I thought about the contest and wanted to do something different than the video game contest with the wiz kid genius or Tron type game where the protagonist enters the game (too much like Ready Player One.) So I got to thinking about the hot game that all the kids are playing now and how interactive it all is. Minecraft is (or was) all the rage and a little while back Little Big Planet was amazing for how people could build wonderful creations from their imaginations and share it with the world. I was an avid gamer in my youth and also loved the game Risk. This contest brought this idea out of a contest that is run by a group of investors who want to colonize the planet Mars and use this platform as a means of funding. It is also a social experiment to see how humans now could colonize the planet in the future given equal access to everyone to land claims.

It all starts with a worldwide advertising campaign with only the words "Project Mars" appearing everywhere in every language around the world simultaneously. After generating a flurry of Twitter activity and meta-data, the details emerge. On July 20, 2019, 50 years after the first landing on the moon, everyone will have access to Project Mars, a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) where the first stage is to claim land on the red planet; second stage is to build your creation; and the third stage is colonization.

Given the technical requirements to play, the backers donate top tier computers to libraries around the world so that less fortunate people will have access to play. Because the creators want the game to start fair, all players will have the same speed regardless of their computer power.

Prior to launch, all individuals who register will have research materials available on possible habitable sites on the newly terraformed planet. Once the game is active, all players will launch and mark their territory in a first-come-first-served race stage.

Seeing the possibility of new revenue, organized crime groups, military dictatorships and global corporations try to gain an advantage and try to take over the game in whatever way possible.

Emma Le knows the value of land and although she can’t afford the custom computer, she is determined and with her knowledge of human history, she believes she knows how to affect her role in the game and gain an advantage. Can one girl who grew up with next to nothing take on billion dollar corporations, organized crime syndicates and military dictatorships in a winner take all game of global proportions?