Game progression begins with simple tasks that players can accomplish in a training mode and builds with more players required as larger, more complex scenarios are encountered. Early generations of the game can be kept small in scope. Based on the success of the game, it could become a MMO game with hundreds of players that are both in the government response and citizens reacting to the simulated world they live in. Within the game play for each session, players would be presented with the basic disaster event and little information. They would need to seek out information to save as many people as possible within 72 hours. More information will help build the picture, but also complicate the situation. As with real life, information then flows in ever faster from multiple sources such state and local government, traditional media, social media, other federal government agencies, and non-governmental organizations, etc. As the disaster progresses, Regional Response Coordination Staff often find themselves overloaded with information. Some of the information is good and relevant and some is a distraction. Leaders must make strategic decisions very quickly and under pressure. Emergency managers have failed in the past because they were not accustomed to this environment prior to catastrophic disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. The game should create this environment with both relevant and distracting information flowing in.
The mission/challenge structure revolves around National Preparedness Goal core capabilities. The overarching mission is simple. Players must save as many disaster survivors as possible in 72 hours. The challenge structure is for players to move the essential personnel and resources in place to stabilize the disaster within 72 hours per the FEMA Administrator’s intent. The general cycle will involve players gathering and processing information as quickly as possible to gain situational awareness. They will then react by moving the personnel and resources to the locations that will save the most lives. But they will be challenged by the obstacles caused by the devastation such as damaged bridges and roadways, lack of electricity, communications, fuel, water, and wastewater. All of these needs must be met. In a catastrophic disaster, it is simply not possible to serve everyone in a timely manner. The challenge for players in subsequent sessions is to modify their strategy to save more survivors. While players may not address all of the National Preparedness Goal’s Response mission area core capabilities, they should frame their mission around those goals. The National Preparedness Goal is the foundation document that defines the 31 core capabilities that Federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local jurisdictions use to essentially define their level of preparedness. The core capabilities are used in such analyses as the annual State Preparedness Report and annual Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment. They are also used for purposes such as defining training and exercise goals and even for developing grant investment justifications. In short, Federal, State, territorial, tribal, local jurisdictional use core capabilities to assess past and current capabilities as well as to establish future performance objectives. Since 72-Hours is focused in the Response mission area, the game would restrict its use of core capabilities to this set. The stated National Preparedness Goal core capabilities for the Response mission area are as follows:
• “Critical Transportation: Provide transportation (including infrastructure access and accessible transportation services) for response priority objectives, including the evacuation of people and animals, and the
delivery of vital response personnel, equipment, and services into the affected areas.”105
• “Environmental Response / Health and Safety: Ensure the availability of guidance and resources to address all hazards including hazardous materials, acts of terrorism, and natural disasters in support of the responder operations and the affected communities.”106
• “Fatality Management Services: Provide fatality management services, including body recovery and victim identification, working with state and local authorities to provide temporary mortuary solutions, sharing information with mass care services for the purpose of reunifying family members and caregivers with missing persons/remains, and providing counseling to the bereaved.”107
• “Infrastructure Systems: Stabilize critical infrastructure functions, minimize health and safety threats, and efficiently restore and revitalize systems and services to support a viable, resilient community.”108
• “Mass Care Services: Provide life-sustaining services to the affected population with a focus on hydration, feeding, and sheltering to those who have the most need, as well as support for reunifying families.”109
• “Mass Search and Rescue Operations: Deliver traditional and atypical search and rescue capabilities, including personnel, services, animals, and assets to survivors in need, with the goal of saving the greatest number of endangered lives in the shortest time possible.”110
• “On-scene Security and Protection: Ensure a safe and secure environment through law enforcement and related security and protection operations for people and communities located within affected areas and also for all traditional and atypical response personnel engaged in lifesaving and life- sustaining operations.”111
• “Operational Communications: Ensure the capacity for timely
communications in support of security, situational awareness, and
105 Department of Homeland Security, National Preparedness Goal: First Edition, (Washington, D.C.:
Department of Homeland Security, September, 2011), 12.
106 National Preparedness Goal, 13. 107 National Preparedness Goal, 13. 108 Ibid.
109 Ibid. 110 Ibid., 14. 111 Ibid.
operations by any and all means available, among and between affected communities in the impact area and all response forces.”112
• “Operational Coordination: Establish and maintain a unified and coordinated operational structure and process that appropriately integrates all critical stakeholders and supports the execution of core capabilities. “113
• “Planning: Conduct a systematic process engaging the whole community as appropriate in the development of executable strategic, operational, and/or community-based approaches to meet defined objectives.”114
• “Public and Private Services and Resources: Provide essential public and private services and resources to the affected population and surrounding communities, to include emergency power to critical facilities, fuel support for emergency responders, and access to community staples (e.g., grocery stores, pharmacies, and banks) and fire and other first response services.”115
• “Public Health and Medical Services: Provide lifesaving medical treatment via emergency medical services and related operations and avoid additional disease and injury by providing targeted public health and medical support and products to all people in need within the affected area.”116
• “Public Information and Warning: Deliver coordinated, prompt, reliable, and actionable information to the whole community through the use of clear, consistent, accessible, and culturally and linguistically appropriate methods to effectively relay information regarding any threat or hazard, as well as the actions being taken and the assistance being made available, as appropriate.”117
• “Public Health and Medical Services: Provide lifesaving medical treatment via emergency medical services and related operations and avoid additional disease and injury by providing targeted public health and medical support and products to all people in need within the affected area.”118
112 Ibid. 113 Ibid., 12.
114 National Preparedness Goal, 12. 115 Ibid., 14.
116 Ibid., 15. 117 Ibid., 12. 118Ibid., 15.
• “Situational Assessment: Provide all decision makers with decision- relevant information regarding the nature and extent of the hazard, any cascading effects, and the status of the response.”119