oil game
my friend joe taught a course on game programming at hong kong university. one of his students came up with the oil game. every turn a player cam drill wells, build solar plants, build tanks, or use tanks. oil is cheap but runs out. solar is expensive but produces energy forever. if you're playing by yourself or cooperating with everyone else then the best strategy is to drill wells and build solar plants. otherwise you need to build tanks. if you have more tanks then the other guy has more oil. so you have to use your tanks to take his oil. so he has to build more tanks to defend it. and nobody builds any solar plants. and of course when the oil runs out... everyone dies. it's a simple model of a complex system. but it's creepily close to the real world.