I read in the paper this morning that Dan Shapiro,
a successful tech inventor, is now creating low-tech tabletop board
games for children – presumably games played in “actual reality” where
players sit face to face and talk with each other as they play.
The article goes on to report that old-fashioned board games are enjoying a resurgence of popularity in recent years.
This gave me an idea. Why not have a contest to see who can come up with the most mind-changing game about climate change? It wouldn’t have to be a videogame. It could be as simple as a board game like Monopoly, except perhaps with different words pasted over “Park Place” and “Boardwalk” (Park Pier? Boardfloat?), and with homemade cards that read, for instance, “Invest $200 in Renewables” and “Go to jail for civil disobedience.”
Or some clever soul could invent an entirely novel tabletop game so simple that even children and middle-elders like me could understand it, learn from it, and have lots of fun playing.
This sort of educational simulation-play has come to be called gamification.
Unlike Monopoly, a simulation of predatory capitalism that requires each player to assume the role of a robber baron who wants to own all the property in the game’s world by driving every other player into destitution, these eco-simulation games could reward people who work together successfully to save our species from its own bad self. What a concept.
I can already imagine the names of some of the healthy games we could dream up. Arctic Roulette. Extinction Zone. Live and Help Live. Money Isn’t Everything. Seventh Generation. In the latter, each player might represent the interests of some present or future birth wave.
Kids who play these sorts of ecological games could learn important concepts like “CO2 ppm,” “self-amplifying feedback loop,” "albedo," “unfettered capitalism,” “slow motion biocide” and “climate action.” Think of the fun they could have while learning things they can use in their civic lives.
Best of all, these games wouldn’t be just another escapist flight into the Kingdom of Zork or Combat Hell. They would be microcosms of the game we’re already playing, as earthlings, in real time, in actual reality. The game called "Global Warming."
The creators of climate games might not make any money from them. All they may get is the warm satisfaction of helping change the way we think about the big game we’re already in, and that we and our posterity are now losing.
Speaking of which, I wonder whether the folks who brought us the Sims and SimCity are working on SimClimate yet. Designing games like these could be a smart investment for all of us, including those who will carry our flawed DNA into the future.
P.S.: See the Wikipedia’s article, “Global warming game,” for a list of several existing climate games, most of them video, including Climate Challenge, Keep Cool, and Fate of the World. I’ve tweeted a suggestion to Milton Bradley, so it shouldn’t be long before they come out with a climate game of their own and send me generous royalty checks. I’ll let you know when that happens, and share this windfall with everyone who comments below.
-- originally posted in Danagram
The article goes on to report that old-fashioned board games are enjoying a resurgence of popularity in recent years.
This gave me an idea. Why not have a contest to see who can come up with the most mind-changing game about climate change? It wouldn’t have to be a videogame. It could be as simple as a board game like Monopoly, except perhaps with different words pasted over “Park Place” and “Boardwalk” (Park Pier? Boardfloat?), and with homemade cards that read, for instance, “Invest $200 in Renewables” and “Go to jail for civil disobedience.”
Or some clever soul could invent an entirely novel tabletop game so simple that even children and middle-elders like me could understand it, learn from it, and have lots of fun playing.
This sort of educational simulation-play has come to be called gamification.
Unlike Monopoly, a simulation of predatory capitalism that requires each player to assume the role of a robber baron who wants to own all the property in the game’s world by driving every other player into destitution, these eco-simulation games could reward people who work together successfully to save our species from its own bad self. What a concept.
I can already imagine the names of some of the healthy games we could dream up. Arctic Roulette. Extinction Zone. Live and Help Live. Money Isn’t Everything. Seventh Generation. In the latter, each player might represent the interests of some present or future birth wave.
Kids who play these sorts of ecological games could learn important concepts like “CO2 ppm,” “self-amplifying feedback loop,” "albedo," “unfettered capitalism,” “slow motion biocide” and “climate action.” Think of the fun they could have while learning things they can use in their civic lives.
Best of all, these games wouldn’t be just another escapist flight into the Kingdom of Zork or Combat Hell. They would be microcosms of the game we’re already playing, as earthlings, in real time, in actual reality. The game called "Global Warming."
The creators of climate games might not make any money from them. All they may get is the warm satisfaction of helping change the way we think about the big game we’re already in, and that we and our posterity are now losing.
Speaking of which, I wonder whether the folks who brought us the Sims and SimCity are working on SimClimate yet. Designing games like these could be a smart investment for all of us, including those who will carry our flawed DNA into the future.
P.S.: See the Wikipedia’s article, “Global warming game,” for a list of several existing climate games, most of them video, including Climate Challenge, Keep Cool, and Fate of the World. I’ve tweeted a suggestion to Milton Bradley, so it shouldn’t be long before they come out with a climate game of their own and send me generous royalty checks. I’ll let you know when that happens, and share this windfall with everyone who comments below.
-- originally posted in Danagram
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