JEFF
I wanted a windmill. So I got one by paying the ecological cost for the pump and the gears. It cost me one Water and I had to cut down one Forest.

MERIAH
He has to take it down in the winter, or else the storms will destroy it.

JEFF
I put it right next to my house. Now I have mechanical power!

CHRISTINE
We had to get rid of the horse. We found out from Clayton Marlow, the range animals professor, that a horse would probably do a lot of damage to the plants on our island.

IVY
Clayton told us that since our island didn't have heavy grazers like horses on it, the plants would not be adapted to survive it.

CHRISTINE
So we gave Chrystal to Jeff.

JEFF
Horsemeat jerky!

CHRISTINE
I started a chicken farm instead.

IVY
Chickens were going to impact the environment a lot less. They don't kill the whole plant, like horses do.

JEFF
I built a chicken farm too.

MERIAH
So did I.
So we should have plenty of food.

CHRISTINE
I went looking for bees and I also am studying the grasses to find one that will be a good fuel source.

ARIA
I have been studying the wild flowers on the island, and I found one that was totally unique to our island.

CHRISTINE
The "Footprint Island Iris."

ARIA
I built a special garden area to grow them. They are probably worth a lot of money!

MERIAH
But the main thing was, we
built a boat and went whaling.

IVY
And we got one!
A minke whale, about 20 feet long.

MERIAH
We had to cut down a half-Forest for the wood to build the boat. And another quarter-Forest to build a storage shed for it and for the whale meat.

ARIA
We all helped to build the boat,
and to go out whaling.

JEFF
We had an ice axe that
we hammered into a harpoon...

IVY
We used sealskins as floats.
Meriah wove the rope.

MERIAH
I'm going to need to plant some flax.

JEFF
Later on in the year I found gold on my island! I panned it out of the stream.

MERIAH
So now we have gold utensils.

JEFF
And I built a pressure chamber, so I can make glass and silicon, and I've been using my windmill to pump water and to drill for water, and I want to make an engine. I have big plans for my little island.

IVY
I want to get a laptop, but first I need power. Zeus said the ecological cost of solar panels is 2 Carbon and 2 Water. We all agreed that's too high, so I'm trying to invent my own method of solar power that's not so high.

JEFF
You need copper. I keep asking Zeus,
'Have I found copper yet?' but the
answer is always no.

And I always ask if I find a
beached whale on my island! And
there's never one of those either.

ZEUS SPEAKS

Commentary by Ken Eklund, moderator

The second year was a very non-threatening one. The players knew they had enough resources to survive, and so they were able to take more time to shape their lives in the ways they wanted. And their footprints reflected this - increasing from an average of .9 circle per person to over 1.5.

Jeff led the way with the biggest improvements to his life - and the biggest changes to his environment. He traded a full circle of Forest and a Water for a windmill - so he can more easily get water to his house, irrigate his garden, water his chickens, and so on. He also built a wood-fired pressure chamber so that he could make glass for his house. Jeff is clearly trying to get back to the 20th century as fast as he can! If only he could find copper ore on his island... He did find gold.

Over on the main island, we find a radically different approach. All four of the girls spent some of their spare time studying nature and discussing how to manage their impact on it. Ivy really wants her laptop computer, but the group decided the cost was too high, so she is doing without one for now. The girls do not seem to feel the pressure to modernize quickly that Jeff feels... and they take time to build consensus on decisions affecting their common environment.

The group all collaborated on preparing for and conducting a whale hunt - the first truly collaborative effort in their history. And although there was plenty of squabbling about who did what, who got what, and so on, the hunt was successful and the spoils amicably divided up.

An interesting moment: I asked each player, 'What percentage of your waking hours do you want to spend working, and what percentage playing?" The answers seemed very true to life:

JEFF
45% w - 55% p
CHRISTINE
50% w - 50% p
ARIA
55% w - 45% p
IVY
60% w - 40% p
MERIAH
75% w - 25% p

At one end of the spectrum, Jeff seems very willing to work hard now to make his life easier later. At the other end, Meriah seems quite happy to haul water herself for the rest of her life, if she can be surrounded by pristine woods and natural beauty. The question raised interesting discussions about what "work" and "play" really are and what makes work become play and vice versa.