Can board games teach us about the climate crisis? Game creators say yes
Can board games teach us about the climate crisis? Game creators say yes
Can board games teach us about the climate crisis? Game creators say yes
By Zoe Dutton
January 28, 2023
Summary
"We realized the game should represent the human suffering and loss caused by the climate crisis and that the challenge was not merely a war on carbon," co-creator Matt Leacock said.
Role-play and empire-building adventures like Settlers of Catan have steadily transformed board games from a children's pastime dominated by brands like Hasbro and Mattel to a sprawling, diverse market in which smaller designers make games for adults.
"There is an increased public desire to engage with climate change in a tangible way," said designer Matt Parker, who has also taught courses on game development.
"Often people don't want to confront climate change or feel powerless in the face of its complexity. But a lot of the joy of board games is in engaging complex systems with other people."
The authors found that playing a single round of the climate game Keep Cool increased participants' sense of responsibility toward the environment and confidence in climate cooperation.
"You are confronted with sobering questions. To the point that in designing situations, we think about how to not be insensitive or trigger people, while still including these really important themes," Blum said, noting the game touched on difficult topics such as food insecurity and lynching that people would often prefer not to think about - not unlike the climate crisis.
During the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, he organized a game to examine climate impacts on global security.
Reference
Dutton, Z. (2023, January 28). Can board games teach us about the climate crisis? game creators say yes. The Guardian. Retrieved February 9, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/28/board-games-climate-crisis-daybreak