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Game for Good: Play and Learn with Green Games
6/5/2023
If you’re one of the more than three billion people around the globe who play video games1, you know how absorbing they can be. But what if you could play games and feel good about doing what you love?
Developers have created a new and innovative way to connect and educate gamers about environmental issues called green games — the gamification of sustainability education and experiences that give users the ability to learn about more sustainable scenarios and steps they could take to address climate change.
With yearly revenues from video games reaching a whopping $140 billion dollars last year (more than Hollywood, Bollywood and music sales combined), and 666 million people now tuning in to watch Twitch and YouTube streams, channeling even a small portion of that attention or revenue towards green initiatives could help educate about more sustainable decision making and habits, a similar goal of the United Nations Environmental Program, the Playing for the Planet Alliance.
This World Environment Day, here are some green games to help you have fun and learn about other climate related initiatives that are important to you.
Minecraft: Sustainability City
Minecraft’s Sustainability City2 is a place to explore while examining a wide range of issues, including the components of a sustainable home, managing waste products, clean electricity generation, responsible forestry and more. As part of its Sustainable Home experience, students go on a virtual field trip and learn about the importance of sustainable materials in home building. Funds raised from these Minecraft games have already affected real-world change, paying for the planting of 150,000 trees across East Africa.
Ocean Heroes Game: Make Ocean Plastic Free
Ocean Heroes Game: Make Ocean Plastic Free3 from Dropledge is a green game that finds you as a scuba-diving hero on a mission to protect the ocean and its inhabitants from the dangers of plastic pollution. Throughout the game, the player is prompted to pledge their commitment to specific actions and bring awareness to the dire state of the planet’s oceans. Ocean Heroes gamifies the act of cleaning up the oceans and seeks to challenge and change gamer behavior subconsciously.
Eco
Eco4 is an online multi-player game where players work together — and with nature — to build a civilization advanced enough to save the planet from an imminent meteor strike, without destroying its fragile ecosystems. Players are also given data on how their resource use and pollution has affected the planet, so they can see the real-time effect on the environment of their actions. In Eco, progress is inevitable, and so is the potential end of humanity, unless we do something to change trajectories.
Imagine Earth
Imagine Earth5 by Serious Bros. presents itself as an economic strategy game, prompting you to maximize your resources to develop your new planet and its infrastructure, while fortifying and defending your population from invading hostile forces. Players forge diplomatic alliances to address environmental issues and preserve the quality of life for inhabitants. Only by balancing your growth sustainably will you be able to create a new thriving civilization.
