Workshop | Control Wars: A Participatory Worldbuilding Game The virtual edition of SDGC20 Control Wars (CW) Game will offer participants a means to shape tomorrow by engaging with systems change, plural social imaginaries and narrative pathways for transition through embodied play. Grace Turtle will introduce ways in which CW tools and techniques can be used to step outside the limitations of bounded rationality to explore the unknown and collaboratively model alternative and more sustainable ways of being, that directly respond to the various crisis edging on our present.

1. CONTROL WARS
VIRTUAL SDGC20
A project of becoming, in a state of becoming BY BECOMING
Control Wars. A project by Becoming
Open-source game and ongoing experiment in participatory futuring
GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

2. CONTROL WARS
VIRTUAL SDGC20
Who are we BY BECOMING
We are an adventurous research studio messing with emerging
sociotechnical scenarios to reframe our worlds otherwise
We activate critical and collective
inquiry from a queer and anticolonial
posthuman perspective
GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

3. CONTROL WARS A project of becoming, in a state of becoming BY BECOMING
“We live in a state of impasse, a moment where
existing social imaginaries and practices no longer
produce the outcomes they once did, but no new
imaginaries or practices have yet been created.”
Lauren Berlant
We are here to share with you a dance of critical-playful-
worlding-in-action. Catalyse change. Excite imaginaries.
Transform subjectivities. Rehearse transitions. Become
otherwise. Engender radical hope for a just and sustainable
future and recalibration of everyday life.
VIRTUAL SDGC20

4. CONTROL WARS A project of becoming, in a state of becoming BY BECOMING
“The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those
who profit from the way things are because it has
the power to show that the way things are is not
permanent, not universal, not necessary.”
Ursula K Le Guin
Control Wars is a politically and poetically active arena
committed to navigating posthuman convergences and
processes of becoming. By exciting imaginaries Control Wars
offers players a means to explore more hopeful, just and
sustainable futures, while asking the questions who are ‘we’
and how might ‘we’ become otherwise?
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

5. CONTROL WARS BY BECOMINGFraming play within Control Wars
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS
Why we play
Play provides the most telling story of the human condition. Observing play helps
us understand underlying human-non-human relationships, goals and behaviours
because it involves structured rules, intuition, deliberation and decision-making.
Play allows us to create and explore in intuitive ways. It is performative action.
Rules of play
Johan Huizinga rules of play
Play is a voluntary activity. It is free
Play is not an “ordinary” or “real” sphere of activity
Play begins and ends and can be repeated
Play creates a new order
Play is a poetic and political device for change
Types of play
Cailloi’s Play Taxonomy
Agon: Table top play - competitive or cooperative challenges
Alea: Choose your own adventure play - game of chance
Mimicry: Theatre and performance play - roleplay and improvisational
LLinx: Immersive play - contextually aware and sensorial

6. CONTROL WARS Grounding play as a means of knowlage production within Control Wars BY BECOMING
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATSGRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS
Explorations
Subjective
how we understand meaning
Semantic
how we relate to meaning
Symbolic
how we characaturise meaning
Negotiations
Power
Agency
Action
Embodied
Embeded
Creating
Conditions for
Convergences
Posthumanism
living-geological-technological
Decoloniality
unsetteling white, eurocentricity
Queerness
conditioning of other
Reclamations
Truth
subjective truths and histories
Language
ways of communicating
Difference
ways of being other
Relations
Encounters
Formations
Emergence
Groundings
Technomediation
Transmateriality
Terraforming
Change

7. CONTROL WARS
We are in a state of posthuman convergence and becoming
We are subjects-transforming-worlds-transforming-subjects
We share an embodied capacity to ‘take in’ and ‘take on’ the world
We use imagination as a collectively shared recourse activated through play
We are part of a transversal natural-cultural-technological continuum
We have a responsibility to unsettle eurocentric and colonial ways of knowing
We are compelled to grapple with the injustices staining the present
We stand in solidarity with the marginalised, the queer, the alien and other
Principles of play within Control Wars BY BECOMING
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

8. CONTROL WARS Step into our world BY BECOMING
Weird contradictory phenomena and accelerated cultural, natural and
technological mutations and convergences are sending shockwaves
down the spine of humanity and our finite terrestrial planet.
What comes next is not a matter of fact but a matter of imagination,
and you control the narrative; can we divert a climate catastrophy?
Combat xenophobia? Dismantle systemic injustices? Surpass advanced
capitalism? The question of what ‘we’ humans and non-humans are
capable of becoming and becoming-with has become more complex
and urgent. The answer lies within the social body and our shared ima-
ginary.
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

9. CONTROL WARS The goal of the game BY BECOMING
Transform-yourself-transform-the-world!
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

10. CONTROL WARS The goal of the game BY BECOMING
Players convene as Gang members, emissaries tasked with achieving their goal for the
future, while confronting cultural, natural and technological mutations, accelerations and
convergences moving us towards or away from planetary devastations and injustices.
Gangs must work together, in alliance with or against their adversaries to reach their goal
for the future. Control wars is both a cooperative and competitive game. The Gangs that win
are those able to confront multi-species injustices and divert planetary devastations, while
getting close to the future they want.
Perform the impossible, overcome the systemic inertias causing
planetary devastation
Intervene in social imaginaries, rewire subjectivity of players
propelling us towards certain futures
Shape the unknowable, surface speculative patterns
and possibilities for posthuman becoming
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

11. CONTROL WARS
Players 4-20 GANGS — Emergent or stabilized social groups with opposed or complementary objectives, competing to
conquer different moments in the future.
JOKER — The power witness can be thought of as the ‘gamemaster’, a playful agitator licensed to probe
participants and challenge their truths. The Joker is tasked with describing the present and patterns of be-
coming within each horizon, they create conditions where novelty, conflict and connection is likely to occur.
TACTICS — Provocations that can be combined as input into the creation of maneuvers. They have been
designed as means to stimulate imaginaries about decisions and actions for transition.
MANEUVERS — describe the decisions and actions taken by Gangs each round and horizon-based tem-
poral jumps, composed of one or more ‘tactics’ used to achieve a Gangs goals and vision for the future
they are fighting for.
WILDCARDS — surprisingly unlikely yet highly impactful events. Wildcards can creep up on you, cause dis-
ruptive change and wreak havoc in the world.
ALLIANCES — are strategic partnerships and collaborations between two or more Gangs that work toge-
ther to combine their affective powers to advance on their goals for the future.
HORIZONS — are key markers in time, set at 10 year intervals that are used to guid the general direction of
play and markers for describing emerging patterns of becoming.
Duration: 90 to 360 minutes
Taxonomy BY BECOMING
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

12. CONTROL WARS The goal of the game BY BECOMING
Set the battle arena
Align with a Gang!
Distribute player cards across each Gang
1
2
3
The battle arena is a ‘contact zone’ a social
space where to meet, clash and grapple with
each other.
Form 4 teams, Gangs of 2-5 people. As a team,
decide which Gang you want to play, there are
6 Gangs described below that you can choose
from but we also encourage you to consider
making your own that fit well to the context
and situation you are interested in exploring.
We were all created equal but are not one in
the same, nor do we share the same affordan-
ces and powers. The Joker is tasked with even-
ly distributing player cards to each Gang.
If going online we have already set the stage
for you! See link to a templated Miro board
Appoint 1 player to act as the Joker
Gang card
Use to empathise with, embody and deepen
individual and shared understanding of
what makes a Gang tick
Maneuver card
Use to help describe how the world has
changed as a result of tactics and the con-
sequences of those tactics on shaping the
world and daily life within each round.
Wildcards
Use to create a surprising and disrupti-
ve event that adds an additional level of
complexity to be negotiated by each Gang
in subsequent rounds. A Gang holding a
wildcard can use it in any round and must
be played at the end of the round where it
has been deployed.
Tactic card
Use Tactic cards as input to maneuvers
and set the basis for action and conflict
between Gangs in order to generate possi-
ble worlds.
Find each gang description in page 7
If going physical we suggest using a big sur-
face. It gets messy!
9
Note: There are 4 Wildcard cards in
total, these should be shuffled into
the Tactic cards before evenly distri-
buting them amongst the Gangs.
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

13. CONTROL WARS The goal of the game BY BECOMING
Become one with your Gang
MANEUVER
IT’S TIME TO MAKE YOUR MOVE
Create your battle maneuver
Figure your battle maneuver
4
5
Set your goal for the future
As a Gang, discuss what your Gang is about.
Use the questions posed to you on the Gang
card to better understand your Gangs world-
views and source of agency, fears, beliefs and
goals for the future.
Gangs are compelled to conquer the future
and take power over their adversaries by de-
signing a set of manoeuvres that describe the
decisions and actions taken by Gangs in each
round (horizon-based temporal jump).
Gangs must manifest a material representa-
tion of their maneuver within the battle arena
to illustrate the effective powers and how your
maneuver is embedded in the world.
Work to the creative constraints of your me-
dium. Here are some suggestions.
Each Gang is tasked with envisioning a hope-
ful future (i.e. 2050, 2080), a goal to reach that
future and a set of considerations for how
they might achieve that goal.
(repeat across 3 rounds ‘time jumps’
Combine tactics (cards) to create
a battle maneuver that moves you
closer to the future you are figh-
ting for.
Note: Each Gang has 9 different
tactics, they can only be deployed
once so use them wisely!
Online environment
Combine images found or taken
Physical environment
Combine figurines, or any other
found objects or materials
The combination of these becomes
a snapshot into an emerging world
in its state of becoming.
B
A
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

14. CONTROL WARS The goal of the game BY BECOMING
Time jump
Time jumps are about reflective and recursi-
ve action. Each ‘time jump’ (i.e. 2030 - 2040 -
2050),
Gang presents their ‘maneuvers’ within the
‘battle arena’ and the Joker summarizes the
result of each battle round and describes the
world-as-it-becomes and where the power lies
after the deployment of all maneuvers.
Iteration
After each round of temporal
jumps each Gang repeats step 5
and creates a new maneuver based
on the outcome and implications
of the set of the world shaping
maneuvers described by opposing
gangs and the Joker’s summary of
‘where the power lies’ within that
round. The Gang perceived to be
holding the power in the former
round is the first one to present
their maneuver in the subsequent
round.
Final round reflections and results6
Who conquered the future!?
The future’s not set, it is a debatable, contes-
table object of the imagination. It is a fictive
device for worlding with.
Players reflect on the generative worl-
ding-in-action sequence and discuss how
their subjectivities have been challenged or
transformed as a result of the eventuali-
ties rendered visible through the interplay
between Gangs. How did Gangs deal with
the limiting effects uncertainty has on our
collective imaginaries?
C
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

15. CONTROL WARS Gang descriptions BY BECOMING
Here you’ll find a description of each gang:
Techno-Libertarians
Humans are full of bugs. Overcoming our very
nature is a moral imperative. Connected techno-
logies are the best way to solve problems: our AI
systems foster organizational and individual inte-
lligence and efficiency. Improve yourself through
data, feedback loops and enthusiasm. We help you
to be agile and responsive. Don’t buy, live on-de-
mand and let yourself be upgraded without even
noticing it. We are post-ideology: the free market
is the best way to allocate resources and digital te-
chnologies are improving cities and states perfor-
mances.
Examples: Surveillance, Control, Peter Thiel + Elon
Musk, Entrepreneurs, Anarchocapitalists, Crypto-
capitalists
Leftist Accelerationists
Machines threaten to take away our jobs and
nothing could make us happier. We have the re-
sources to produce enough wealth to maintain a
decent standard of living on a planetary level. We
only have to redistribute 80% of the wealth that
is currently concentrated in the hands of the 20%
of the population. Let’s take over communication
and automation (infra)structures and we’ll take
the power. Let’s accelerate capitalism and AI will
free us from slavery. Let’s build a planetary com-
mons. Everything for everyone = Demand full au-
tomation.
Demand real universal basic income.
Demand the future
Examples: Decidim + AI = algorithm, Stallman,
Open Science Confederation, Makerspaces, Orga-
nised citizenship, Hackers, Richard Stallman.
Cyborg-shamanists
We reject commercial technology. Instead, we
seek complete autonomy by developing Open DIY
/ DIWO science, based on truly renewable, sustai-
nable technologies. We are networked micro-com-
munities that will build real, respectful livable al-
ternatives to hyper-individualistic, polluting and
surveillance-based capitalism. We are open to a
radically different vision of life and tech. We feel
the techno-shamanic connections to our ances-
tors and the Pachamama through magical tech-
no-pagan rituals. We are mutants made of flesh,
roots and wires. We rave and we love.
We are earth.
Examples: Ecologists/ Magic, Post-structuralism,
Enlivenment, Art, Anticapitalistic, Commonialis-
tic, Extinction Rebellion, Traditional Knowledges,
Decolonization
Flat earthers
Western civilization has reached a point of
nasty politeness. Progressive scholars, experts,
scientists, politicians are discriminating THE
REAL PEOPLE. Working people, people who care
about their family, their money. We have fun pla-
ying online, on social networks, we are pranksters.
We infiltrate Reddit, we love memes. Left-wing
people stink (have we already said so?).
We’re good at playing dirty in politics. Truth?
I have mine, and you won’t tell me what I have to
think. We will expose you.
Examples: Post-truth, Alt-Right, Conspirationists,
Negationists, Mysticism, Memetics, Flat-earther
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

16. CONTROL WARS Who should play? BY BECOMING
Control Wars is for everyone, but as a testing ground for transition, transformative action
and collaboration, we have found activists, designers, artists, academics, policy makers,
philosophers and basically anyone else trying to enact change in the world have had a
positive experience playing Control Wars, and we hope you will too!
We look forward to hearing what you think!
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS

17. CONTROL WARS A project of becoming, in a state of becoming BY BECOMING
Join us in surfacing alternatives for more (or less) hopeful futures!
VIRTUAL SDGC20 GRACE TURTLE / IGNASI AYATS
Becoming.network