After becoming exposed to the rhetorical video game world in class on Thursday, I took it upon myself to delve deeper into some of the games that we played hoping to acquire a better understanding of the different devices used by the video games with the intention to get a certain message across. The game that struck me the most was Starbuck’s Planet Green Game and not because it was the most fun to play but because it was the least entertaining game we encountered in class. Despite this off putting aspect, I returned to the Starbucks website and unwillingly gave it another shot. After entering my name, choosing the character that best represented my physical appearance and picking my (hybrid) car, I reentered the town of Evergreen with a mission to reduce its carbon footprint.
Starbucks collaborated with Global Green USA on the Planet Green Game to “educate the public about climate change through engaging and informative play while encouraging individuals to become part of the solution in their own lives.” My problem with the game initially was that I felt like it was less of a video game and more of a Global Warming informative powerpoint (Al Gore style). A successful video game interacts with its player in a stimulating and fun way and educates individuals in an obscure manner. When we first played in class, we only tackled 1 out of the 6 destinations needed to complete the game and the one that we chose happened to be (in my personal opinion) the least entertaining and informative one. After playing the game for a second time and completing all 6 destinations, the game surprisingly became fun despite being excessively educational. By transforming Evergreen into a sustainable town, I played a fun matching game that spewed facts about sustainable products. I constructed a town park and learned that by building green, we can assist in preserving natural habitats, watersheds, and ecosystems, protect air and water quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste, all while conserving natural resources and creating healthier indoor and outdoor environments. I spoke with Evergreen’s Mayor and had an enlightening conversation about increasing the use of clean, renewable sources of power and also identified common mistakes that increase carbon emissions within the household. My reward for completing a destination was a tidbit about a project that Global Green USA is currently working on to make the world a little more sustainable.
Overall, Starbucks constructed a game that could abort boredom for a half hour and educate the average Joe on living a greener lifestyle. If Starbucks feels so inclined to help combat global warming, I think that it would personally be more effective for them to print sustainable facts on their cups to reach a broader audience, but if the online computer game approach suits their fancy, Planet Green Game is not a terrible medium to do the job.
The game seems a little silly to me because their target audience should be kids, people willing to spend a half hour on the computer doing nothing productive, and yet they make the game so drenched in dry information that I doubt it would appeal to most kids. And if their message cannot reach an audience, it will fail. I agree that printing the messages on cups may be a better option, or creating a better game, with better graphics (I have not seen a game look that bad since I played Paper Boy on my Gameboy Color).
ReplyDeleteRaya: What a wonderful post. You have a talent for summary and evoking the experience of actually playing a game.
ReplyDeleteI've played through the Planet Green Game myself and found it so-so. In fact, as I struggled to finish the objectives, I found myself running back and forth all over town in an attempt to find all the remaining challenges (something that would not be environmentally sound in a car or bus).
I like that you are pointing to the other ways a massive corporation like Starbucks could encourage more environmentally sound behavior. The temptation is to see something like an online game as having no environmental impact, but we all tend to forget that our computers and devices were all manufactured somewhere, that the server hosting the game is also physical, and that all these bits will go into the world when we're done with them.
I'd go beyond the printing on the cups to what Americans really respect: discounts. Did you know that if you bring your own drink container, e.g. a thermos, to most coffee shops, you will get 5 or 10 cents off your coffee? Do it!