In 2019, 21 companies, including giants like Sony Interactive, Microsoft and Google, formed Playing For The Planet Alliance - convened by the UN Environment Programme - to unlock the potential of gaming to tackle environmental issues.

For each virtual tree, Alipay plants a real one 220 million trees have been planted in arid areas in China in five years. Together, they picked up more than 145 tons of trash.Īnd in China, the Alipay payment app introduced Ant Forest in 2016, a mini-game featuring a virtual tree that grows when users earn points by reducing their CO2 emissions. When the American software development firm Niantic, Inc - which developed and published Pokemon Go - called on players to collect waste on Earth Day in 2019, more than 17,000 people in 41 countries showed up. The virtual environmental experience can, and appears to have already inspired players to be more active in their real lives. 'Organically what's happening is that this new wave of game designers is bringing these interests with them.' 'Young people see climate change as something that informs who they are as individuals,' she said. Or they can feel the flash of success when things work out in the game.' Gen Z levels up the gameĬhang attributes the trend toward more eco-based storylines to both the needs of younger players and the priorities of new designers.

'Players do things and can feel guilty because of their choices. 'Games force us to interact with the system, and they produce feelings,' Chang said.

True eco-warriors can even go dumpster diving.Īlenda Chang, author of the book 'Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games' says players can learn about the human impact on the environment by witnessing different scenarios of how their actions impact their world. More recently, Sims, the life simulation game that first emerged in 2000, has released an Eco Lifestyle expansion pack where players can run a clean-water and recycling project or build wind turbines on rooftops to decrease their carbon footprint. Likewise Minecraft - which has sold 200 million times in all formats - has a Climate Hope City map that invites players to explore real-world green solutions like vertical farms and an energy generator that can produce different types of green energy. Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle encourages players to change their world with eco-friendly solutions

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