3rd Ring Out: The Emergency

Twenty years from now, climate change has become a reality and freak weather is testing our society. With resources scarce and the spectre of disaster looming large, we must think carefully about how to prevent the situation from turning into a humanitarian crisis. Yes, we.

Gathered inside a shipping container, the audience of 12 become the command centre in charge of the vulnerable Suffolk coastline. We sit around a map of the region in a war room set-up led by a supervisor, collaborating to deploy resources such as police, water barriers and refugee camps as details of the unfolding catastrophe trickle in via radio and info screens.

Major decisions—like whether we spend our budget on making special provisions for the elderly or use it instead to contain some fast-spreading fires—are made through an electronic voting system, with each decision impacting what happens next.

Although in theory there are dozens of possible routes audiences could go down, our strategy in distributing resources across the map has very little discernible influence on the narrative, which is a shame. What matters, it seems, isn’t so much what we think up but that we thought about it at all, and afterwards we are invited into a second container to chat about how we can future-proof Edinburgh.

Using game mechanics to educate and urge action is gaining huge traction this year across a variety of sectors, and 3^rd Ring Out is testimony to its effectiveness. The high production values make it an exciting and deeply immersive experience, and we come out of it emotionally invested in its cause.