MERCATOR WAGER: A Map Distortion Game

Mercator Wager is a strategy based geography game that teaches students how map projections distort the world. Two real country outlines appear on a Mercator projection map, with their names shown clearly. Students must ignore how big they look on the screen and instead bet coins on which country is actually larger in real life. Every correct choice earns coins. Every wrong choice loses them, making each round a meaningful decision.

The game runs for ten rounds and starts each player with one hundred coins. Before every matchup, students choose how much they want to wager, then decide between Country A or Country B. Because Mercator makes countries near the poles appear much larger than they really are, familiar pairs like Greenland versus Congo or Norway versus Egypt create powerful moments of surprise and learning.

You will receive a game guide with a student worksheet 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.