Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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 didn’t
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 don’t 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 what’s 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 López, 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 illstructured 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 aren’t addressed enough to the
public or are overshadowed by other news that is less important. Therefore, using games to bring
people’s attention back to environmental problems is essential. According to Using Games to
Raise Awareness. How to CoDesign Serious MiniGames? By Klara Van Geit, Verolien
Cauberghe, Liselot Hudders, and Marijke De Veirman discuss the importance of mini games.
Since minigames are short and easy to play, it encourages people with little knowledge on
gaming to play it. “Minigames 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
hardcore 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 people’s 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 López. " Gaming for Sustainability: An Overview".10,
https://search.proquest.com/pqrl/docview/1009900749/fulltextPDF/B73516F8CBC742C7PQ/1?accounti
d=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,
Nintendo, Sony and Atari, amongst others.
Ximena López 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 gamebased learning, musical
skills, social behaviours and technologyenhanced learning.
RIGHTS ISSUE." R
esearchers World 2 .1 (2011): 1 92212. ProQuest. Web. 7 Apr. 2 017.
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
< h ttps://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world#t156053 >.
This is a Ted talk video whose speaker is Jane McGonigal discussing about games as a solution
for the environment. J
ane McGonigal, PhD is a worldrenowned 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.
https://search.proquest.com/pqrl/docview/1728409587/fulltextPDF/B7919B27212A4378PQ/1?accounti
d=25324#resolverCitation_preview_1
This is a scholarly source. explores the u sability of informant design as a framework to involve multiple
stakeholders in designing serious games. First, it evaluates serious minigames as a tool for social
marketing campaigns. The study suggests that serious minigames can provide an efficient alternative
to more complex serious games, since minigames are short games focused on a single concept or
learning goal. Similar to more complex serious games, serious minigames motivate and enhance
player's’ interest in a particular topic but require only a small timeinvestment from players. Research
a topic from different angles (Frazer, Argles and Wills, 2 007)
Works Cited
Fabricatore, Carlo, and Ximena López. " Gaming for Sustainability: An Overview".10,
RIGHTS ISSUE." R
esearchers World 2 .1 (2011): 1 92212. ProQuest. Web. 7 Apr. 2 017.
McGonigal, Jane. " Gaming Can Make a Better World." Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make a