First Contact Online Games

First Contact Online Games

Introduction

"What would it be like to meet an alien species? You and your team can find out in this fun and thought-provoking activity built to enhance communication, cultural awareness and empathy. Each team will become a different species of alien with their own culture, economic system and set of social mores. What will happen when their ambassadors meet? Without a common language, how will they communicate without offending each other or potentially starting an interplanetary war? This activity explores the nature of diversity with entertaining and often hilarious results."

Description 

First Contact Online Games, participants will be divided into teams and given a set of information and rules about their alien race. Each team will occupy a "planet" (online breakout room) and they must strictly adhere to the rules and social norms described in their information pack. Communication between alien races is prohibited except during diplomatic missions, and their various social norms are unknown to each other. 

Teams will be tasked to initiate contact with one of the other alien races in an attempt to be awarded a prized alien relic. A relic can only be obtained by successfully interacting with an alien race without breaking their rules or disrupting their social norms. If one of the rules is broken during a diplomatic mission, then teams must cease communications and return to their home planet.

Through trial and error, teams will become more familiar with the taboos of each race and how to avoid diplomatic mission failure. At the end of the session, First Contact Online Games, the team with the most successful interactions (the most relics) will win the game.

Each Team will be accompanied by a moderator who will ensure that participants are familiar with and fully understand the Alien race they are portraying before gameplay commences. Each team will have the opportunity before visiting another planet to send out "probes" - individual participants that may observe that planet without interacting for 1 minute. Diplomatic missions may carry on uninterrupted unless the diplomat causes enough offense to warrant being expelled by the planetary authority.

Benefits

• A fun and thought-provoking take on cross-cultural awareness

• Gives participants an opportunity to get creative with portraying their alien characters

• Better negotiation and diplomacy skills

• Active participation of the whole group

• A great working analogy for the DISC model

More information