Gamifying sustainability

One of the biggest hurdles before the society becomes fully sustainable is the lack of awareness, a lot of people may not know how they can change their behaviour to be more sustainable. Video games can possibly be able to raise awareness and to teach a more sustainable behaviour.

Video games like Darfur is Dying about the Darfur crisis, Half the sky that is about the oppression that women face in the developing world or World without Oil made people more aware about these problems and prompted thousands of people to donate money to help change those situations.

Multiple case studies show that video games are helping to bring about more responsible behaviour. But it is not the game itself that but how people play it. It is best to play the games in teams. Further, the game needs to have pro-social rule sets to enact these behaviours.

The players of video games won’t play a game that is not fun, therefore games that want to create awareness need to integrate the message into fun gameplay systems. The topic must be included in to a good story so that the player becomes totally absorbed into the games.

To conclude, video games can teach more sustainable behaviour if the games tackle sustainability topics and offers a fun experience with a good story that can be played with friends.

Sources:

http://sustainable.org.nz/sustainability-news/can-games-help-us-to-live-more-sustainable-lives

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/gaming-for-good-sustainability-video-games

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/gaming-sustainability-best-results

http://mgiep.unesco.org/bluedot/video-games-for-peace-and-sustainability/

Picture:

http://mgiep.unesco.org/bluedot/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Cover-Story_Intro.jpg