| Description | In this talk, I discuss how game designers can use our skills to address the global challenge of climate change. First I review our responsibilities: games and play contribute to the ongoing climate challenge in a number of ways, such as driving travel to game events and generating e-waste. Next I identify ways to mitigate our contributions. Finally, I describe a vision for five ways that game designers can do more than simply mitigate their impacts, but become leaders in climate change mitigation. We can help people understand complex systems, facilitate collective action, create solidarity across asymmetries of power, address climate despair, and change our relationship to consumption. I illustrate these possibilities with existing games, as well as with games developed by my lab. Finally, I will end the talk with a review of existing mechanisms for engagement (e.g. the IGDA Climate SIG's work) and an invitation to engage further. |
