Protection pays back across seasons, not in one move.

Migratory birds need wetlands in the other three regions as well as your own estuary. Protection carries a cost each season, while development offers an immediate gain. Read how the other regions respond, move through seven seasons, and use your first three seasons to choose a treaty. A protective action may be reported incorrectly along the way. Test what can keep cooperation going after a misunderstanding.

7 seasons1 move each1 noisy season

GAME THEORY YOU WILL LEARN

Iterated prisoner's dilemma: learn the shadow of the future, reciprocity, reputation, and limited forgiveness under noisy observation.

Four regional delegates gather around a migratory flyway map

Your path through the game

How to play and what to look for

Choose to protect wetland or develop the coast in each of seven seasons, then inspect the other regions’ moves and the shared history. After season three, choose joint monitoring, an apology with one-time forgiveness, or cost compensation. Follow birds, prosperity, and trust through an episode in which protection can be reported as development.

Read each region’s response pattern and choose protection or development.
Use the first three seasons to choose one treaty.
Examine responses to misunderstanding and the final birds, prosperity, and trust.

What makes it rewarding

One region mirrors your previous move, another watches the wider group, and a third forgives once. Anticipate these different responses and see cooperation spread. Try another response to misunderstanding on a new playthrough, and discover how the same protective choice can lead to a different relationship.

Game theory you will learn

This story explores the iterated prisoner’s dilemma: today’s gain matters alongside a partner’s response and the value of future cooperation. Across seven seasons, examine how decision histories, mistaken observations, forgiveness, and compensation affect whether cooperation continues.

Questions to take away

How did the other regions respond to your previous choice? When a misunderstanding occurred, what changed when a region reacted immediately or allowed one mistake? Use the history to explain whether your treaty addressed inaccurate information, the cost of protection, or both.

Four regions share a goal but follow different response rules

The first move and response rule on each portrait are the rulebook for predicting next season—not decoration.

Hana

Northern breeding grounds

Strategy: Reciprocal: protects first, then responds to the previous season
Fear: Paying protection costs while others keep developing
First move: Protect
Response rule: Next season, mirrors your observed previous move

Mira

Central stopover wetland

Strategy: Cautious: protects when a cooperative history is verified
Fear: Trusting a mistaken signal and being exploited
First move: Develop
Response rule: Protects only if you protected and at least 3/4 stops were protected last season

Samir

Southern wintering grounds

Strategy: Generous: does not retaliate after one defection
Fear: Repeatedly having protection exploited
First move: Protect
Response rule: Forgives one development move; develops after two in a row

You

Fourth-estuary manager

Goal: Balance local prosperity and bird survival
Temptation gap: Develop +3 vs protect −2: a five-point current temptation
Success condition: Finish with Birds 64+ · Prosperity 48+ · Trust 58+