hanse-dilemmas? What are they?

They are all simulations - games to be played on table, on local computers or online. All hanse-dilemmas resemble how the HANSE evolved. The HANSE came up when first traders and then hundreds of cities decided to do business together and learned that cooperation paid. This is why all our games and sims have got the following 4 features in common:

- Every player trades with all other players every day, again and again. Rolling a dice determines the last day (the last round) of the sim (= iterative game with random number of rounds). 
- Every player decides every day whether they want to cooperate or cheat (= choices as in a prisoner’s dilemma game). 
- In contrast to the situation of the prisoner’s dilemma, players are at least able to send messages (= communication allowed).
- Players experience every day the outcome of all decisions, and they hope to win rather than loose money, or tokens, or resources, or support - or anything that is countable (= 'Axelrod tournament').

 

hanse-dilemmas? Why do these simulations?

Players will develop own strategies and observe other players’ strategies as well. Even when they start with the egoistic intention of winning, they will become aware of what decisions and strategies lead to. The question is whether cooperation will develop in a competitive environment. 
Apart from that, players will become aware that there are parallels in real life, not only when trading or doing business in order to make money, but also when people compete to get global or local resources, gain political power or ask for support or help from community members. 
We think that it is not very efficient telling people what to do and how to behave. We believe this will not make people act, behave and think less egoistically. However, when people can actually experience what different strategies lead to (= when they act in model situations, the hanse-dilemmas), they will see for themselves what is best!

 

Can I do it, too? HOW?

Yes, you can. But you should come from e-twinning, be a participant and know what to do and how to start.
This is NOT a public website, with an imprint, e-mails, blogs, guest book, anything like that. 
It is a kind of server only used by participants in a European Erasmus+ project. It provides material, ideas, games and sims, and some simulations are played here. Please respect privacy, no bots, no spam, no commercial exploits!