What games are tackling climate change?

[popopdc]

I’ve noticed more games are starting to tackle the theme of climate change, a trend I am sure will increase in the next few years. I thought we could start a list here of games that involve climate change in some way. One example that I know of is the survival game Forever Skies.

[Moonface]

I actually don't think I've ever come across a game that covers climate change. Splatoon 3 mentions it a little but it's mostly due to global warfare affecting the planet and just one of multiple consequences that wipes out humanity, so I wouldn't say it tackles the theme in any way that brings a sense of awareness or activism. Especially since it's just a lore dump that can be completely ignored.

[Frank]

The obvious one would be Fallout. Granted that is about an apocalyptic post-nuclear warfare setting but that would definitely have an effect on the climate.

[popopdc]

@Frank @Moonface yeah, those are both more indirect examples. I was figuring there weren’t going to be a ton of games to add to this list just yet. But I bet there will be in the next years.

[Moonface]

There's an interesting article on the United Nations website about games and climate change. I didn't read it fully but going by the examples I saw given, it seems that gaming and climate change wasn't really discussed within the industry in any notable fashion until 2019, and so most approaches to tackling climate change in games has been doing awareness events within existing games instead of making new games built around the subject. This is a list of current members of what is known as "Playing for the Planet", an organization that encourages members to make "commitments ranging from integrating green activations in games, to reducing their emissions and supporting the global environmental agenda."

So yeah, I doubt there's going to be many games for a while on it, and I expect any games that do focus primarily on climate change as their subject matter will be indie titles rather than AAA studios. AAA's are going to just probably stick with their current method of putting awareness messages in the games they would be making regardless, because of how risk-averse the AAA scene tends to be when it comes to making games based around entirely new ideas, concepts, and subjects.

[ShiraNoMai]

After seeing the end of Horizon: Forbidden West, this was the biggest push for climate change/environmental awareness I've seen to date.

The overall message for the game wound up being "hey, in less than 20 years, things can go to shit. But it can be stopped. Be aware of the signs," as well as "as long as everyone works together, we're one planet, we can work together to heal it. It's the only one we got."

[Moonface]

After seeing the end of Horizon: Forbidden West, this was the biggest push for climate change/environmental awareness I've seen to date.

The overall message for the game wound up being "hey, in less than 20 years, things can go to shit. But it can be stopped. Be aware of the signs," as well as "as long as everyone works together, we're one planet, we can work together to heal it. It's the only one we got."

I didn't really see this when you mentioned it to me at the time I was playing through the ending of that game, but seeing you explain it here in detail makes me get where you were coming from now. At the time I thought you meant literally tackling climate change which was why I got confused because Horizon isn't about that. XD 

I could see some of those civilization building games being a good avenue for climate change awareness though, since it could be that whatever technology and advancements you produce have the potential to impact the environment. Trouble is that if it works like real life players would see it's more profitable to just not give a damn about the environment as a large company which I feel most people already know is the problem and that consumers aren't going to change that, or it just puts benefits and consequences solely on the environmental management and not the money side of it which doesn't really help in telling people what or why the problem is.

I don't really think any level of awareness from general consumers is going to matter when most of the problems with the environment and climate are caused by large companies, and they'll only care about what hurts their pockets.

[ShiraNoMai]

I don't really think any level of awareness from general consumers is going to matter when most of the problems with the environment and climate are caused by large companies, and they'll only care about what hurts their pockets.

Oh absolutely this. I doubt many can contest that here.

[Kyng]

I could see some of those civilization building games being a good avenue for climate change awareness though, since it could be that whatever technology and advancements you produce have the potential to impact the environment. Trouble is that if it works like real life players would see it's more profitable to just not give a damn about the environment as a large company which I feel most people already know is the problem and that consumers aren't going to change that, or it just puts benefits and consequences solely on the environmental management and not the money side of it which doesn't really help in telling people what or why the problem is.

Yep, Civilization VI has this in the Gathering Storm franchise. 

Once you hit the Industrial Era, coal- and oil-fired power stations become available. They'll make your civilisation much more productive... but at the cost of causing the sea level to start rising gradually. If you don't want the low-lying areas of your empire to get flooded, then you'll need to build flood barriers - and eventually start investing in nuclear and renewable energy once those become available in the Atomic and Information Eras. 

Quite annoying to deal with, but obviously pales into insignificance compared to the real world!

[Moonface]

I could see some of those civilization building games being a good avenue for climate change awareness though, since it could be that whatever technology and advancements you produce have the potential to impact the environment. Trouble is that if it works like real life players would see it's more profitable to just not give a damn about the environment as a large company which I feel most people already know is the problem and that consumers aren't going to change that, or it just puts benefits and consequences solely on the environmental management and not the money side of it which doesn't really help in telling people what or why the problem is.

Yep, Civilization VI has this in the Gathering Storm franchise. 

Once you hit the Industrial Era, coal- and oil-fired power stations become available. They'll make your civilisation much more productive... but at the cost of causing the sea level to start rising gradually. If you don't want the low-lying areas of your empire to get flooded, then you'll need to build flood barriers - and eventually start investing in nuclear and renewable energy once those become available in the Atomic and Information Eras. 

Quite annoying to deal with, but obviously pales into insignificance compared to the real world!

It sounds like the gains you get from those stations are far more than the cost you'll incur for building flood barriers. I'd hope I'm wrong though because otherwise it makes the climate change aspect of using those stations a bit redundant so long as the player knows up front to prepare against the consequences and it doesn't work out as being a worse approach overall to just not using those stations.

[Kyng]

I could see some of those civilization building games being a good avenue for climate change awareness though, since it could be that whatever technology and advancements you produce have the potential to impact the environment. Trouble is that if it works like real life players would see it's more profitable to just not give a damn about the environment as a large company which I feel most people already know is the problem and that consumers aren't going to change that, or it just puts benefits and consequences solely on the environmental management and not the money side of it which doesn't really help in telling people what or why the problem is.

Yep, Civilization VI has this in the Gathering Storm franchise. 

Once you hit the Industrial Era, coal- and oil-fired power stations become available. They'll make your civilisation much more productive... but at the cost of causing the sea level to start rising gradually. If you don't want the low-lying areas of your empire to get flooded, then you'll need to build flood barriers - and eventually start investing in nuclear and renewable energy once those become available in the Atomic and Information Eras. 

Quite annoying to deal with, but obviously pales into insignificance compared to the real world!

It sounds like the gains you get from those stations are far more than the cost you'll incur for building flood barriers. I'd hope I'm wrong though because otherwise it makes the climate change aspect of using those stations a bit redundant so long as the player knows up front to prepare against the consequences and it doesn't work out as being a worse approach overall to just not using those stations.

Yeah, the gains from them are more than the cost of building the flood barriers. However, there are a couple of counterpoints to that: 

a) The game is trying to simulate the course of human history, from the ancient era to the present day. If the power stations weren't worth building, then you'd essentially be skipping an era (the industrial era). 
b) Even if you don't build the power stations, you'll still need flood barriers anyway - because everyone else will be building power stations!

[Moonface]

Yep, Civilization VI has this in the Gathering Storm franchise. 

Once you hit the Industrial Era, coal- and oil-fired power stations become available. They'll make your civilisation much more productive... but at the cost of causing the sea level to start rising gradually. If you don't want the low-lying areas of your empire to get flooded, then you'll need to build flood barriers - and eventually start investing in nuclear and renewable energy once those become available in the Atomic and Information Eras. 

Quite annoying to deal with, but obviously pales into insignificance compared to the real world!

It sounds like the gains you get from those stations are far more than the cost you'll incur for building flood barriers. I'd hope I'm wrong though because otherwise it makes the climate change aspect of using those stations a bit redundant so long as the player knows up front to prepare against the consequences and it doesn't work out as being a worse approach overall to just not using those stations.

Yeah, the gains from them are more than the cost of building the flood barriers. However, there are a couple of counterpoints to that: 

a) The game is trying to simulate the course of human history, from the ancient era to the present day. If the power stations weren't worth building, then you'd essentially be skipping an era (the industrial era). 
b) Even if you don't build the power stations, you'll still need flood barriers anyway - because everyone else will be building power stations!

I forgot Civ is a game against other AI controlled nations and not something like SimCity where you're just playing solo and working to upgrade your overall city, so I didn't even think about B until you mentioned it.
As for A, fair point.
I also guess that if power stations weren't worth the time and effort due to A and B not existing as reasons it would be questionable why the developers would include them, since naturally players would end up avoiding them.


I doubt a game like this would create awareness in a way that spurs any action, but I just remembered that UE5 map that was made for that new Matrix movie and it would probably be a neat way to demo the power of that tech by having that city (or another one) be hit by various natural disasters that are becoming more prevalent due to climate change. So like rising sea levels would cause flooding and you'd get to see water damage happening, etc. I just think most people would play it for the fun of watching a city getting wrecked and not put much thought in beyond that (although I really can't blame anyone for not caring when the damage is being done by big companies who will continue until it stops generating a profit...).