There’s no shortage of games that encourage their players to think about the changing environment in the world in which they live. Some games show a ravaged future Earth like Horizon Forbidden West or Forever Skies, while others like Haven or Final Fantasy 7 show other worlds ravaged by environmental devastation. The United Nations program Playing for the Planet hopes that seeing these messages makes gamers ask what they can do differently to avert such outcomes.
Game Rant caught up with Playing for the Planet at Gamescom LATAM and spoke to Lisa Pak from the UN initiative. One of the things Playing for the Planet has done, in partnership with the industry, is answer the question of what an individual gamer can do.
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Playing for the Planet Suggests That Power is in Players’ Hands
While averting the worst effects of climate change can seem an insurmountable task and the amount any one person can do is limited, Pak says her group hopes gaming can prompt what she calls “green activation,” a desire in gamers to do more. With over 3 billion gamers in the world, prompting even small actions from the gaming community could add up to a dramatic shift in the way the Earth’s future plays out—the difference between Forever Skies’ Venus-like Earth and something habitable and even beautiful like the Earth depicted in Star Ocean.
Despite some hefty climate footprints across the gaming industry, no one at Playing for the Planet expects gamers to stop gaming, says Pak. Rather, they encourage gamers to be mindful of their energy sources and consumption, as well as make their commitment to slowing climate change clear to the publishers and developers they support.
“Of course, gaming is not going anywhere, as people should continue to game, but there are these little things. Looking at which devices you use, how you have them set up, and your electricity connection. That’s how you, as a gamer, can make an impact.”
One of Pak’s key points is that no climate action is too small and that it can even be preferable to do small, easy things than expect great sacrifices from people who may not be prepared to make such a commitment. Games can actually inspire these actions. For instance, Cities: Skylines players are aware of the issues caused by traffic congestion and the importance of public transit even without environmental considerations. Mars terraforming sim Per Aspera illustrates how to power expansive cities with realistic clean energy from solar to wind to nuclear sources of electricity. Civilization 6 also illustrates clearly the ways a society can mitigate damage done to the environment.
It isn’t just city builders and strategy games, though. Means of addressing climate change can be communicated in roleplaying games, survival crafting titles, and far more, and often can do so on a very personal level. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also shows a strong, active, and green message for players, as does the cloud-surfing survival game Aloft.
“I’m really thinking, ‘How can we turn that into nudging someone to act and do something different?’ In the end, we all get that it’s important that we think about doing things differently. You know, maybe when you’re gaming, thinking about where your electricity comes from and then optimizing your entire house. Or, when we work in the industry, how can we use the tools and things that we have to do something different?”
Gamescom LATAM
Ten Ways Gamers Can Go Green
Playing for the Planet knows that not everyone can do everything to fight climate change, but Pak is personally excited to know how climate interest across games, overall, has become. In particular, at Gamescom LATAM in Brazil, she was excited by how eager the attendees were to learn about her program.
“I love the positivity here. Everyone’s very open. When I try to talk to people about what I do, it was always like, ‘Wow, how can we get involved? How can we talk more?’…When the effects of climate change are so close, I think it takes a very prominent spot in everything that we can do here as well. It’s also the main part of why people are so excited to hear and to talk about these things.”
Playing for the Planet published a list of things gamers can do right now, on a personal level, to better positively impact climate change on a day-to-day basis. In their report, Playing for the Planet recommends gamers:
- Know how to find and enable power-saving settings on gaming devices.
- Use gaming devices just for gaming–for other media find less power-consuming options like a smart TV.
- Trade in old gaming devices instead of discarding them.
- Consider buying refurbished devices as well. Not only is it reusing existing devices, but it’s also usually cheaper.
- Be sure a gaming setup isn’t too big for your needs, nor too small to play the way you want.
- Advocate for green issues to local officials, like low-carbon transportation and clean energy.
- Look into renewable energy options.
- Know when to stream games. Streaming games is exceptionally power-intensive, but can be less intense on mobile devices.
- Talk to others about green activation and see the difference a community can make in pressuring the gaming industry to decarbonize.
- Keep gaming! People need entertainment and joy in their lives, and games can convey meaningful messages.
Going green doesn’t mean giving up everything, or even most things, in a person’s life, explained Pak. It means being aware of the things that can be done to make life a little easier on the planet.
It means mindfulness about energy consumption and carbon emissions and the little things that can be done every day to slow the advancing of the planet that sustains humanity into the kind of climate apocalypse that inspires games like Floodland or Terra Nil. Protecting the habitability of Earth is not an all-or-nothing proposition, but one that can be done one act of green mindfulness at a time.