Fight the Power! Games, Thermostats, and the Energy Patriarchy

Abstract

Confronting issues of global climate change will require creative approaches to energy consumption across a range of human activities. This design case looks at the evolution of a physical/digital hybrid board game that we created to encourage families to reflect on household energy consumption and environmental sustainability. Design in this context was particularly challenging due to the nature of household heating and cooling systems, which tend to be opaque and difficult to understand. Our challenge was to employ game mechanics to help build up interest, awareness, and understanding of heating and cooling systems, while at the same time providing an enjoyable and engaging activity. Through many rounds of playtesting and interviews, we converged on the design presented here. We start with a conceptual framework describing modern energy practices, after which we describe the game design and reflect on its strengths and weaknesses.

Designing Effective Playful Experiences for Sustainability Awareness in Schools and Makerspaces

“…The United Nations (UN) Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 was recognized as a major breakthrough in environmental governance and global policymaking [2]. Global climate change and sustainable development require novel approaches to energy consumption across a range of human activities [21] and shifts in technologies, techniques or infrastructures, meeting today's demands, without compromising the needs of the future generations [20]. To this end, there is an acute need to improve awareness on individual and societal levels, especially at the younger populations.…”

“…However, up until recently our societies have not been as active on this front as someone would have expected. For instance, recent research shows that people lack a basic understanding of how energy is produced and transmitted, the basic units of consumption, and the implications of many day-to-day actions [21,29]. Despite the obvious reason for why school students are an important user-group (i.e., future citizens that need to learn the values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable future), the educational community is also an excellent candidate for energy saving since according to Eurostat [1] educational buildings cover 17% of total non-residential floor space in the European Union (EU).…”

“…Thus far, the actual implementation and integration of serious games and playful experiences related to sustainability and energy by the research community has followed a range of different paths [20,21,35]. On the one hand, there have been quite a few implementations that offered games of considerable size and depth, which follow the design of games like city simulators but with a sustainability and renewable energy focus [20].…”

“…On the one hand, there have been quite a few implementations that offered games of considerable size and depth, which follow the design of games like city simulators but with a sustainability and renewable energy focus [20]. On the other hand, simpler experiences have attempted to focus on educating end-users by presenting them with information in a playful manner, e.g., in the form of interactive quizzes [21]. However, those implementations are agnostic to the school-related conditions and restrictions, such as the available time for extracurricular activities, the experience and background of the educators, available resources, or even the school building.…”