New Minecraft ‘Heat Dragon’ quest leaves gamers battling climate change villains
New video game puts climate-fighting tools in the hands of up to 80 million Minecraft players
Heat Dragon from Heat Wave Survival for Minecraft Education.
Climate wire | The normally buttoned-down Atlantic Council is diving into the world of online gaming in hopes of raising awareness of climate disaster among gamers, one of the world’s fastest-growing demographic groups. Masu.
A new interactive game called “Heat Wave Survival” was launched last week by the council’s Adrienne Arsht Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center. The organization seeks to leverage his 60 million users who use the popular online gaming platform Minecraft. Gamers compete against animated fire-breathing “heat dragons.”
The center said in a statement that players “embark on an adventure to protect a virtual village from the infamous Heat Dragon. They not only defend themselves in a digital world, but also explore countries around the world in search of cooling solutions. I will take up the challenge.” But also in real life. ”
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The game is currently available through Minecraft Education, an online learning platform owned by Microsoft, and will be available to all Minecraft players in the coming weeks, officials said. This is the latest in a suite of game-based entry points into the theme of climate change. Creators say such games are not only fun, but promote climate literacy by immersing players in a simulation of climate change and forcing them to adapt or die.
“Games are actively consumed. They’re not passive,” Shane Hayes, associate director of video game initiatives at Arsht-Rock, said in an interview. “They are a powerful vehicle for enhancing skills and knowledge that can help save lives.”
Helen Zbihlyj, lead narrative writer for ReWrite Media’s Heat Wave Survival, said the game took about nine months to develop and was tailored to meet classroom needs without losing the fun element. .
“Dragons are a great way to show global climate change in a physical way,” Zubifridi said. “Some of the original concept art showed a dragon made of flames flying into the window of an elderly woman who was watching a heatwave weather forecast on TV. What better way to express your feelings than by breathing fire?”Dragon? “
Gamers have access to two versions. Players utilize an “adventure map” in which they travel through a simulated landscape, encountering heat dragons, and then taking action to fend off the beasts. “The idea was to make heat very tangible. [players] You can join in to see how extreme heat affects your Minecraft village,” Hayes said.
Another version is tailored for classroom use and features a “build challenge” where players can collect tools and develop strategies to “build their own version of a heat-resistant urban area.” Offers. Solutions include cooling centres, parks, green spaces, reflective surfaces and more. Players can travel to four “real-world locations” in-game: Brazil, Greece, India, and Nigeria to “see what these countries are actually doing to deal with the extreme heat. ” added Hayes.
The Atlantic Council is not alone in its commitment to gaming. At the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York, officials set out “ambitious, specific and time-based” commitments to achieve sustainable climate change and more than 30 games. Launched the Playing for the Planet Alliance, a volunteer partnership with studios. development goals.
Reprinted from E&E News Published with permission of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides news that matters to energy and environment professionals.
