Leidy Campo

Elektra Grant

Human Ecology: Research Paper

4/7/2017

Creating a Sustainable Environment through art and video games

Many people around the world spend an enormous amount of hours playing games. One

of the reasons why games are so popular, and people spend so much time in games, is the fact

that they are escaping to another world. A world where everything can be possible, no matter

how hard the challenge is. Players are constantly trying to reach their objectives when playing

games and they also build a relationship with other online players to reach the goal easier, which

will also allow them to improve themselves. Feeling the sensation when one wins an epic battle

is fascinating and satisfying. Players are often shocked when they win a fight that they didnt

know they were capable of winning. Thus, everyone wants to know how it feels, and games

allow you to reach that feeling. Even failure is something that people dont take into

consideration since they will try again until they reach their goal. According to Jane McGonigal,

a Game Designer in Gaming can make a better world, feelings such as anxiety, pessimism,

depression are feelings that one rarely have while playing games. In other words, players believe

that failure is nothing but challenges that are possible to overcome therefore they spend a lot of

time trying to vanquish the impossible. Thus, these feelings should be brought to the real world

so that people can also deal with real world issues such as creating a better environment and

creating a sustainable world, and one way to achieve it is through video games.
 First of all, the earth is facing enormous challenges and as part of this planet, human

beings must be responsible on decreasing the damage that has been built over the years.

However, this challenge seems impossible, and it feels like one person cannot change this

immense problem. Often we see rather a pessimistic view about helping the environment and

how challenging it is to create a sustainable world. For instance, in The Need of Sustainable

Environment as Human Rights Issue written by Er Ajash Goel and Dr. Vaibhav Goel argue that

the lack of cooperation among the states and the imbalance burden makes difficult the task of

protecting the environment(P. 207.) Therefore, to properly achieve environmental challenges,

people, the state, and the government have to cooperate with each other. In the real world,

making people work together for the same goal is tough because of the lack of trust and

motivation. However, one can see that video games are experts at motivating people to

collaborate and create relationships that would help them to face difficult challenges with little to

having not fear at all of whats ahead. Therefore, video games can become a powerful platform

that could help people to learn how to be a good team player and getting rewarded for

collaborating.

On the other hand, not only people get to work together, but one could also learn about

environmental issues through games and how to solve them without seeing this challenges as a

burden. Nowadays, several games are used as a tool to educate children. In Gaming for

Sustainability: An Overview by Carlo Fabricatore and Ximena Lpez, they discuss games that

are promoting and educating people about environmental problems. Moreover, they are building

a new set of mind on people a sustainability mindset which is vital in achieving the goal of a

better present for a beautiful future. For example, Educating for sustainability demands

approaches and tools promoting systems thinking and learning to deal with traits of complexity,
such as change, uncertainty, and emergency. Due to their characteristics, digital games can

highly benefit learning for complexity. In fact, they can be regarded as excellent educational

environments, supporting knowledge and skills learning through fun, in situated and meaningful

contexts (p. 160). In other words, this different way of education can have a positive impact

since children are learning by enjoying games that are challenging their critical and complex

thinking. Another reason why games are a great tool for creating a better future is that many

video games are designed to support a massive amount of players which allow them to interact

with many people around the world.

Games that simulate an interactive world that requires players to use their resources

careful is an important way of learning about sustainability. This simulation about how to

develop a sustainable world in games help people to get experience in the topic and allow them

to see that solution in the real world less overwhelming. For instance, they learn the importance

of reducing unnecessary consumption and develop new ways to balance their needs without

affecting the environment or others. digital games can address complexity, requiring players to

deal with ill-structured problems, unpredictability, emerging systemic properties and behaviors,

and nonlinear development of events. Finally, gaming environments can support remote

interactions across large numbers of players, requiring cooperative engagement in the pursuit of

common goals (P. 159 ). Thus, developing games that support the idea of sustainability is key in

the awakening of changing positively for our planet since they are helping us to easily transition

from a pessimistic view to a more brighter and positive attitude towards challenges when we

bring skills from the virtual world to the real world.

Since a lot of people from different age, culture, and countries play video games, it can

become a great tool to spread awareness around the world regarding environmental issues.
However, some countries do not believe in climate changes or are reluctant to talk about

environmental issues in the media. Moreover, many vital issues arent addressed enough to the

public or are overshadowed by other news that is less important. Therefore, using games to bring

peoples attention back to environmental problems is essential. According to Using Games to

Raise Awareness. How to Co-Design Serious Mini-Games? By Klara Van Geit, Verolien

Cauberghe, Liselot Hudders, and Marijke De Veirman discuss the importance of mini games.

Since mini-games are short and easy to play, it encourages people with little knowledge on

gaming to play it. Mini-games are played within a few minutes; thus, players will easily be

motivated to play these games repeatedly exposing them several times to the games learning

goals (533). Furthermore, thanks to their simplicity and ease of use, they can be played by hard-

core gamers as well as casual gamers of all ages and thus are an efficient tool for reaching a

broad public. Reaching to a broad public also increase our chances to build a better place.

Building a sustainable world, educating and gathering more people to participate in this

ecological movement are necessary, but difficult. Therefore, developing games that help people

to solve real world problems is one of the next steps for a sustainable world. Since games train us

to face challenges and to believe that everyone can overcome anything with motivation and work

together. Video games is a platform that will allow changing peoples change of mind for the

future, and we need more people with gamers characteristics in the real world for a better place.
 1. Annotated bibliography

Fabricatore, Carlo, and Ximena Lpez. "Gaming for Sustainability: An Overview".10,

ProQuest.Oct. 2011. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.

https://search.proquest.com/pqrl/docview/1009900749/fulltextPDF/B73516F8CBC742C7PQ/1?account

id=25324

This is a conference paper and proceedings by Carlo Fabricatore is a computer scientist, game scholar

and professional game developer. He is currently Senior Lecturer i n Computer Games Design &

Development at the University of Worcester ( UK). H is research focuses on complex systems, game-

based learning and project management. In the game industry he has collaborated with Nintendo,

Sony and Atari, amongst others.

Ximena Lpez is an educational psychologist and researcher. She is currently Head of IT and Cognition

at Initium (Rome). She is participating in international research projects on game-based learning,

musical skills, social behaviours and technology-enhanced learning.

Goel, Ajash, and Vaibhav Goel. "THE NEED OF SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT AS A HUMAN

RIGHTS ISSUE." Researchers World 2.1 (2011): 192-212. ProQuest. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.

This is a scholarly Journal written byEr Ajash Goel : (M.Tech., Pursuing PhD in Env. Engg from NITKU

Kurukshetra) HOD Civil Engg Dept. Graduated from Haryana College of Engineering and Tech And Dr.

Vaibhav Goel is an Associate professor at Subharti Law School graduated at Swami Vivekanand

Subharti University.
 McGonigal, Jane. "Gaming Can Make a Better World." Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make a

Better World | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.

<https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world#t-156053>.

This is a Ted talk video whose speaker is Jane McGonigal discussing about games as a solution

for the environment. Jane McGonigal, PhD is a world-renowned designer of alternate reality games

-- or, games that are designed to improve real lives and solve real problems. She has a PhD from

the University of California at Berkeley in performance studies. She has also work on internal games

for companies such as Nike, Disney, Accenture and others.

Van Geit, Klara, et al. "Using Games to Raise Awareness. how to Co-Design Serious Mini-Games?".10,

ProQuest. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.

https://search.proquest.com/pqrl/docview/1728409587/fulltextPDF/B7919B27212A4378PQ/1?account

id=25324#resolverCitation_preview_1

This is a scholarly source. explores the usability of informant design as a framework to involve

multiple stakeholders in designing serious games. First, it evaluates serious mini-games as a tool for

social marketing campaigns. The study suggests that serious mini-games can provide an efficient

alternative to more complex serious games, since mini-games are short games focused on a single

concept or learning goal. Similar to more complex serious games, serious mini-games motivate and

enhance player's interest in a particular topic but require only a small time-investment from players.

Research suggests that the use of mini-games is even more promising if a set of different games is

used to study a topic from different angles (Frazer, Argles and Wills, 2007)
 Works Cited

Fabricatore, Carlo, and Ximena Lpez. "Gaming for Sustainability: An Overview".10,

ProQuest.Oct. 2011. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.

Goel, Ajash, and Vaibhav Goel. "THE NEED OF SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT AS A HUMAN

RIGHTS ISSUE." Researchers World 2.1 (2011): 192-212. ProQuest. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.

McGonigal, Jane. "Gaming Can Make a Better World." Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make a

Better World | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.

Van Geit, Klara, et al. "Using Games to Raise Awareness. how to Co-Design Serious Mini-Games?".10,

ProQuest. Web. 7 Apr. 2017.