World Without OIl (WWO) Alternate Reality Game (ARG) was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and designed to yield a body of material that could be used as an educational tool well beyond its live game time period. The archive includes everything that transpired and includes video footage, blogs, images and photos, phone messages and all the (daily) pod(news)casts. People really did stuff. This is pre-tending in the true definition of that word: attend to the reality you want to call in, or in WWO parlance "play it before you live it".

The game launched on April 30th 2007 and represented a nine-month period, living through Peak Oil intensity.
The newly activated WWO website got half million hits on the first day and subsequently 1800 players (with many more 'lurkers' - choosing to just track the drama unfolding..). This game attracted more non-gamer folk than had ever been recorded playing an ARG online, reflecting that 'Peak Oil' is a big deal issue to a lot of different people.
We saw players from all over the USA, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Iraq, Iran, Russia; really from all over.
The concocted 'Headline' designed to launch the Peak Oil game was "$4 a Gallon Looms at the Pump". Two days before the game launched, this just happened to be the real headline in the California San Jose Mercury News.
The game designers most certainly had their finger on the pulse.

Jane McGonigal was a core player/designer, with her solid track record in ARGs for social transformation
http://www.avantgame.com/