The OSG Role System: A Living Ecosystem for Knowledge Transmission
Beyond Traditional Learning: A Revolutionary Approach
Most educational systems treat learning as a pipeline: students receive knowledge from teachers, complete assessments, and move on. The Open Serious Game (OSG) Role System fundamentally reimagines this model by creating a living ecosystem where every participant becomes both learner and transmitter.
This isn’t just about playing games to learn—it’s about designing communities where knowledge transmission becomes viral, each person empowered to pass on what they’ve learned while continuing their own development journey.
The Core Philosophy: Fluid Responsibility Over Hierarchy
The OSG role system is built on a revolutionary principle: it’s not a ladder to climb, but a living ecosystem to inhabit. People move between roles, take on multiple roles simultaneously, and contribute in unique ways. The focus is not on hierarchy, but on fluid responsibility, shared learning, and collective growth.
This creates something unprecedented: a self-organizing learning community where advancement means increased capacity to help others advance, creating exponential rather than linear growth.
The 10-Role Ecosystem Overview
🧐 Curious → 🎮 Player → 🔍 Explorer → 🤝 Co-Animator → 🎤 Lead Animator
↓
✍️ Creator → 🌐 Game Community Booster → 🏘️ Local Community Booster → 🌍 Ambassador → 🧩 OSG Method Designer
| Role # | Role Name | Primary Function | Key Transmission |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🧐 Curious | Discovery and initial engagement | Feedback and meaning |
| 2 | 🎮 Player | Learning through play | Energy and participation value |
| 3 | 🔍 Explorer | Organizing without animating | Bridging needs to solutions |
| 4 | 🤝 Co-Animator | Supporting facilitation | Confidence and example |
| 5 | 🎤 Lead Animator | Leading sessions | Pedagogical core and transmission desire |
| 6 | ✍️ Creator | Designing transmissible games | New tools and methods |
| 7 | 🌐 Game Community Booster | Nurturing game communities | Long-term engagement culture |
| 8 | 🏘️ Local Community Booster | Strengthening local transmission | Organizational knowledge sharing |
| 9 | 🌍 Ambassador | Spreading across communities | Cross-community experience |
| 10 | 🧩 OSG Method Designer | Evolving the method | Framework updates and bridges |
Foundation Roles: The Learning Core (Roles 1-5)
Role 1: 🧐 Curious - “I’m stepping out of my usual routine”
The Gateway Role Every transformation begins with curiosity. The Curious role represents individuals who’ve taken their first step out of routine learning approaches, drawn by the promise of something different.
What They Learn:
- Recognition of their own transmission potential
- Introduction to the OSG method and community
- Awareness that learning can be fundamentally different
What They Transmit:
- Feedback to organizers: Critical input that improves experiences
- Meaning to designers: Validation that the work matters
Bridge Function: From unknown to engagement
Role 2: 🎮 Player - “I learn through play!”
The Experience Core Players dive into the actual experience of learning through serious games. This role demonstrates that education doesn’t require suffering—it can be joyful, engaging, and deeply effective.
What They Learn:
- Subject matter content through gameplay
- Integration of fun and productivity
- Transmission methods through observing facilitators
What They Transmit:
- Energy to creators: Enthusiasm that validates game design
- Value to animators: Participation that makes facilitation meaningful
Bridge Function: From skepticism to belief in the method
Role 3: 🔍 Explorer (Éclaireur) - “I identify needs and organize”
The Strategic Connector Explorers understand the power of serious games and become strategic matchmakers, connecting games with contexts that need them. They organize without necessarily facilitating.
What They Learn:
- Needs assessment and game matching
- Promotion techniques and resource utilization
- Strategic thinking about learning interventions
What They Transmit:
- Value communication to host organizations
- Excitement generation for new participants
Bridge Function: From individual experience to collective opportunity
Role 4: 🤝 Co-Animator - “I start co-animating with guidance”
The Transition Role Co-Animators represent the crucial transition from participant to facilitator. They experience leadership in a supported environment, building confidence and skills.
What They Learn:
- Game structure and flow mastery
- Communication and leadership experimentation
- Collaboration and shared responsibility
What They Transmit:
- Game content with growing confidence
- Modeling for other players considering the transition
Bridge Function: From consumption to co-creation
Role 5: 🎤 Lead Animator - “What you play today, you can transmit tomorrow”
The Facilitation Mastery Lead Animators take primary responsibility for sessions, embodying the core OSG principle that every participant can become a facilitator.
What They Learn:
- Full session animation with intent and clarity
- Value proposition articulation
- Co-animator support and development
What They Transmit:
- Pedagogical core of the game experience
- Transmission desire in participants
- Invitation to continuity of the learning chain
Bridge Function: From learning to teaching, from individual to collective development
Creation and Community Roles: The Expansion Core (Roles 6-10)
Role 6: ✍️ Creator - “I design games built for transmission”
The Innovation Engine Creators invent and adapt serious games, ensuring they’re designed for viral transmission rather than one-time use.
What They Learn:
- Experience modeling into engaging, teachable formats
- Game transformation into transmissible resources
- Documentation and guide creation for sustainability
What They Transmit:
- New methodologies for play, teaching, and collaboration
- Tools and templates that enable others to create
Bridge Function: From existing knowledge to new learning vehicles
Role 7: 🌐 Game Community Booster - “Let’s grow the community around this game”
The Sustainability Specialist Game Community Boosters ensure individual games develop thriving, long-term communities that keep improving and expanding.
What They Learn:
- Community creation and animation
- Long-term relevance maintenance
- Onboarding and retention strategies
What They Transmit:
- Collaboration culture around specific games
- Long-term engagement models
Bridge Function: From single sessions to sustained communities
Role 8: 🏘️ Local Community Booster - “Let’s amplify transmission culture”
The Cultural Architect Local Community Boosters work across multiple games and people, embedding transmission culture into the fabric of teams and organizations.
What They Learn:
- Cross-game event organization
- Learning culture structuring
- Multi-role coordination
What They Transmit:
- Macro-level vision of organizational knowledge sharing
- Cultural transformation toward transmission-focused thinking
Bridge Function: From individual games to transmission ecosystems
Role 9: 🌍 Ambassador - “We ignite new communities”
The Expansion Catalyst Ambassadors support external groups in discovering and adapting the OSG method, carrying experience across community boundaries.
What They Learn:
- Unfamiliar environment navigation
- Method initiation through tailored interventions
- Cross-cultural adaptation strategies
What They Transmit:
- Experience transfer from mature to emerging communities
- Method adaptation for different contexts
Bridge Function: From local mastery to global propagation
Role 10: 🧩 OSG Method Designer - “The method is a serious game too”
The Meta-Level Architect Method Designers treat the OSG system itself as an evolving game, continuously refining and expanding the framework.
What They Learn:
- Meta-level systems thinking
- Framework development and evolution
- Method documentation and resource creation
What They Transmit:
- Evolutionary updates to the entire system
- New frameworks that enhance transmission
- Bridges between all roles, communities, and learning systems
Bridge Function: From method application to method evolution
Key Design Principles
1. Non-Linear Progression
Unlike traditional advancement systems, OSG roles can be:
- Simultaneously held: Someone can be a Player in one game while being a Creator in another
- Temporarily adopted: Roles based on current contribution, not permanent status
- Skipped or reversed: Direct paths to contribution based on skills and interests
2. Transmission-Focused Architecture
Every role is designed around the question: “How does this person become better at helping others grow?” rather than “How does this person advance their own status?”
3. Bridge Building as Core Function
Each role explicitly focuses on building bridges—connecting people, knowledge, communities, and opportunities. The system creates network effects rather than individual advancement.
4. Emergent Leadership
Leadership emerges from contribution and community recognition rather than appointment or hierarchy. This creates authentic authority based on value creation.
5. Meta-Level Evolution
The system is designed to evolve itself, with higher roles focused on improving the framework for everyone rather than extracting value from it.
Practical Implementation
Starting a Community
- Begin with Role 1-2: Focus on creating curious people and great player experiences
- Identify natural Explorers: Find people who love connecting others with opportunities
- Support Co-Animator transitions: Make the leap from player to facilitator as smooth as possible
- Document everything: Enable Creator and Community Booster roles through good resources
Organizational Integration
- Map existing roles to OSG equivalents
- Identify transmission opportunities in current workflows
- Support multi-role individuals rather than forcing single-role thinking
- Measure transmission metrics alongside traditional performance indicators
Community Health Indicators
- Role distribution: Healthy communities have people in all 10 roles
- Bridge activity: Frequent connection-making between roles
- Transmission velocity: How quickly people move from learning to teaching
- Evolution indicators: Regular improvements to methods and resources
Connection to Broader Systems
The OSG Role System embodies several advanced concepts:
Viral Knowledge Transmission: Each role designed to create more transmitters than consumers
Collective Intelligence: The community becomes smarter than any individual contributor
Compound Thinking: Each person’s development compounds the development of others
Systems Thinking: Focus on relationships and emergent properties rather than individual components
Network Effects: Value increases exponentially rather than linearly with growth
Challenges and Considerations
Implementation Challenges
- Complexity management: 10 roles can feel overwhelming initially
- Cultural resistance: Organizations used to hierarchical thinking may struggle
- Resource allocation: Supporting all roles requires diverse resources
- Quality control: Maintaining standards across distributed facilitation
Success Factors
- Start small: Begin with 3-4 core roles and expand gradually
- Focus on bridges: Emphasize connection-making over role advancement
- Document relentlessly: Make every role’s contributions visible and replicable
- Celebrate transmission: Recognize people for helping others grow, not just personal achievement
The Revolutionary Potential
The OSG Role System represents a fundamental shift from extraction-based to contribution-based learning communities. Instead of institutions extracting value from learners, learners become the value-creation engine of the community.
This creates:
- Self-sustaining growth that doesn’t depend on central resources
- Resilient communities that can survive and thrive independently
- Exponential impact where each participant multiplies rather than just adds value
- Meaningful purpose where individual growth directly serves collective advancement
Call to Action
For Individuals:
- Identify which OSG role most appeals to you currently
- Look for opportunities to bridge between different roles in your current contexts
- Start with curiosity—what learning community could you help create or join?
For Organizations:
- Map your current learning ecosystem to the OSG role framework
- Identify where transmission bottlenecks exist in your knowledge sharing
- Experiment with supporting multi-role individuals rather than single-function specialists
For Communities:
- Assess which roles are missing from your current learning activities
- Design interventions that help people progress through the role system naturally
- Focus on creating bridges rather than advancing individuals
The Future of Learning
The OSG Role System points toward a future where learning communities are living ecosystems rather than static institutions. Where every participant is empowered to contribute to collective intelligence. Where knowledge transmission becomes viral because it’s designed into the very structure of how people interact.
This isn’t just about better training or more effective workshops. It’s about reimagining how human knowledge and capability can be shared, grown, and sustained in ways that serve both individual development and collective advancement.
The game is already beginning. The question is: which role will you play?
Learn more about the OSG method and join the community at openseriousgames.org
This framework is part of a broader collection of systems thinking methodologies. Explore more at quach.fr/frameworks