Climate protection as a game principle
Gamers are supposed to save the world with sunflowers
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Gone are the days when digital games mainly revolved around violence and destruction. More and more games are dealing with environmental issues. The popular “Terra Nil”, for example, is about building a living ecosystem.
Save a coral reef, make barren soil fertile, create a habitat for animals: the aim of the strategy game “Terra Nil” is to build a living ecosystem. More and more video games are dealing with environmental problems. Even the United Nations is trying to use computer games to draw attention to the climate crisis.
“It was about showing that it is possible to develop a strategy game in which the environment is not exploited,” says Sam Alfred, the inventor of “Terra Nil.” Initially, his idea was met with rejection. “They made fun of it because it is a game in which it is not about shooting people or expanding uncontrollably,” says the 30-year-old from South Africa.
But according to publisher Devolver Digital, 300,000 gamers are now playing “Terra Nil” and are learning, for example, how to decontaminate radioactively contaminated zones with sunflowers.
From “Cities Skylines” to “Green Cities”
The industry's bestsellers are still primarily about violence and destruction rather than saving the global ecosystem. But for several years now, games have also been addressing environmental protection.
Since 2017, the city building simulation “Cities: Skylines” has had the “Green Cities” expansion, in which players must also consider the impact on the environment when building their city. “'Green Cities' surprisingly polarized the audience,” recalls Mariina Hallikainen from Finnish game developer Colossal Order. “We were accused of ruining the game by getting political.” Climate change played a role for the first time in 2019 in the strategy game “Civilization.”
Games are getting better at representing parameters such as the weather or global warming, says Benjamin Abraham, who specializes in environmental issues in the video game industry. But it is still very difficult for developers to take into account people's sometimes unpredictable decisions, such as political measures.
Since an estimated three billion people play a video game at least once a year, climate activists have long targeted gamers as a potential audience. The UN says its climate game “Mission 1.5” reached more than six million people.
Five years ago, the game developers' association founded the climate group of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). “You developers have a superpower: you speak to three billion gamers who trust you and you can communicate complex problems in an entertaining and engaging way,” Arnaud Fayolle from the game publisher Ubisoft appealed to the industry last year to devote themselves to environmental issues.
The climate group now includes nearly 1,500 industry professionals, scientists and environmental experts who share their knowledge to incorporate climate issues into video games and raise awareness among players. “The idea is to create a positive cultural impact through aesthetics, stories, game mechanics and technology,” says Fayolle. He wants to get players to take more action on climate.
But the energy-intensive gaming industry can still do a lot to protect the climate. Some games now offer an eco mode that reduces the power consumption of consoles and computers. An update to “Fortnite”, one of the most played games in the world, reduces the quality of the graphics when the player is not active. This could save almost 73 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, says developer Epic Games. That corresponds to the annual consumption of a central European city with 30,000 inhabitants.
According to Abraham, the 35 largest video game companies emitted more than 81 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2022 – as much as the whole of Belgium. This does not even include the energy consumption from gaming itself.
