Consumer Consequences -Sustainability Game
This is a Flash based game(?) hosted at PublicRadio.org. Whatever the technology or digital media components, this is a real nice concept. The game really text based, asks a few details questions about where we live, how we live, shop, generate trash, recycle etc. As we keep answering the background of the locality keeps changing, new power plants, trash pileup, new oil rigs etc. It also keeps saying how many earths are needed to support our living.
I like this game from the message it tries to convey and I strongly urge you to play.
I still don’t get it why they ask us to select an avatar, with new hairstyles, glasses, facial expression and dresses before we start answering the questions. If this were a game done in SecondLife it sure would have the “real” consequences and would be a fun one to play. But for a subject like sustainability, we need all the jazz it takes to create awareness.
September 16th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
The use of avatars in game design is generally used as a first step for players to undertake to help them personally identify more strongly with the outcomes of the game. Think of it as a “fun” way to ask people to invest in the game. The return on the investment is that the internalization of the results is increased.
It also helps distract people from the fact that they are, in essence, filling out a 7-8 page form.
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I agree with your question-mark after game(?). And I take exception that we need jazz to create awareness.
This site is a survey, done in flash, with reasonable production values and no game play what-so-ever.
I think that something that was truly a game about this topic would be a stellar product/website. A game should allow the player to explore and allow them to grow in to an understanding of the systems being modeled by interacting with them in increasingly complex ways.
As you point out, something done in SL, maybe a separate island that is modeled on these principles, would be an interesting microcosm that people could then explore. Otherwise it seems to get rather pedantic about the topic.
September 27th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
It shouldn’t be long before a SecondLife game shows up. I can see the many possibilities here.
I am not sure on Geir’s comment on “creating an avatar is like investment”. I almost gave up on the game, distracted by the avatars.
October 15th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
[…] Sometime back I wrote about the Sustainability game. Now gaming site Kotaku reports that Electronic Arts has teamed up with BP to add global warming and sustainability to SimCity. In a more realistic way that the simple game from NPR, this time you will see the effects of powering your city with CO2 producing sources. The partner for EA in this effort? BP. […]