Playing Nature – Ecological Crisis and Video Games

zkm_gameplay. the next level. Eco Games | Online conversation


[02.11.2021]


Computer games can address ecological concerns. But is a game
only ecological if it explicitly deals with environmental issues
on the content level? Can the relationship to nature be thought
of in a fundamentally different way in computer games? What can
environmentally conscious game worlds look like? In short – what
does ecological game design involve?

Alenda Y. Chang is the author of »Playing Nature – Ecology in
Video Games«, published in 2019. The book represents one of the
key works in game studies when it comes to environmental issues
and ecology. Using ecological concepts such as »Scale«,
»Mesocosm«, »Nonhuman«, »Entropy«, and »Collapse«, Chang
discusses opportunities and challenges that arise in and through
computer games in five chapters.


The following questions are up for discussion:


What questions arise when we adress ecology and games?
How can we define environmental games? What characteristics
should they fulfill?
Can computer games foster empathy for non-human beings and the
environment? What can we learn from or through games about
cohabitation, respect, and interconnectedness?
What about the physical environmental impacts of computer games?
How might sufficiency be imagined when talking about games?
What about the physical environmental impact of computer games
and how might sufficiency – the effort to use as little energy
and material as possible – be thought of in the game context?