Gamification to prevent climate change: a review of games and apps for sustainability

Abstract

Gamification, the application of game design principles to a non-gaming context, has been used to promote pro-environmental behaviors. Such principles have been implemented in boardgames, team competitions, electronic games, smartphone apps, and in apps that researchers developed primarily to collect data. We review the games and apps that have been evaluated in empirical research in the last 5 years and provide a list of apps and games that have yet to be tested. Gamification has been used for sustainability education, energy reduction, transportation, air quality, waste management, and water conservation. Although we do not know yet why certain games and apps are more effective than others, gamification appears to be a promising avenue for preventing climate change.

Environmental citizenship behavior and sustainability apps: an empirical investigation

“…According to Georges et al (2015), the main persuasive techniques used by app developers to help people to live more sustainably are eco-feedback, reminder, reward, self-monitoring tool, suggestion and trigger. Several studies (Douglas and Brauer, 2021; Johnson et al , 2017; Mulcahy et al , 2020) also suggest that gamification helps creating a condition favorable for the pro-environmental education of the individual. Apps help reducing the ignorance barrier and contribute to the habit formation.…”

Gamification in Ecology-Oriented Mobile Applications—Typologies and Purposes

“…Also, gamification it is presented as a playful alternative within mobile applications that enhances the influence on environmentally friendly behaviors [51], exhibiting benefits with respect to its incorporation in mobile apps: WasteApp for waste management [52], MEECO for eco-conscious habits [53], AppEAR for mapping quality of aquatic habitats [54] among others.…”

Learning through Play: A Serious Game as a Tool to Support Circular Economy Education and Business Model Innovation

“…The purpose of game-based learning is to educate players by embedding learning outcomes in game content, creating a 'serious game' that is focused on engaging the user to achieve predefined objectives, promoting learning and behavioural change, rather than mere entertainment [33,44]. In the past few decades, there has been a proliferation of research and review articles on the design and use of serious games in higher education as an alternative to traditional teaching methods [33,42,45,46], and also in the field of sustainability education [27,37,47,48]. Gamification principles such as achievable goals, progression paths, strategy options, immediate feedback, levels, points, rewards, competition, and cooperation encourage players to take on different roles, experiment with different options, and reflect on their choices and behaviour [48,49].…”

“…In the past few decades, there has been a proliferation of research and review articles on the design and use of serious games in higher education as an alternative to traditional teaching methods [33,42,45,46], and also in the field of sustainability education [27,37,47,48]. Gamification principles such as achievable goals, progression paths, strategy options, immediate feedback, levels, points, rewards, competition, and cooperation encourage players to take on different roles, experiment with different options, and reflect on their choices and behaviour [48,49]. It was shown that by offering achievable goals and manageable tasks in a simplified and attractive game environment, player motivation and learning outcomes can be improved [50,51].…”