STUDENT GUIDE 1 OF 2
Why Open the Rules
You advise actors in five historical countries and an invented final country. Your task is to explain how political competition becomes possible. Another actor can refuse your advice; no choice guarantees an outcome or earns a democracy score.
Start with the right settings
| Mode | What is required |
|---|---|
| Explore | Choose countries freely. Writing, name and class are optional; claim checks may be skipped. |
| Practice | Choose countries freely. Writing, name and class are optional. Complete claim checks with feedback and retries. |
| Class | Enter your name and class. Complete the teacher’s assigned countries, claim checks and required writing. All five are selected by default; the teacher may assign at least two. |
Work through a country
- Read your role, situation and all three evidence cards. Identify what your actor wants and who could gain or lose.
- Choose your first advice. Explain who might respond and why, using a documented card detail. A label such as KR3 helps identify your evidence.
- Read the modeled response and tradeoff. Make the second decision; its written reason is optional.
- Read the documented history, observed rule change, number and source key. Check one claim. In Practice and Class, use feedback and retry until the supported claim is selected.
- Reconsider an earlier claim. Say why you would keep it, change it or leave it uncertain. Name a historical actor, action and changed rule or problem; support the link with a documented detail.
- Use the historical number to test that same claim. Explain what it counts, who or what is included in the total, and one conclusion it cannot show and why.
A worked interpretation opens after your first committed check, even if it is wrong, or after an Explore skip. It is an explanation to test. Your own earlier claim, historical evidence and use of the number still matter.
Class writing floors
Each assigned country: first prediction 10 words; second-decision reason optional; reconsideration 25 words. Final file: comparison 40, Orvessa prediction 40, reflection 20. All five countries total 13 required entries and at least 275 words; two total 7 entries and at least 170 words. These are length checks. Your instructor reviews the explanation.
Created by Yoav Duman. Clear notes are welcome. All facts needed for the activity are in the game; opening external sources is optional.
STUDENT GUIDE 2 OF 2
Compare transfer and save
Keep evidence and prediction separate
A documented fact records an event, rule, result or stated reason. An inference is your explanation of what the evidence may mean. A modeled response is invented. It can help you think about a possibility, but it is not a historical quotation, proof of a motive or a certain prediction. Your route did not cause the documented history.
Compare any two completed countries
The final file opens after all assigned countries in Class, or any two in Explore and Practice. For each of two completed historical countries, explain how two factors could have worked together to change an actor’s choice and a concrete political rule or problem. Use one specific historical detail for each country. Explain one similarity or difference and one uncertain link.
Advise invented Orvessa
All parliamentary seats are already open. Parties dispute the voter list; time and staff are limited. The governing party fears losing every cabinet post and offers temporary posts to qualifying losing parties. Opposition parties want public checks and a clear end to sharing, but have not agreed to participate. Your team can support checks and arrange talks; it cannot order other actors to act.
- Before feedback, choose your priority, identify the actor whose choice it could change and explain why. Use one specific detail from each of any two completed historical countries. A contrast counts. Explain how having every seat already open affects the comparison, and name one risk or task your plan leaves unresolved.
- After feedback, quote or restate one claim from your original prediction. Explain why you would keep, change or leave it uncertain using history, a relevant difference or evidence you still need. For that same claim, identify an actor who could refuse your plan and one finding that would change your priority.
Save and submit your own report
Work saves in this browser on this device. Return to the same game location in the same browser profile. Website addresses have separate storage, so work on yoavduman.com does not automatically appear on Possiblestates.com. Download a JSON Backup before switching devices or addresses, resetting or clearing browser data. Restore can load that backup and replaces the current copy.
In Class, finish the final writing and choose Mark writing ready for review. Use Download text report or Print / Save PDF, check the file, then submit it through Canvas or your assigned class system. The game does not automatically submit answers or grade writing. The report is for review; the JSON backup is for restoring work.
Full record and sources exports a longer record. Replays and later dated revisions are optional; earlier answers remain. If saving pauses or is unavailable, download a backup before leaving the page.
Enter your own answers directly. Paste and text drop are disabled in For Class response fields. Progress backups stay available. Pasting is available in exploration modes.