Tragedy of the Lake: A Game About Incentives

The Tragedy of the Lake is a multiplayer style economics simulation where students compete against three AI fishing rivals for profit while sharing a single, fragile ecosystem. Everyone pulls fish from the same lake, and every fish taken reduces what remains for tomorrow. Players choose how aggressively to fish each day using small nets, medium nets, or massive trawlers, trading off short term profit against the long term survival of the resource.

The lake begins with a healthy fish population that regenerates by fifteen percent each night, but if total fishing exceeds what nature can replace, the population begins to collapse. If the lake ever hits zero fish, the game ends immediately in ecological disaster. As fish drop below forty, the rival fishermen panic and begin overfishing, creating a runaway chain reaction that mirrors real world environmental collapse.

Players must read both the lake and their rivals. Greedy Greg always takes as much as he can, Copy Cat mirrors the player’s last move, and Panic Pete becomes reckless when the lake looks weak. This creates a social dilemma where doing the responsible thing can be punished if others do not cooperate, a core feature of the tragedy of the commons.

You receive a game guide with a student worskheet and a direct link to the online game for sharing with your students. If you are a teacher and are worried about the game being blocked by your school's server, contact us; there are two easy ways to make the game available besides the direct link.

One license per educator.