A data-centre campus under construction in rural Virginia on a spring morning: three finished halls, a fourth still a steel frame, a crane and a new substation.
Featured · the newest gameWhy this is featuredOne place on the platform is featured at a time, and no game pays for it. For now it belongs to our newest game, which leads the site while it opens. Otherwise it goes to a game in its launch week, or to a scenario booked for a week of its own, and then passes in turn to the game seen least this week.The Trail · The data center

One question and you are in the room.

Real situations from this week's news, as games you can finish in minutes — then what the real people did.

The Trail · Loudoun County, Virginia

Who is paying?

A tech giantAn AI startupA local developer
Play the data centerPick a situation
LiveLoudoun County, VirginiaThe TrailInsatiable demand for data — can you build a data center in America?The project lead on a one-gigawatt AI campusOpen the situation
Loudoun County, VirginiaNewark, New Jersey

The games

Pick a game, then a situation

Each one is a different way into this week's news, and each situation is finished in minutes.
All games

The Trail

Data center–style game

A real undertaking, a hard deadline, and the months roll by whether you are ready or not.

5–8 minutes
Open The Trail

Loudoun County, Virginia

Featured · the newest gameWhy this is featuredOne place on the platform is featured at a time, and no game pays for it. For now it belongs to our newest game, which leads the site while it opens. Otherwise it goes to a game in its launch week, or to a scenario booked for a week of its own, and then passes in turn to the game seen least this week.

Technology and energy

Insatiable demand for data — can you build a data center in America?

Lead the build of a one-gigawatt AI campus for a tenant who needs it switched on by October 2029. Choose who pays and where, stock up on what takes years to arrive, and get it past the county vote, the queue for power, cooling and the substation.

The project lead on a one-gigawatt AI campus5–8 minutesIn the Living 3D look

Play the data centerAbout this scenario

Delay Dominoes

A one-minute puzzle from the week's newsNew

One real disruption, one minute: move two spare planes and stop the delays spreading.

1 minute
Open Delay Dominoes

How it plays

Every game, one decision after another

The TrailData center–style game5–8 minutes

  1. 1Choose who you are and whereEvery scenario opens on its first question — who is paying, where you build, which way round. Your answer sets your money, your room for error and what the trouble will look like.
  2. 2Stock up for laterBefore the clock starts you buy what you will need: crews, a fund, a slot booked years ahead. At least one of them takes so long to arrive that if you skip it now, nothing you do later will bring it in time.
  3. 3Watch the months roll byThe clock moves whether you are ready or not. Set the pace, rest your people, and deal with what arrives — most of the trouble is caused by something you chose earlier.
  4. 4Make the five callsAt each crossing a person brings you a decision: a county vote, a regulator's committee, a strait. There is no right answer printed anywhere; there is what it costs, and what it closes off.
How to play The Trail
The county votes on your land. Four ways to win it.
The county votes on your land. Four ways to win it.
The months roll by, and the campus goes up.
The months roll by, and the campus goes up.
A ribbon at night: the halls switch on.
A ribbon at night: the halls switch on.

Why it is real

The real calls this week

The decisions real people made this week, with the reasons they gave — one from each game's world, every one sourced.

Sep 24, 2026

Oracle

Sent a force-majeure notice on a Stargate campus in New Mexico

Oracle sent a force-majeure notice on a Stargate campus in New Mexico, which lets it delay payments if the site misses its 2028 target. The gas pipeline meant to supply it has slipped to February 2027.

TechCrunchThe Trail · The data center
What is really happening

Reported Sep 24, 2026

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford and the FAA

Pressed Congress for an additional $10 billion, on top of the $12.5 billion already provided, to replace the air traffic control system

After the outage, FAA chief Bryan Bedford said ‘we need to get rid of the old system.’ The FAA is asking Congress for $10 billion more, on top of $12.5 billion, to modernize.

The reason given: When the old system fails there is no redundancy of the kind a modern architecture would give, Bedford says; the FAA says the incident underscores the need for funding to modernize aging infrastructure

The Hill, via Yahoo NewsDelay Dominoes · The Northeast ground stop
What is really happening

What players did

Since the games opened

1,583

runs started

75%

reached an ending — 1,191 ribbons and headstones

11%

of endings were shared — 133 in all

Counted across every open game, to Sep 30, 2026.

The conversation

What players are arguing about

Open the Community
Four friends on a rooftop terrace in the late afternoon, one holding out a phone while the others laugh and argue over it.

Read without an account.
Post with a nickname, and your run comes with you.

From the blog

The stories behind the games

The blog
Two house-sized power transformers on a port quay beside a heavy-haul trailer, a worker small beside them.Sep 29The part nobody ordersTravellers waiting in an airport departures hall in the evening, a family asleep across a row of seats, jets in the rain beyond the glass.Sep 25The outage is over. Why is your flight still delayed?

What's new

Updates from the games

  1. The Trail · Sep 29

    This week's real calls are in

  2. Delay Dominoes · Sep 28

    Bigger planes on a phone

  3. The Trail · Sep 27

    Your run is kept every month

  4. The Chain · Sep 26

    Coming soon: The Chain

  5. The Trail · Sep 22

    Virginia now tells you the route that works

Your first call

One question, and you are in the room.

Pick a situation and answer its first question — that is the whole sign-up. Nothing to buy, nothing to install.

2 games open2 situations to play9 real calls, every one sourced
Play the data centerOr pick another situation

Before you start

What people ask first

Every question, in Help
Is it free?

Completely. There are no payments, no subscriptions and no prizes, in any game. Your record is status, not money, so there is nothing to buy and nothing to cash out.

Is there a right answer?

No, and that's the point. Every situation is built so there is no clean, correct move; each choice gives something up. What matters is how you read an unclear moment and commit to a call. Some runs end well and some end badly, and the ending tells you why.

Is what happens in a game real?

The situation is. The games are drawn from real events, and the real calls each one shows are what named people and bodies actually decided, each linked to where it was reported. The people inside a game are invented, and its outcomes are simulations, not predictions. Nothing here is financial, legal, medical or professional advice.

Do you use my data? Is it private?

We keep it light. You can play without an account, the browser cookie only holds a random id, and there are no payments, so there is nothing to sell. The privacy policy says exactly what is kept, and how to have a copy of it or have it erased.