Could games help us with climate change?

[StaceyPowers]

Could video games help us combat or adapt to climate change in any way, even by just raising climate awareness or demonstrating simulated versions of possible solutions (i.e. I would to see a solarpunk open world that shows off what a city of the future could be like)? Have you seen any examples of games that have already done this?

[Kane99]

I don't know, I heard that electronics we use on a daily basis can help worsen the likes of global warming. Idk if this is true or not, but I heard that the electronics we use often aren't good for our environment. Don't quote me on that as I never fully looked into it. 

I don't think it can really help unless it's an educational game or something. I don't know how else a video game could help the environment or stopping global warming. 

[Withywarlock]

Could they directly help with climate change? I don't think so. I believe there's better mediums for showing that, and even they can't probably help us all that much besides raising awareness. Action is required, and choosing not to play the video game would probably be better for the environment (albeit not by much in the grand scale of things) than playing for it.

Don't get me wrong, I look at games like Frostpunk and think the scenario is dreadful but not entirely inaccurate, but it doesn't really have global warming at the heart of its message. Games can absolutely inspire awareness and action, but making a game specifically about global warming is still adding to the problem if that makes sense.

6 hours ago, Kane99 said:

I don't know, I heard that electronics we use on a daily basis can help worsen the likes of global warming. Idk if this is true or not, but I heard that the electronics we use often aren't good for our environment. Don't quote me on that as I never fully looked into it. 

I'm afraid so. Electronics are getting more energy efficient especially compared with each decade, and even when they do have a greater wattage the power consumed is worth the cost (though perhaps not the cost to the environment). Even so, it's not as clean as we think it is. Cloud computing from what I understand uses 3% of the globe's electricity (the figures differ with each publication), and a lot of the cloud is metadata: advert preferences, private information, tracking, et cetera. I think electricity's one of those things where because we can't see it as well as gasses or polluted water, it's not contributing that great a problem. Like the cloud: out of sight, out of mind.

[Empire]

Come on, Really talking the simple act of playing video games that seriously. Nothing is gonna get fixed through video games. Making games will effact our world. I'm as worried about climate change as the next guy but lets not go overboard with stupid ideas to play games that can help climate. End of the day only way to help people is to make a game about climate and maybe it might make them think about the realism here and they will realise 😜 Maybe

[Kane99]

On 7/30/2022 at 3:54 AM, Withywarlock said:

Could they directly help with climate change? I don't think so. I believe there's better mediums for showing that, and even they can't probably help us all that much besides raising awareness. Action is required, and choosing not to play the video game would probably be better for the environment (albeit not by much in the grand scale of things) than playing for it.

Don't get me wrong, I look at games like Frostpunk and think the scenario is dreadful but not entirely inaccurate, but it doesn't really have global warming at the heart of its message. Games can absolutely inspire awareness and action, but making a game specifically about global warming is still adding to the problem if that makes sense.

I'm afraid so. Electronics are getting more energy efficient especially compared with each decade, and even when they do have a greater wattage the power consumed is worth the cost (though perhaps not the cost to the environment). Even so, it's not as clean as we think it is. Cloud computing from what I understand uses 3% of the globe's electricity (the figures differ with each publication), and a lot of the cloud is metadata: advert preferences, private information, tracking, et cetera. I think electricity's one of those things where because we can't see it as well as gasses or polluted water, it's not contributing that great a problem. Like the cloud: out of sight, out of mind.

Exactly this, thank you for clearing it up some. I knew it wasn't good for the environment, and with each new device it's becoming worse and worse. I think I remember hearing about how the PS5 is a powerhog. 

The more we advance into online gaming and streaming, is going to result in more problems I think. 

[killamch89]

Directly? It likely won't have an effect but if the game is entertaining enough, you could get the attention of a good number of modern gamers but will they be influenced to act? It hard to tell. Plenty of people play games like GTA and 99.9% will never try any of what they do in-game.

[Clasher]

Well, video games have their own effects and advantages and I got to know a lot about active battle Combat from playing COD , Spec ops and the likes and it also showed me what a war area could feel like both for civilians and the military.

I think this same effect could be utilized in climate related issues and with proper representation Maybe using a Simulator or making a video game just to give incite on the issue would help. In my opinion no effort is intangible and every single thing could be utilized to make a Lasting change.

[Kane99]

5 hours ago, Clasher said:

Well, video games have their own effects and advantages and I got to know a lot about active battle Combat from playing COD , Spec ops and the likes and it also showed me what a war area could feel like both for civilians and the military.

I think this same effect could be utilized in climate related issues and with proper representation Maybe using a Simulator or making a video game just to give incite on the issue would help. In my opinion no effort is intangible and every single thing could be utilized to make a Lasting change.

It just doesn't make sense for video games. It kinda is counter-intuitive, because if you want to teach people about climate change, you probably wouldn't use something like video games because it in turn is bad for climate change. Think about tech in general. Any piece of tech we use, puts off pollution and other junk out into our atmosphere. 

Like I said before, maybe to teach people, but you'd be better off teaching them the normal way instead of a game, at least imo. 

[Heatman]

It's just like everything is painted in the movies, they have the same thing repeated in video games world too. I'm not sure if it's going to be very efficient and effective in helping us combat what the society is going to be like if the worst eventually happens. There's a good relationship to it but it's not going to be exactly pick and replace. 

[The Blackangel]

It's possible, but definitely not probable. People are being online more and more these days. They use things like Zoom to talk with friends and whatnot. They game online instead of driving somewhere. Those of us that don't game online can download games through the online services of our preferred platform. We no longer have to drive to Gamestop or any other retailer to pick up the latest game. We can simply download it. So while we as gamers wouldn't make the hugest impact unless all gamers everywhere chose this route, it's still an option that could have the potential to help reverse climate change.

[Kane99]

2 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

It's possible, but definitely not probable. People are being online more and more these days. They use things like Zoom to talk with friends and whatnot. They game online instead of driving somewhere. Those of us that don't game online can download games through the online services of our preferred platform. We no longer have to drive to Gamestop or any other retailer to pick up the latest game. We can simply download it. So while we as gamers wouldn't make the hugest impact unless all gamers everywhere chose this route, it's still an option that could have the potential to help reverse climate change.

The internet alone is a big bad thing for climate change. Servers around the world are eating up energy and causing problems for the world. 

The only way I can see gaming helps it, is by educating people on climate change. But we have so many things already trying to educate us about it, that I just don't see the point. 

[Heatman]

On 8/8/2022 at 5:27 PM, Kane99 said:

The internet alone is a big bad thing for climate change. Servers around the world are eating up energy and causing problems for the world. 

The only way I can see gaming helps it, is by educating people on climate change. But we have so many things already trying to educate us about it, that I just don't see the point. 

It's really critical enough that the world can't survive with all the technology and internet right now. It's the level of evolution that we are at. It looks scary in a way and there's nothing we can do about it. I don't see gaming having any big impact to reverse this situation. 

[killamch89]

On 8/4/2022 at 12:51 AM, Kane99 said:

It just doesn't make sense for video games. It kinda is counter-intuitive, because if you want to teach people about climate change, you probably wouldn't use something like video games because it in turn is bad for climate change. Think about tech in general. Any piece of tech we use, puts off pollution and other junk out into our atmosphere. 

Like I said before, maybe to teach people, but you'd be better off teaching them the normal way instead of a game, at least imo. 

I have to agree - it'd be an ineffective way to raise awareness to climate change...

[Heatman]

25 minutes ago, killamch89 said:

I have to agree - it'd be an ineffective way to raise awareness to climate change...

The only challenge that I forsee on this would be that it's not every gamer out there that's going to be interested in playing the said games that have such information in it. How then do others get the message being passed? 

[Reality vs Adventure]

Maybe an apocalypse simulation game where you world build and you have to improve your industry with updated technology and minimize the effects to the environment. And discover new things to protect it. You fail when devastation wipes out humanity. You win when you found solutions to become industrial and responsible. You would have to monitor things like CO2, weather changes, water levels, pollution index, contaminants in soil and wildlife and water and everything in between. You would control fossil fuels and clean energy, balance finances. Minimize wars. Build sustainable cities and villages that don't completely change the habitat like not screwing up the water supply in arid areas or incompetence creating arid areas due to wasteful water management. And these things do affect climate. There definitely could be a good simulation made. And it could be taught in schools as a fun learning experience. Games like global warming simulations, pandemic simulations, Pollutants simulation, sustainable food supply simulation. But instead, in reality we have dark money from lobbyists who have billions to throw at preventing the education and awareness of fighting industrial irresponsibility. Humans lose.