Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change
The pressing problems of climate change and energy insecurity can both, to a degree, be addressed by improving efficiency and conservation of energy use. A key driver of energy conservation is the consumer market, illustrating the important need to educate citizens towards adopting more sustainable...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Serious Games Society
2017-12-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Serious Games |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.seriousgamessociety.org/index.php/IJSG/article/view/152 |
| _version_ | 1818927841112227840 |
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| author | Benjamin Ultan Cowley Chris Bateman |
| author_facet | Benjamin Ultan Cowley Chris Bateman |
| author_sort | Benjamin Ultan Cowley |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The pressing problems of climate change and energy insecurity can both, to a degree, be addressed by improving efficiency and conservation of energy use. A key driver of energy conservation is the consumer market, illustrating the important need to educate citizens towards adopting more sustainable practices. This form of education has several requirements: it must be cost-efficient, scalable, optional or non-intrusive, and self-motivating. We argue that one format that meets these requirements is serious social online games. We describe one such game, Green My Place, which was deployed in the context of the energy-efficiency promotion EU project SAVE ENERGY. We describe two studies evaluating the game, which showed limited positive effects. Analysing the results, we argue that although observable effects might be limited, the format bonuses such as low cost and scalability imply the value of serious social online games, given a large enough population. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T03:19:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ee36080eadc34cffb0277874736dd5dd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2384-8766 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T03:19:25Z |
| publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
| publisher | Serious Games Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Serious Games |
| spelling | doaj.art-ee36080eadc34cffb0277874736dd5dd2022-12-21T19:55:15ZengSerious Games SocietyInternational Journal of Serious Games2384-87662017-12-014410.17083/ijsg.v4i4.152104Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour ChangeBenjamin Ultan Cowley0Chris Bateman1Cognitive Science, Department of Digital Humanities, University of HelsinkiUniversity of Bolton, Manchester, United Kingdom Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna Beach, CA, United StatesThe pressing problems of climate change and energy insecurity can both, to a degree, be addressed by improving efficiency and conservation of energy use. A key driver of energy conservation is the consumer market, illustrating the important need to educate citizens towards adopting more sustainable practices. This form of education has several requirements: it must be cost-efficient, scalable, optional or non-intrusive, and self-motivating. We argue that one format that meets these requirements is serious social online games. We describe one such game, Green My Place, which was deployed in the context of the energy-efficiency promotion EU project SAVE ENERGY. We describe two studies evaluating the game, which showed limited positive effects. Analysing the results, we argue that although observable effects might be limited, the format bonuses such as low cost and scalability imply the value of serious social online games, given a large enough population.http://journal.seriousgamessociety.org/index.php/IJSG/article/view/152serious gameenergy efficiencybehaviour changeevaluation study |
| spellingShingle | Benjamin Ultan Cowley Chris Bateman Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change International Journal of Serious Games serious game energy efficiency behaviour change evaluation study |
| title | Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change |
| title_full | Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change |
| title_fullStr | Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change |
| title_full_unstemmed | Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change |
| title_short | Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change |
| title_sort | green my place evaluation of a serious social online game designed to promote energy efficient behaviour change |
| topic | serious game energy efficiency behaviour change evaluation study |
| url | http://journal.seriousgamessociety.org/index.php/IJSG/article/view/152 |
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