What can board games tell us about climate crisis? Climate crisis: Game designers say yes| Climate crisis

EAlthough urope is trying to reduce its carbon footprint, it is being quickly overwhelmed by wildfires. Although the United States is looking to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels, it has concerns about trade with an abusive government and invests in foreign mining operations. A group of countries from the global South must decide whether they will accept construction loans from China, or the United States.

These are not discussions at another high-profile international summit. They are scenarios that Daybreak has envisioned, and Daybreak will be available on shelves this spring. Four players – the United States, China, Europe and the “Majority World”, encompassing the global south – cooperate to reach zero emissions before hitting 2 degrees of warming or putting too many communities in crisis.

“[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.

Most board games involve winning over all your opponents in zero-sum contests. Creators such as Leacock see collaboration as the key to success in the new climate-themed games.

Leacock, who created the game Pandemic said that Daybreak was based on the textbook model of the atmospheric emission cycle. After speaking with relief groups, they decided to go human-centric. Daybreak’s creators, The campaign gained a large following on BackerKit and they have pledged to donate part of their profits to climate justice organisations. They also stated that they wouldn’t use plastics in their game.

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Board games and puzzles are an $11bn industry – one that grew 20% between 2019 and 2021, fueled partly by pandemic-related boredom and digital fatigue, according to market research group Euromonitor International.

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. Recent years have seen the release of climate- and biodiversity-themed titles by these designers, including Wingspan, Cascadia, Daybreak, and Daybreak.

“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.”

2020: Wingspan, The American Tabletop Awards named this the best strategy game, recognizing the players’ ability to create biodiverse bird habitats. The game was also reviewed by Nature and other traditional gaming publications. It sold more than 750,000 copies in its first year.

Last year, Cascadia, where players compete to create “the most harmonious ecosystem” in the Pacific north-west, won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award as well as American Tabletop Awards’ best strategy competition.

The following titles are also new: Kyoto, where players are asked to assume the role of climate negotiators. Renature, where the goal is to restore a polluted Valley. Tipping Point, in which participants create cities that can adapt to a warmer climate.

Research has shown that simulation games can do more than entertain. Climatic Change published a 2018 study that found simulation games can be used to help learn about international climate policy. 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.

A separate 2020 study published in the journal Simulation & Gaming reached similar conclusions. Researchers found that games presented a “simplified alternative to overcomplicated science communication” and that “portraying reality in a highly concentrated and simplified manner” helped players conceptualize the climate crisis in tangible ways.

Many of these games, such as Daybreak, envision future climate scenarios. However, others look back at the past and examine injustices.

Rising Waters Central Michigan University Press illustrates the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 that killed hundreds and left 700,000 homeless.

It was the worst flood in American history. The flood disproportionately affected Black communities in the Delta lowlands. These communities were often excluded from government assistance programs. The game, which is digitally available and will ship in May, allows players to work together to save their loved ones from flooding as well white vigilante violence.

Elizabeth “Scout” Blum, a professor of environmental history at Troy University in Alabama, created Rising Waters alongside a team of historical, gaming and artistic collaborators and consultants.

“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. “The hope is playing can teach empathy and understanding or spark outrage and questions, as appropriate.”

Blum says games can be used to give students and the public space to ask difficult questions. They’re also key decision-making tools used at the highest echelons of power.

Ed McGrady is a chemical engineer by trade and has managed wargames for various government agencies, including the White House. McGrady, an adjunct senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security said that gaming can help players to plan for future conflicts and emergencies.

“That competitive interaction with a live human being – it gets you to care and think creatively about the issue at hand more than any sort of report or learning device or briefing mechanism ever could,” McGrady said.

He organized a game during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Paris. It examined climate impacts on global security. It was discovered that warming temperatures would cause migration flows into Europe or the United States. This could lead to populist discontent and increased authoritarian governance. At the time, McGrady said he and other experts were surprised by the game’s far-reaching outcomes. The game was a good predictor of the rise in far-right leaders in the following years.

Also, game design is a form storytelling. It’s one that has been traditionally dominated by white, male designers – according to one analysis, more than 96% of designers of top-ranked board games were white men. A richer story can be told about climate change and biodiversity by having more diversity in the game-design profession.

Makiyah Alexander, Rising Waters’ illustrator, said that she was drawn to stories that featured people of color growing up. Rising Waters depicts the hardship of Black Americans after the 1927 floods, but it also highlights pockets of agency, resistance, and Alexander created the community cards players need to draw from in order to survive the game. These cards are labeled with power sources such as blues music and farm animals, family, education, and church.

“So many [games] are about conquering or dividing; I thought it was important to share something from us, about our values of unity and being equal with others,” said Inuk designer Thomassie Mangiok. “Even our dog sled teams are seen as partners, not pets.”

Mangiok, a school administrator, created a game called Nunami – “on the land” in Inuktitut – as a way to share the traditions of his village Ivujivik, the northernmost settlement in Canada. Players collaborate to achieve a balance between the Arctic tundra’s natural and human elements before their characters starve.

“The message I’m trying to send through my game is to work with others, to make a better environment for everybody,” he said. “We remember how to work together, and through play can show that.”

This article was originally published in Nexus Media News