Quest Mechanics

Choices and Scoring

- Even number of options to avoid fence-sitting

- 6 might be best; 4 is a bit too rough-grained

- A certain set of categories that ‘measure’ SG2030 in different aspects. Some examples:
- Economic prosperity
- Liveability of the City
- Social cohesion
- Sense of belonging
- International openness
- Civil society development
- Social resilience

- Each choice along a spectrum might impact more than one such category.

- The scoring of the choices should be done in such a way to avoid scores balancing each
other out over the game. This is to avoid futures where scores are too ambiguous.
- One way of doing this will be discussed below, in terms of hot button issues

- Possible addendum: could it be possible for questers to directly prioritise one of the
aspects of Singapore? Perhaps on a periodic basis (you get to +1 to one of the
categories every 2 days), to encourage return play

- Available decisions may be all available at one time, or be time-restricted, eg. only two
decisions to be made per day. This may force users to prioritise which decisions to ‘fix’
first if they see an undesirable future.

Personas

The role of the Personas in Quest2030 are as representations of different groups within
Singaporean society. They exist in SG2030, and their role is to represent and comment on the
impact of the decisions the user makes.

It is important to note that the user does not play as a persona - they are not being asked to
play-act, but to be themselves. By being in full control of the personas, this allows us to create
an immersive experience without having to deal directly with player choice.

Personas might represent different groups in terms of:

 - Age group: youth, senior citizens, etc.
- Work status: PMET, blue-collar, etc.
- Nationality: Citizen, PR, etc.

The personas’ specific interests when it comes to certain issues will be teased out during the
workshop process.

How Personas Comment

The choices will lead to the future via a few mechanics (this is likely not comprehensive). The
goal here is to create a future that is:

- Based on IPS research and workshops

- Not ‘vanilla’ (ie. no strong preferences one way or another)
- Informative and immersive

Some ideas for how the future might be presented:

Hot Buttons. Each of the personas will have a few ‘hot button’ issues, where they feel very
strongly about the decisions that the user makes.

An example of this can be seen from the press briefing prototype:

- Susan the doctor’s hot button issues will include pandemic preparedness. That specific
decision will get a strong opinion from her.

Decision scores. If an issue is not a ‘hot button’ for a given persona, then the scores in different
categories will decide how they react. Different personas will give different weights to different
categories that are more relevant to their lives.

To see an example of a persona, that of Arun the Banker, please see below.
Example Persona: Arun the Banker

Associated Location: Bank

Bio: Arun is a manager at a bank, and his working environment is very international. He is
concerned about the health and comfort of his ageing parents.

Highly educated, he is a driven individual who believes that success is something you have to
fight for and earn yourself. He believes strongly in meritocracy, and likes that Singapore
provides the opportunity for the cream to float to the top.

Arun identifies as a Singaporean, but also feels that part of his identity is also about being open
and cosmopolitan. He thinks it is Singapore’s openness to the outside world that makes it great.

Hot button issues:

- International openness
- The finance industry is international; Arun is well aware that if Singapore closes
itself off, it will hit him directly.
- Socially, Arun has family in both Singapore and India, and his work and living
environment is very cosmopolitan. He is worried about rising nativism and feels
Singapore should not turn its back on the outside world.

- Economic growth
- A focus on economic growth is what allows the financial industry to thrive; to
Arun, this is a matter of livelihood.

- Healthcare and the Elderly

- Arun’s parents are older and not in great health. It is very important to him that he
can give them the best care and quality of life in Singapore.

Category Weights and Preferences:

- Liveability of the City

- Weight: Medium-low; a nice place to live is great but Arun is wealthy enough to
live in the nicer areas anyway

- Social cohesion
- Weight: Medium; Arun is confident that Singapore’s current situation will hold,
and that the current situation is open

- Sense of belonging
 - Weight: Medium-low; Arun is wary of asserting a Singaporean identity too
heavily. He is wary of nativism making Singapore a less open and stable society.

- Civil society development

- Weight: Medium-low; to Arun, stability is more important than participation in
Singapore’s governance. If the authorities can ensure stability, let’s go with that.

- Social resilience
- Weight: Medium; Arun is aware that Singapore is a small and open country, and
we have to build our reserves against known and unknown future shocks.

- Reduction of Inequality
- Weight: Medium-low; while Arun is somewhat concerned about inequality
causing social instability, he feels that Singapore should and does provide
equality of opportunity, rather than of outcomes.