System Content: The Seven Models in a Sim

The use of any unknown system is indistinguishable from mysticism.

– With Apologies to Arthur C. Clarke

We all play variations on this type of scenarios: What if someone from two hundred years ago watched us live today? What if an ancestor watched us, say, wash dishes? The steps we took, from scraping off the remaining food, to loading up the dishwasher, to putting some form of soap in a small box, to running the disposal, to pressing some buttons and turning a knob, to walking away for an hour, would seem like we were performing mystical incantations.

More specifically, some steps would make sense, some would seem random, and some steps would actually appear to the opposite of what we should be doing.

Here are other examples of successful uses of systems:

• A couple falls in love with a house on the market. But when the sales person enters the room, they act disinterested.
• A project manager, with a deadline fast approaching, fires two programmers.
• A health-conscious actress, a week before a big scene, injects a neurotoxin into her face.
• An environmentalist forester cuts down a third of the trees in a grove.
• A dieter eats a large breakfast.
• A doctor deliberately exposes a patient to a small quantity of a fatal virus.

The Invisible Layer

Systems are the often invisable layer between what we do (Action) and what we get (Results).

Thus some people are continuously surprised by unintended consequences; naively optimizing just one part of a complicated system may have no positive impact on the entire system, and possibly a negative impact.

Meanwhile, other people perform concise actions and get remarkable results. These are the people who understand and can use the invisible systems. "Going to where the puck will be, not to where it is now" requires a working knowledge of the system.

These hidden systems are often given names, such as "the glass ceiling" or "the invisible hand of the market."

Our world is filled with systems, as complex as the universe or simpler than a light switch. And complicated systems are made up of simpler systems, equations, variables, relationships, processes, units, and actions.

There are seven different techniques for building out educational systems in sims, all compatible with each other, overlapping, scalable, and recursive.

1. Pure Mathematical System

Some systems are purely mathematical, where, for example, primary variables are impacted by aggregations of secondary variables, as defined by equations and relationships. This is the primary model for the sim Genre of interactive spreadsheets.

See all entries for systems content.

2. Units on Maps as System

Some systems are best captured by the activities of Units on maps. Dead reckoning is just one example. Roller Coaster Tycoon (see activity - presenting choices) is another.

See all entries on units. See all entries on maps, or the topic heading of Maps.

3. State Based System

Some systems are best modeled through the abstracted "units on maps" techniques of state based systems. Almost all board games from chess to Risk use this as one type of system.

See all entries on state based systems, or the topic heading of State Based Systems and Models.

4. Artificial Intelligence as System

Directing or competing against AI characters can represent compelling and repeatably engageable systems.

See artificial intelligence (AI) player, and the genre of practiceware.

5. Work Process as System

One type of system is a work processes (or even a time line). Just knowing who gets what business form can spell the difference between success and failure for an activity.

See all entries on work processes, or the topic heading on Work Processes.

6. Middle and Big Skills as System

Some systems are big skills and middle skills. First see the Leadership example.

Then see all entries in big skills, or the topic heading on Big Skills. See all entries in middle skills or the topic heading on Middle Skills.

7. Community as System

Perhaps the least predictable system is a real community, such as organized by a social networking model.

See all entries in community, or the topic heading on Community. See all entries in social networking.

See also balancing loop.