Eco: We stopped the meteor, but we couldn’t stop ourselves

Over the last month, I spent most of my time playing an “educational” game called Eco. Strange Loop Games has launched Eco in Early Access, and the developer sells a pack of 100 copies for $500. The idea is that schools would have multiple classrooms of students all playing together in the same, Minecraft-like world.

Eco is educational because every player’s actions have consequences. If you put multiple oil drills on a beach, you’ll eventually suck that land dry of fossil fuels. If you exclusively hunt bison, they’ll go extinct. If you buy iron in your store or through a contract for a lot of money, people will stop doing other jobs to track down iron instead.