A Better World

I'm obsessed with this game lately: A Better World.

Basically you make changes to history and then see if those changes make the world better. For example, inventing a contraceptive in 1960 that allows anyone (male or female, in other words) to absolutely control their fertility leads to a world population of under one billion in the year 2000, as well as no global warming and longer, better lives for everyone.

But killing Hitler is a disaster.

Kidnapping Genghis Khan when he's 14, so that he never comes to power, improves the world remarkably.

I'm somewhat dubious about the conclusions whoever designed the game draw from various changes; and you can't do whatever you want -- you only have two choices at a given time split -- which is somewhat annoying. For example, when women are fighting for the right to vote, the only two changes you can make are (1) quash the movement entirely or (2) establish a worldwide gynarchy. There's no choice, for example, to give women more political power without killing all the men.

But it's an interesting game nonetheless!