reducing or even eliminating any changes for the others to succeed and move up the hierarchy." (Feld 1997) Lower groups turn to cheating."The members of the lower groups responded to the hopelessness of their fate in a variety of ways; some hid their cards or themselves; others ran away; still others directly refused to follow the rules, and some of them even seemed to dare the top group members to make them." (Feld 1997) The commentator also noted the lower groups becoming apathetic."As participants came to feel that there was essentially nothing that they could do that would lead to 'acceptable' levels of rewards, they increasingly tended to withdraw and/or act in hostile ways." (Feld 1997)

The official site for the game lists eight lessons that StarPower teaches, mostly focused on the results of inequal distribution of power.

• BaFa' BaFa' - cross cultural competence game by R. Garry Shirts

{{reflist|2}}

• {{Cite news

| last = Feld

| first = Scott L.

| date = March 1997

| title = Simulation Games in Theory Development

| periodical = Sociological Forum

| publisher = Springer Netherlands

| publication-date = March 1997

| volume = 12

| issue = 1

| pages = 103–115

| doi = 10.1023/A:1024608707275

| postscript =

}} (Available online: {{cite web

| url = http://www.springerlink.com/content/?k=Simulation+Games+in+Theory+Development

| title = Simulation Games in Theory Development

| accessdate = 2007-05-14

|date=March 1997

| last = Feld

| first = Scott L.

| work = Sociological Forum

}}{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}})

• {{cite web

| url = http://www.whatsrace.org/pages/starpower.htm

| title = Starpower: Experiencing a Stratified Society

| accessdate = 2007-05-14

| year = 2004

| last = Mukhopadhyay

| first = Carol C.

| work = What's Race Got to Do With It?

}}

• [http://www.stsintl.com/schools-charities/star_power.html StarPower] - official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Starpower (Game)}}

Category:Board games introduced in 1969

Category:Educational board games