Xbox Issues Global Warming Game Challenge

Xbox Issues Global Warming Game Challenge

June 13, 2007
An inconvenient game? Perhaps...

Microsoft and Games for Change (G4C) have come together for a socially-aware gaming design competition. The  Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge, open to college students worldwide, will launch this summer. Participants can submit game designs based on the theme of global warming. Submissions must be based on Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express software.

The best entries will receive cash prizes, which can be used for education. Winners will also be invited to present their game to Microsoft game execs who will evaluate the designs as possible future download offerings on Xbox LIVE. The first-place winner gets a chance to apprentice with MS.

Said Suzanne Seggerman, co-founder and president of Games for Change:
The current generation of gamers is among the most socially conscious in history. We know from experience that young people are looking for ways to help make the world a better place...

Microsoft exec Jeff Bell added:
Microsoft is very happy to work with Games for Change... We are passionate about the potential games have in expanding horizons, creating networks, and helping design real-world solutions.

Former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey (left) was on hand for the announcement. Now if we can just persuade President Bush to check out the winning global warming game...
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Comments

Submitted by Brokenscope - June 13, 2007 at 7:15 am -0500
When I want to help with global warming i usually do it by turning my 360 OFF. That thing heats my whole bedroom up, not to mention the sound of my power meter screaming as it spins.


Yeah, sounds interesting, wish I had learned .net and C# already ect ect ect.
Submitted by Sparksalot - June 13, 2007 at 7:29 am -0500
I was about to say the exact same thing lol. Even though the new one is quieter, if I want to save the planet everyone could just turn off their 360s ;)
Submitted by Mechadon - June 13, 2007 at 7:30 am -0500
Politicians have been taking a dump on video games for decades and now they want to use them to push their politicized pseudo-science bullshit on younger audiences. Forget it.
Submitted by beemoh - June 13, 2007 at 7:48 am -0500
You know, the funny thing is, my major project for University was a game about climate change, in C# and XNA, using XNA Game Studio Express.

I am now entirely convinced that Microsoft are stealing my thoughts.

/b
Submitted by Dexee - June 13, 2007 at 9:00 am -0500
@ Mechadon
100% agreed my friend.
Submitted by Lazy - June 13, 2007 at 9:20 am -0500
@Mechadon

Saying that "Politicians ... want to use them to push their politicized pseudo-science bullshit on younger audiences" is a bit much. G4C consists of many groups, not just politicians.

From their website:

Our members represent hundreds of organizations and include partners in the games industry, academia, nonprofits, local and state governments, foundations, the UN and artists.

Also, how is climate modeling pseudo science?
Submitted by Brokenscope - June 13, 2007 at 9:30 am -0500
You know I have always wondered, if a natural climate cycle threatened to destroy human civilization, and we had the means to slow or prevent the change, would we do it? or would we waffle wondering if we have the right or if we would destroy the environment.
Submitted by The Click Heard Round the World - June 13, 2007 at 10:38 am -0500
Microsoft announces global competition for youth to develop climate change game for XBOX360...

On Saturday evening, the non-profit Games for Change and Microsoft announced at the G4C Festival at Parsons Design School that they were launching together a new initiative to around the theme of climate change. Entitled The XBox360 Games for Change...
Submitted by Stinking Kevin - June 13, 2007 at 12:35 pm -0500
@Mechadon (and Dexee)
I assume you're calling "bullshit" on the growing belief than human activity is contributing to global warming, and that you do not dispute records which show the "globe" has indeed been "warming" (by less than one degree) over the last century.

As far as I can tell, the contest doesn't require that submitted games promote any particular political message, only that they have a "global warming theme." Why not make an XNA game that demonstrates your point of view?

@Brokenscope: Your first post was the best chuckle I had all morning and your second post gave me something to think about on the way home. Thanks.
Submitted by Dexee - June 13, 2007 at 12:45 pm -0500
@ Kevin
I'm not necessarily calling 100% BS on this. The human activity does have a small impact, I can understand that. But the fact is, we've only really STARTED collecting data on this because we've only done so for about 100 years now, give or take a score. But because it is very limited data, I say its inconclusive evidence to approximately say. Aside from that, the Earth has been in a slow warming trend since the last Ice Age about 14,000 years ago, and Sol is showing increased activity as of the past several years.
Submitted by PHOENIXZERO - June 13, 2007 at 1:10 pm -0500
That and it hasn't been warming for the past 100 years, it started warm in the early 1900s, then there was a cool off which IIRC was called the "Little Ice Age" which "Global Cooling" was spawned from and but then it started warming up again and now BOOM we've been in "Global Warming" mode for around three decades.

I'm sure when the temperatures start to decrease again our politicians and "scientist" will be back with warning of the dangers of Global Cooling.
Submitted by Lazy - June 13, 2007 at 1:30 pm -0500
@Dexee

Scientist have various means of collecting data, even far beyond the beginning of temperature recordings.

For example, ice core drillings in the Antartica give very good data about green house gases in the past 650.00 years.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/11/650000-years-of-gr...

The recent rapid warming trends are not caused by sun activity:

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/08/did-the-sun-hit-re...

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/10/how-not-to-attribu...

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/03/solar-variability-...

@PHOENIXZERO

Here's something about the Global Cooling Myth:

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/01/the-global-cooling...
Submitted by Stinking Kevin - June 13, 2007 at 1:47 pm -0500
Thanks Dexee! Actually, I also have some familiarity with the currently prevailing theories. I've done my own research and formed my own opinions.

My point was that there are informed and educated people whose opinions differ, and I think it could be beneficial for everyone interested if those differing opinions were expressed through games, as the contest (sort of) suggests. Possibly even more beneficial than expressing them here.

I hope it's not too optimistic to think that's the idea behind G4C, above and beyond the ambitions of any "politicized pseudo-science...."
Submitted by Prove It - June 13, 2007 at 4:05 pm -0500
Great..a game initiative to push a scientific theory that can be argued on either side of the fence.

Microsoft: Hey, let's make the news by promoting a design initiative that jumps on the bandwagon of current events fueled by political dogma....great idea.

Stinking Kevin - Sure, the globe is warming, but it might all be a natural process that we have no grasp of yet..read Phoenixzero's remarks.
Submitted by AndySchatz - June 13, 2007 at 4:44 pm -0500
We just launched our game, Venture Arctic, which is an animal ecosystem simulator set in the arctic. Rather than having difficulty levels in the game, the player can choose to turn on and off global warming, extinction, and deforestation.

You can download or buy it at:

www.venturearctic.com

We're a very small company and we don't have an advertising budget, which is why some might not have heard of the game. It's the follow up to the 2006 IGF finalist, Venture Africa, which we donated 4% of the revenue to the WILD Foundation, an org that protects wild spaces in Africa.

My point here is, we've done it. We made an important, fun, informative, and influential game that just needs its' audience to know about it.
Submitted by bman - June 13, 2007 at 5:08 pm -0500
I don't believe it when they say there's manmade global warming. I live in Iowa. 10,000 years ago, it was completely covered by ice. How did all that melt when there wasn't one car around to send carbon emissions into the air?
Submitted by Ara Shirinian - June 13, 2007 at 8:34 pm -0500
I think it would be fun to see a global warming game where you have all these inputs into the system that you can control, as well as several other inputs that you can't control. After playing the game for hours and hours, trying to minimize your carbon footprint or whatever, suddenly this australia sized-island appears in the middle of the atlantic, made completely of smokestacks.

Seriously though, this topic is highly political and it seems the selection of the winner will be unavoidably political as well. There are a lot of interesting statements that a developer can make about this topic, none of them relating directly to their techinical or game design skill. What are their criteria anyway?
Submitted by brokenscope - June 13, 2007 at 10:06 pm -0500
@Stinkin kevin

Your welcome, it is a a question I have posed to during every environment debate that has arisen in my various classes since I started college. The reactions are varied and many.

Best response was "no, if nature kills us so be it"

"what if a comet was going to hit earth? Should be ignore that? even if we could stop it?"

"No of course not comets aren't part of nature...."


Yeah.. it took him a few minutes to realize what he said.

Of course in a philosophy class it goes into natural rights ect ect ect what allows us to change our environment vs natural drive to survive.
Submitted by Hannah - June 13, 2007 at 10:15 pm -0500
To those who dispute global warming:

The fact that the earth is warming up really isn't the problem -- as others have pointed out, the earth has been slowly warming up ever since the last ice age. What scares scientists is the unprecedented RATE of warming that just happened to start around the time of the industrial revolution. Could that be a coincidence? Of course.... but no matter who or what's been causing climate change, it WILL affect us, and for that reason, it's worth looking into.

Besides, environmentally-based edutainment games are fun. When I was a kid, I loved games like "Lost Secret of the Rainforest" and "Lion."
Submitted by Matt Lohr - June 14, 2007 at 9:27 am -0500
"Now if we can just persuade President Bush to check out the winning global warming game…"

I joined the ECA with the understanding that they would be political in only one regard—games. First they slandered firearms owners by equating firearms with narcotics in a recent ad campaign, and now they are taking sides on the 'global warming' issue.

That is two strikes, ECA.

Matt Lohr
Spring, TX
Submitted by Mechadon - June 18, 2007 at 8:36 am -0500
I see my comment stirred things up a bit. I should elaborate on what I meant. I don't deny that climate change is happening. People should be taught everything about climate change and the history of climate change. But, please, let's stick to REAL science. Teach people how to properly read a graph and distinguish between correlation and causation.

It would be funny if Al Gore started claiming that he's a hard-core gamer and tried to push "An Inconvenient Game" as a title.
Submitted by global warming - August 19, 2007 at 8:21 am -0500
global warming is becoming such a obvious problem that someone somewhere other than Al Gore needs to step up to help drive the bus!
Submitted by Ben - January 29, 2008 at 6:13 am -0500
woopwoop :)

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