Utopia 2.0

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The game lets users tweak dozens of variables, from land use zoning, and tax codes to air and water quality, transportation, and health care spending, then calculates what Vancouver will look like in 2040 based on those choices. Using a process they call backcasting, the game lets the player go back and change their choices over and over until they reach a future they want. Once they settle on a scenario they like, QUEST records the model and passes it on to government officials.

One of the most interesting results of this process, says Biggs, is that the game cuts through the traditional ideological lines that make it so difficult to advance sustainable policies. Conservative players realize the value of pristine forests and clean air, just as most environmentalists acknowledge the importance of public safety and economic development. Invariably, he notes, when players can see the effects of their choices, they opt for a far greener future than anyone would consider politically possible.

Several U.S. cities are interested in creating their own versions of the game, and QUEST has drawn international attention, too. The World Bank recently funded a project in Mexico City, and officials in such far-flung places as Bangalore, India, Curitiba, Brazil, Romania, and Bali are using the game to involve citizens in their planning processes.

The resort town of Whistler, British Columbia, is taking it a step further, using QUEST in a series of townhall meetings to let residents craft the community?s long-range growth plan. If things go as planned, the city council could adopt the public?s recommendations as law.

The only drawback to this kind of direct democracy, Hrynyshyn wryly points out, is that when we are all town planners, ?we will have nobody to blame but ourselves when the buses don?t run on time.?

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