Global Sustainability Crossroads: A Participatory Simulation Game to Educate in the Energy and Sustainability Challenges of the 21st Century

Abstract

There is a general need to facilitate citizens’ understanding of the global sustainability problem with the dual purpose of raising their awareness of the seriousness of the problem and helping them get closer to understanding the complexity of the solutions. Here, the design and application of the participatory simulation game Global Sustainability Crossroads is described, based on a global state-of-the-art energy–economy–environment model, which creates a virtual scenario where the participants are confronted with the design of climate mitigation strategies as well as the social, economic, and environmental consequences of decisions. The novelty of the game rests on the global scope and the representation of the drivers of anthropogenic emissions within the MEDEAS-World model, combined with a participatory simulation group dynamic flexible enough to be adapted to a diversity of contexts and participants. The performance of 13 game workshops with ~420 players has shown it has a significant pedagogical potential: the game is able to generate discussions on crucial topics which are usually outside the public realm such as the relationship between economic growth and sustainability, the role of technology, how human desires are limited by biophysical constraints or the possibility of climate tipping points.

Exploring the Use of Virtual Reality to Support Environmentally Sustainable Behavior: A Framework to Design Experiences

“…However, VR explorations also are the most common type in the rational sphere: they do not only raise emotions but also allow users to visualize and comprehend complex phenomena such as climate change or ocean acidification [5]. Games can be used in all three spheres: to get people to feel closer to the natural environment [11], but also in the rational and practical spheres, to support learning [59] and enhance decisionmaking skills [14]. However, the number of games rendered by our search is quite small, as discussed above.…”

“…Moreover, different modalities have been explored, including immersive experiences [8,10], mobile applications [9,11], computer games [7,11], simulations [6,12], games [11,13,14], and single- [8,10,15] and multi-user [3,14] applications. Hence, designers creating VR experiences have a great number of possibilities available, with many potential features that can be varied and manipulated depending on the specific context.…”

The desirability of transitions in demand: Incorporating behavioural and societal transformations into energy modelling

“…On one hand, robustness and completeness of analysis of sustainable transitions pathways are enhanced: climate and climate-economy modelling can be integrated with game outputs [141] , by incorporating elicited information, including players’ lifestyle choices, which can determine emissions reductions from reference scenarios when scaled up from individual to local, to national and global levels. On the other hand, gaming can be both educational [142] and entertaining [143] for the players: upon linking bottom-up preferences to top-down modelling assessments of behaviours and policies across energy, transport, food and buildings, engaged citizens can interact with one another, be informed on latest scientific findings, explore lifestyle options [144] leading to different climate results, and experience the role of one another, increasing mutual understanding [145] and social learning [146] . Nevertheless, few studies have so far looked at the long-term maintenance/feasibility?…”

Games on Climate Change: Identifying Development Potentials through Advanced Classification and Game Characteristics Mapping

“…Educational games-such as serious games or simulation games-allow (i) focusing on essential system elements through purposeful abstraction, (ii) experiencing long-term developments in a short time, (iii) revealing intended and unintended interactions as well as side effects, and (iv) understanding a complex system as a whole, e.g., through "gestalt communication" [13,14]. Thereby, they make complex and interrelated problems tangible and are thus suitable to be applied in the context of environmental problems and sustainable development [15][16][17]. Furthermore, games offer the potential to translate scientific findings into a language that is understood by the general public (i.e., society at large) [18] and are able to influence behavior in regard to climate action [19].…”