ported2browserTHE INDEPENDENT FIELD GUIDE

SIMULATION / WEB-NATIVE

The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds.

The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds is a playable explanation of networks by Nicky Case. You draw and remove connections between people, then observe how a network’s structure changes what spreads. Its exercises turn an abstract diagram into something you can alter. Read each local rule before changing the graph, and compare a small edit with the previous arrangement before drawing a broad conclusion.

Web-nativePointer first
Open original game ↗ (opens a new tab)

Opens the project’s game host.

The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds project illustration
Original The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds artwork published by its creator. See the image and source notes below; this is not a playthrough by Ported2Browser. Source & credits (opens a new tab)
EXPLORE THIS COLLECTIONStories, worlds & tactics ↗

YOUR FIRST SESSION

Your first few moves.

Jump to controls ↓
  1. 01

    Read the current network rule

    Identify what the connected people do.

  2. 02

    Edit one connection

    Keep the rest of the arrangement unchanged.

  3. 03

    Run and compare

    Follow the spread before moving to the next exercise.

KEEP THIS HANDY

Controls at a glance.

Pointer drag
Draw connections when the current exercise permits it.
Cut / remove interaction
Follow the current prompt for removing a connection.
Advance / simulation controls
Run the current example and continue after observing it.

Edges are part of the rules

A connection determines which people can influence one another in the current exercise. Read whether the active model concerns a simple spread, a threshold or another behavior before treating every edge as equivalent. The project introduces those ideas through a sequence, so the same gesture can appear in exercises that answer different questions.

Compare one network edit

As an experiment, add or remove a single permitted connection and watch the result. Keeping the rest of the graph fixed gives you a clearer account of what changed. A visually crowded diagram is not automatically better or worse; the behavior also depends on the model being demonstrated and where that connection sits.

Keep models separate from real people

The playable post uses simplified people and explicit rules to explain network effects. Use it to reason about those mechanisms, while retaining the limits of the model. It does not measure an actual community or predict a person’s behavior from a drawn connection. The original repository supplies credits and the implementation behind the exercises.

BEFORE YOU CLOSE THE TAB

What happens to your progress?

A portable campaign backup was not established by the reviewed documentation. Treat the linked game and this site’s Saved shortlist as separate records.

Check the save and backup guide ↗

A FEW USEFUL ANSWERS

Before the next click.

Is this a multiplayer social network?

It is an interactive explanation with editable network models, not a service for messaging other players.

Do all sections use the same spreading rule?

Read the active explanation. The sequence introduces different network behaviors and assumptions.

KEEP GOING

A useful next read.

The Evolution of Trust: compare the same experiment. ↗

Follow the source.

Nicky Case; music by Komiku; individual sound credits in README. Licence notice. Public-domain original work; third-party sound licences vary.

Latest collected source change: Merge pull request #108 from SMSadegh19/master (opens a new tab) . Repository activity does not identify the hosted game version.

All media and source credits ↗
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