Game Reflection on Risk Horizon: Game from World Bank

Risk Horizon: Game from WORLD BANK

Game Reflection: 

Role of Risk Management in the game: Risk Horizon: 

In terms of the role of risk management that the game portrays is that with better research, protection and insurances, eminent risks (comets) can be averted or their effects reduced. Even if the comets (i.e. risks) hits the community, much of the damages can be averted or reduced. A community may be focused at its development without giving much emphasis on the risk management may prove to be detrimental to its development. So risk management is important for a healthy sustainable development of a community. 

Choices:

The game involves the player to think strategically- meaning to think about the balance between preparing for risk and investing in developing the community; but also thinking about the different risk
management tools the player has at their disposal. The three strategies namely: the power of research, protection and insurance should be used in order to balance risk preparation and healthy development for completion of the various levels in the game.

Trade-offs:

If the player spends too much on building and upgrading pods then the community will be exposed to
comets when they hit. When the community sustains damages from the comets the progress bar on development is decreased. On the other hand, the player spends too much on preparation for risk then 
the player will not have enough money to develop the community sufficient to pass the level. 
  

Preparations for Risks:

It involves Immediately After the comet is spotted and Afterwards the comet strikes risk preparedness. 

The strategy involves Research. This enables a player to receive more time to create community connections right after the comet hits thereby boosting the protection level.  

The power of protection enables long term protection against the waves created by comet hitting the sea. By matching the level of protection with the severity of the comet, the players can prevent the pods from being damaged. 

If it is observed that the comet has considerable severity that cannot be matched by the level of protection, one can opt for insurance. By obtaining insurance, pods damaged from flooding will be quicker and cheaper to rebuild. 

After the shock the players can try to make some community connections by clicking on the green glowing thing as fast as possible to reduce the effects of the damage. It should be noted that the time for community connections will be available when sufficient amount of Research has been done on the comet.  

1st Try:

When I first played I put too much emphasis on development and little protection in order to cross the levels as quickly as possible. However could not easily progress past level 2. The development was greatly impacted and even the costly repairs could not help me achieve the developments in order to cross the levels. 

Alternate plays:

I realized that is not enough to rely on development and little protection to cross the levels. I then tried to change my strategy. The strategy involved investing on development to the point that is sufficient to cross the level and investing heavily on long term protection and research. This strategy enabled me to cross level 4 with ease. 

However things became difficult with this strategy after Level 4. This could be attributed to the facts that development costs increases considerably as the community developed and the frequency of comets hitting increased considerably. Maintaining a high level of protection along with it did not leave any resources for community repairs and development required to cross the level. The strategy was changed a bit and I invested on Insurance to ensure that the repair costs are lowered to have considerable amount of resources available for community repairs and development of the community. 

Things learnt:

• Sustainable community development can be achieved through development goals and better risk management. 
• Community sharing enables better risk management after potential risk strikes
• Even with considerable amount of Research and Risk management preparedness, it is sometimes impossible to avert certain risks

Recommendations for newer version: 

• The game focuses on external risks namely the comets. However the game neglects obstacles that might arise from within the community that might hinder development namely corruption, disease burden etc. 
• The game assumes research to be in uniform nature. However this should be linked to the development of the community as good telescope won't be available to a under developed community. 
• The tutorials and the game play should be refined as most of the MOOC counterparts are finding it difficult to understand the structure and game play required for successful completion of the game.