To be honest, I was getting pretty frustrated with Millennium Village Simulator and only seemed to get worse. At first I thought I was getting the hang of keeping both Fatou and Kodjo healthy and fully satisfied, while still bringing in enough money for the family and the village. But as soon as other factors like a bad crop yield or an illness came into play each round/attempt, I seemed to continue to lose more and more control. It only goes to show that simulations are only that and as humans it is very difficult to predict/plan anything simply due to the presence of random/unpredictable factors. After reading Dorner and playing with the Simulator, I had myself question decisions that I had made – both looking at the short-term and long-term implications. It is very easy to get sucked into small factors/details and then almost entirely lose sight of the bigger, overall picture. Having to decide between feeding both people or sending one to the doctor is a decision that you don’t really want to make and it very easy to potentially let emotions/personal feelings get in the way of one’s better judgement.

I felt very isolated from the situation in the game as this is obviously not my day to day life. But as stated on the initial page of the simulation before starting the simulation’s creators “hope that, by immersing themselves in the daily life of a family, students will identify more deeply with the local experience of extreme poverty”. It certainly made me think about how fortunate I am that I do not have to fear that one poor harvest could potentially result in my family’s poor health, but this is the situation for many people around the world from the shortages of basic necessities to inadequate healthcare. I really had no idea how to keep these people alive and balance these many needs, and the fact that people at all and especially children younger than me is a scary thought.