Suez Canal Game Shows Simplified Perspective on the Challenges Posed to Trade Ships

Late in March 2021, the Suez Canal played host to a maritime incident that gave rise to economic consternation and a seemingly proportionate degree of levity in online forums. When a container ship got wedged between the two banks of a narrow section of the canal that does not allow ships to simultaneously pass in opposite directions, a fair fraction of the world's trade was ground to a costly halt. While web users took to making jokes at the expense of the institutions involved, news agencies were left with the task of conveying how difficult it is for any captain to navigate a large ship through the canal's narrow channel.

CNN attempted to give readers an extremely simplified perspective on the challenges posed by the canal to trade ships by uploading an interactive feature comprising HTML syntax and attached CSS and JavaScript sheets to its website. In it, the "player" is to guide a long, narrow shape representing a cargo vessel north through a small segment of the Suez Canal. Rather than being granted precise methods of control, the player can only adjust two web sliders representing the vessel's propulsion and steering systems, both of which must be carefully adjusted to guide the ship through the route without suffering a single collision.

Some find it easy to complete the ship's course on the interactive feature. However, the game reveals that this is not even one twentieth of the total course a ship must navigate before reaching open sea. That, together with how much more slowly the ship would proceed in real life, begins to give players the impression that captains must contend with the stress of navigating the canal's course flawlessly for several hours straight. Meanwhile, the onscreen prompt the game displays when first opened makes it clear that captains also have to contend with a host of other factors that may stop the ship in its tracks. For example, the ground bordering each of the opposite-facing banks is naturally shallower than in the center, meaning real-world ships must stay perfectly centered to minimize the risk of running aground. For more information click here https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2021/03/cnnix-steership/.