title: Story and Simulations for Serious Games: Tales from the Trenches
author:  Nick Iuppa 
description: "How to create a simulation where participants have a sense of freedom and personal control while still maintaining the structure necessary for an effective story is a difficult task indeed. This book examines how to create an engaging, effective story (necessary to teach participants), while relating practical considerations of building a simulation. - Tech Trends, April 2007
zlib_text: # The Hanging Game
  
    1. [](text/ch001.xhtml#section)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * 
  
  
  [Cover](text/cover.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover image](../media/epub-to-image.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  #
  
  
  _Sometimes a game, even a sacred game, can have far-reaching consequences. In
  bear country young Skye learns just how far she is willing to go to play the
  game properly in order carry on the traditions that came before her and will
  most likely continue long after she is gone._
  
  
  _This short story was acquired for Tor.com by consulting editor[Ann
  VanderMeer](https://www.tor.com/tags/edited%20by%20Ann%20VanderMeer)._
  
  
  
  
  
  There was a game we used to play when we were kids—the hanging game, we called
  it. I don’t know where it started, but I talked to a girl down in Lawford
  once, and she remembered playing it with jump ropes when she was about eleven,
  so I guess we weren’t the only ones. Maybe Travers learned it from Dad, and
  from father to father, forever on up. I don’t know. We couldn’t use jump
  ropes, though, not those of