A climate change video game, also known as a global warming game, is a type of serious game.
As a serious game, it attempts to simulate and explore real life issues to educate players through an interactive experience. The issues particular to a global warming video game are usually energy efficiency and the implementation of green technology as ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus counteract global warming. Global warming games include traditional board games, video games, and other varieties such as role-playing and simulation-assisted multiplayer games.
Concept
The primary objectives of global warming games are threefold:
To develop the player's familiarity and knowledge of the issue of global warming and related issues To make the player aware of the challenges and obstacles that are faced when addressing global warming Occasionally, the games encourage players to develop ideas and solutions to global warming
The first objective is universal to global warming games. The issues surrounding global warming commonly included are emissions and the emission of other greenhouse gases, the melting of the polar ice caps, sea-level rise, natural disasters and massive changes to lifestyles caused by global warming. Games that do not go beyond the objective of knowledge and familiarity tend to be designed for younger audiences. Games designed for young children often only have the goal to engage the children enough to excite their attention to focus on these basic concepts.
The second objective is integrated into games in a variety of ways. Sometimes demonstrating the challenges of confronting global warming are put directly into the style of gameplay, e.g. to demonstrate the difficulty of international cooperation, players are made to represent different countries and are required to negotiate to fulfill game objectives. Other times, the game includes the challenges as a part of the mechanics, e.g. building 'green factories' is more expensive than building 'black factories.'
The final objective is shared by the most interactive and engaging global warming games. Developing solutions to global warming includes two major types of response: mitigation of emissions and global warming's effects, and adaptation to live sustainably in a new climate. Typically players are given a variety of different options so that they may come up with a number of different creative solutions. Sometimes players are even allowed freedom to create their own unique options to integrate into their strategy.
Design
Climate change games can be differentiated from other games that depict climate change for entertainment. As a type of serious game, climate change games often engage players with action-oriented goals and explicit challenges relating to the environment to encourage feedback and learning.
Impact
Climate change games have been identified as a useful educational tool. Meya & Eisenack identified a climate change game as a useful source of experiential learning, with a positive association with student views on political and international co-operation to address climate change. Pfirman et al. observed a game to have higher engagement and as effective in teaching and assessing content on climate change as reading an illustrated article.
However, more work is needed to confirm the extent of the impact of climate change games to broader audiences. Kwok notes that educational games may have a bias as they attract players that are already informed and concerned about climate change. Razali et al. have also observed that many climate change games are small and lack the sophistication to inform players on more complex aspects of climate change, such as the carbon cycle.
History
Climate change games were initially categorized as a subset of simulation video games relating to political and environmental issues. Ulrich identified 31 titles in 1997, with most games intended to instruct a professional or educational audience. A 2013 review by Reckien & Eisenack observed that the number and sophistication of climate change games accelerated in the late 2000s.
Notable examples
Act to Adapt Act to Adapt, developed by PLAN International, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, the Engagement Lab at Emerson College, and the Philippines Red Cross, is a giant board game that divides 10–30 players into a 'community team' and a 'hazard team.' The community team must prioritize and protect vulnerable community resources from the hazard team, which represents extreme weather events which become more intense and frequent with each round. The game was created as part of the Y-adapt curriculum, intended to help children understand climate change.
Adaptation Adaptation from Adaptation Scotland is a board game for teams of people using dice to move around the board, landing on squares which either cost money or save money due to destructive weather and adaptation investments. At the end of the game, the team with the most money wins. Adaptation Scotland would like players to play after experiencing their "Introduction to Adaptation" presentation, which is regularly updated. Interested parties can request the most recent version by emailing Adaptation Scotland.
Cantor's World Cantor's World, created by UNESCO MGIEP (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development) and Fields of View, requires players to act as countries' chief policymakers, and to set sustainable development goals and then invest in policies to realize those goals. Players are able to see the results of their policies in Gross National Development, Human Development Index and Inclusive Wealth Index, and it focuses on Sustainability Goal #13, "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts". The game is intended to be played in universities by students of public policy, economics, and sustainability studies.
As of 2023, this game is only available through universities.
Carbon City Zero Carbon City Zero is a global warming game published by the climate action charity Possible in January 2021.The game is a collaborative deck-building card game for 1–4 people in which players take on the role of city mayors working to develop sustainable cities by greening transport, transforming industries, and getting their citizens on board. Since its release on Kickstarter, the game has been made available as a free print-and-play download via PnP Arcade and as an online game on Tabletopia.
Climate Action Simulation Climate Action Simulation is an interactive role-playing game co-developed by Climate Interactive, the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative. for groups to explore the different stakeholders and solutions that need to cooperate in order to take action on climate change. It uses the En-ROADS simulator, allowing participants to assess the impacts of different solutions to climate change. The game mimics a United Nations emergency climate summit to develop a plan limiting global warming through collaboration between government, business, and civil society representatives.
Climate Adaptation Game Climate Adaptation Game was developed by Swedish National Knowledge Center for Climate Change Adaptation and Linköping University. In a review published by the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, the authors wrote that "aims to provide an experience of the impact of climate adaptation measures, and illustrates links with selected Agenda 2030 goals, which the player has to consider, while limiting impacts of hazardous climate events. The game design builds on the key goals in Education for Sustainable Development combining comprehensive views, action competence, learner engagement and pluralism. This study draws on game sessions and surveys with high school students in Sweden, and aims to assess to what extent different aspects of the game can support an increased understanding of the needs and benefits of adaptation actions."
Climate Challenge
Climate Challenge is a Flash-based simulation game produced by the BBC and developed by Red Redemption Ltd. Players manage the economy and resources of the 'European Nations' as its president, while reducing emissions of to combat climate change and managing crises. Climate Challenge is an environmental serious game, designed to give players an understanding of the science behind climate change, as well as the options available to policy makers and the difficulties in their implementation.
Coral Bleaching Coral Bleaching is a simple online game for young children. Players can experiment with the effects of changing the temperature, level of pollution and storms on bleaching coral.
Crabby's Reef Crabby's Reef is a classic arcade-style game created at SeriousGeoGames Lab in the Energy and Environment Institute at the University of Hull, UK. Players search for food and avoid predators. As they advance, they move into a future where increasing ocean acidity makes survival more difficult.
Cranky Uncle The Cranky Uncle game was developed by Monash University scientist John Cook, in collaboration with creative agency Goodbeast. It uses cartoons and critical thinking to counter climate change denial. It is available for free on iPhone, Android, and as a browser game.
CrowdWater game CrowdWater game is based on data from the CrowdWater app. comes from the Hydrology and Climate group (H2K) within the Department of Geography at the University of Zurich. App users contribute photos of water levels worldwide. Photo pairs from the same site can then be compared to each other in the CrowdWater game to verify the incoming data and to improve the quality of water level time series. Players can earn points, and every month they can win prizes.
Software company SPOTTERON developed and maintains the app and handles legal aspects of collecting such data.
Dissolving Disasters Dissolving Disasters was designed for the Rockefeller Foundation Workshop Series on Resilience, held in New York City during July and August 2011. This game was developed with support from the American Red Cross (International Services Team), and from a research grant to the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre from the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN Action Lab Innovation Fund). Played in an open, rectangular space where players have room to walk, participants act as subsistence farmers facing changing risks due to climate change.
EcoChains EcoChains, a board game designed by Joey J. Lee and Stephanie Pfirman and published by Jogolabs, requires players to use action cards to prevent climate change from destroying Arctic food chains.
Energy Transition Game The Energy Transition Game, intended for a wide range of stakeholders, from financial institutions and government officials to non-government organizations and community members, takes players through the process of developing a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in spite of resistance against such change.
Fate of the World
Fate of the World is a 2011 Microsoft Windows and Mac OS game developed and published by Red Redemption, the developers of Climate Challenge. It focuses on global governance, with goals ranging from improving living conditions in Africa, to preventing catastrophic climate change, to exacerbating it. It is based around an intricate model of populations, economic production and greenhouse emissions based on real-world data.
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