After Gore’s 24 hours of climate reality back in September, I thought that he’d pretty much hit rock bottom with faking the science in it. Even Nature thought it was dumb. I thought we couldn’t possibly see anything stupider than that. I was wrong.
Al Gore has announced a partnership with PSFK to make a series of propaganda climate games. Here’s what he has to say about it:
Games are the new normal. The popularity and proliferation of smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices—coupled with a wide variety of social networking platforms—provide fertile ground for the incorporation of games into our lives in fresh, new ways. Whether it’s playing Scrabble on your iPhone or Farmville on Facebook, now millions fill the interstitial moments of their lives with the simple fun that these programs and apps provide.
As games have become ubiquitous, both the private and public sectors have begun to seriously look at the role that gamification can play in their work. Game design, techniques and mechanics, have something to teach those of us who are seeking to engage people on issues of social importance.
In the forty years that I have worked to build public awareness of the need to urgently solve the climate crisis, I have always sought out new methods of communication— from my slideshow on three Kodak carousels (which evolved from an actual slideshow to a multi-media presentation on Keynote)—to my work on An Inconvenient Truth, the “Live Earth” global concerts, “24 Hours of Reality” on the web, and an app for the iPhone and iPad called Our Choice. Exploring the interplay of gamification and social change is a fascinating challenge, and one that I have been exploring for the last three years. Clearly, there is tremendous potential for advocates to reach entirely new audiences with games that are engaging, fun, and motivational.
Recently, I was introduced to Piers Fawkes and the wonderful team at PSFK and for the past several months The Climate Reality Project, PSFK and I have collaborated in an open source “Gaming for Good” Challenge. I hope that you will enjoy the results of this collaboration and that it will encourage you to think creatively about social impact games.
Here’s a video where Al hypes the new battle for young minds:
He’s got a whole gaming racket. For example:
CLIMATE HEROES. GET READY TO CHANGE THE WORLD
Climate Heroes is an online game that capitalizes on the long-standing role of superheroes as beacons of goodness in our lives. This game gives users the opportunity to become a superhero and take up the fight to solve the planet’s climate issues. The future of the planet is in your hands. Create your profile and save the world! Users are able to select from a number of superhero avatars, such as Mr. Smog and Miss Waste, all of which are visually engaging and representative of a specific climate challenge. Users can capture climate abuse using their mobile phones and upload photos or share news items. Those that do so with regular frequency and take on the role of ‘influencer’ will be engaged by the Organization to do a public mission. A sample mission might be to organize a flash mob that sheds light on a specific issue.
CLIMATE TRAIL
There’s a lot of information and disinformation surrounding climate
change. But much of the disinformation can be debunked by following the
“money trail” of companies sponsoring the research and publication that
disseminates this false data. How do we encourage the public to think for
themselves and question the sources of their information? By encouraging
them to play “Climate Trail”, a simple text-based game that mirrors the
functionality of classic online games like “Oregon Trail”.
At the start of the game, each player is given a leadership role in a
community with set levels of renewable resources, atmospheric levels, and
other indicators of climate health. The goal is to reach the year 2036 with a
healthy and livable community. As game play proceeds, players are asked
questions like “Do you want clean coal or wind power to be your town’s main
source of power” or “Do you want to clear 10,000 acres of forest to create
more farmland?” Correct answers help boost resource levels while wrong
answers impact negatively on community health. After each answer, players
are also presented with information about choices that were made in the
real world (e.g. Portland, Oregon switched to natural gas for city vehicles
and reduced emissions 30%). Users will also be able to share answers across
social networks like Twitter and Facebook.
Once the initial levels have been completed, players are promoted
to a higher rank with responsibilities for larger and more complex
communities. As they progress to higher leadership levels they are also
greeted with new challenges (e.g. “Lobbyists want to meet with you to
discuss new vehicle standards.”).
Game play either ends when resource goals are reached on a global scale
or climate change has reached unacceptable levels and the community is
no longer sustainable. Players will be able to compare their performances
against real life politicians. They will also be given tips on where they
went wrong in the game (e.g. “You believed reports about Clean Coal
but research was actually funded by Mining Companies”) highlighting
both the money trail and the need for independent consumer research
on high impact environmental and climate issues.
CLIMATE REALITY PATROL
Idea: Social media activism meets gaming and rewards
Concept: Instantly tag your comments with Climate Reality keyword facts to
earn badges and rewards.
How it Works:
Climate Reality creates and hosts a database of short-form facts (1–2 sentences
each) tied to “hot topic” keywords. Each description includes a link to optionally
find a deeper resource of related information.
Users create a profile on The Climate Reality Patrol website, activate the browser
plugin, then begin patrolling the web, looking to dispel unfounded environmental
information in articles and comments from media sites, politicians, brands,
celebrities, blogs, etc.
Wherever commenting is allowed, users who’ve activated Climate Reality Patrol
can post responses including keywords that automatically pull facts served from
The Climate Reality database. The keywords are presented and activated via a
menu that appears as they type (similar to an advanced spell-check).
Other users who view these comments can hover over any of the activated keywords
to find a pop-up fact window that includes the respective “quick fact” and a link to
more info.
Each post would include #ClimateRealityPatrol and/or @ClimateRealityPatrol at the end by default, to brand the posts.
The Climate Reality Patrol website tracks user stats and features a leaderboard for all user rankings. A Facebook app displays rankings on individual user’s profiles.
Levels of “Climate Reality Activist” badges are awarded based on the amount
of false information a user has dispelled (based on the number of keywords they’ve posted). Rewards could include special recognition, invitation to events, or entry into exclusive contests.
…
This one takes the cake for silliness:
REALiTREE (pronounced RE-AL-i-TREE)
Realitree is a digital manifestation of our local environment and the
role that we are playing in sustaining its wellbeing. It is a game played
by different groups in many places. Individuals, teams, communities,
cities and even countries compete against their counterparts via Twitter,
Facebook and through other social tools.
A Realitree is like a huge Tamagotchi for which thousands of people care.
It is a massive projection showing a digital image of a tree, complete with leaves, branches, roots, sky and earth. Realitree functions like a real tree, in that it will thrive and suffer according to the health of its surrounding enviroment.
Realitree’s environment takes into account news media, so news stories that are in conflict with climate reality will reflect negatively on its health. Realitree will expose agents of the fossil fuel industry who propagate smear, innuendo, criminal hacking and leaking of out-of context snippets or lies.
Each Realitree will be fed two distinct types of data:
• Current, statistical environmental data about the surrounding community as well as news and insights about political and corporate forces working against the climate’s good health.
• Real-time updates using tweets and the various social networking activity of the Realitree’s caretakers. Anyone can participate in keeping it alive and thriving through their real world deeds and virtual nutrients, delivered through their social networking activity.
As their networks grow, they will be represented as the intertwined roots of the tree, keeping it alive, fed and guarded against attack.
The overall “health” of Realitree will be on constant display. With good activities, it will grow, multiply and sway appreciatively. With bad deeds, Realitree will appear to shake and wither. It will always display climate reality truths, news, facts and shares from participants throughout its community and all over the world. We envision “planting” 300 Realitrees in cities and towns across the globe.
Each caretaker will play on different levels and earn points by doing
different things. A single tweet, for example, may garner one point, while a Foursquare check-in to a “green” business or using clean energy at home will gain more points. On the Realitree website, through Facebook connections, people can form teams, compete against friends and measure their contributions to helping reverse the effects of climate change. On another level, Realitrees (planted in New York City, for example) could compete against every other city where Realitrees are placed.
Corporations would be allowed the opportunity to play and even remedy earlier misdeeds by correcting falsehoods and donating money to pay for real initiatives in winning communities. Those that create the healthiest environment for their Realitree win the game.
And finally, Climate Reality hits Farmville:
DESTINATION REALITY: FARMVILLE
It’s a funny thing when there are more virtual farmers than real ones on Earth.
Real life farmers see the effects of climate change, but do virtual ones? Let’s
partner with Farmville to drop a dose of Reality on the 31 million people who
log on daily to tend to their plants, harvest, and redeem gold coins for seeds,
supplies, and fuel.
We could partner with Zynga to plan the best way to expose crops to weather
and wind and offer The Climate Reality Project branded goods to help
Farmers mitigate and adapt to unexpected weather conditions. Goods such
as wind-powered tractors, windmills, jackets to shield you from the elements,
seeds for heartier crops like organic cassava and chickpeas, decorations like a
Climate Reality flag, rainwater collection troughs and green ring tags for your
livestock. We’d want to do this in a way that presents a challenge to Farmville
players, and makes it possible via gameplay mechanics to heal the destruction
caused by Climate events, illustrating that through action, we can change the
current trajectory.
Wind-powered tractors?
And while I didn’t expect to find such a ridiculous thing when I went looking, amazingly, some physics challenged fool has actually made a concept image:
From the website, the description:
Windmill-powered electric farm tractors.
The picture above shows a windmill-powered electric farm tractor. The tractor is shown with it’s windmill extended for recharging. When the tractor is parked,the tractor’s windmill is extended on a telescopic mast. The tractor remains parked like this with it’s windmill extended,for several hours. While it is parked,the windmill turns wind energy into electrical energy. The electricity produced by the windmill is stored in batteries located inside the tractor.
No, really. Somebody thinks this is the farming of the future.
And there’s more. Al has plans for farm animals, blogs, chatrooms, and school kids.
Read all about it here in this report gaming-for-good-psfk-111202215545-phpapp01 (PDF 8.5 MB)
I predict it will be even less successful than Al’s previous sideshow attraction, because lets face it, the games are stupid and without challenge.
Michael Bergeron (@zerg539) says:
January 12, 2012 at 1:02 am
Can we actually kill the REALiTREE with the truth? And whoever thought of wind-powered tractors needs to be commited before they can do actual harm.
——————————
He should have a wood gassification tracor instead. It is carbon neutral because it uses wood or biomass. They actually exist (you can find examples on Youtube) and the DOE put out a “how to” manual back in the 70’s on how to build them which you can get free from various places on the internet. I have the manual and plan to build one for my old Ford 8n as a novelty piece. The only problems with them are risks of blowing up and Carbon Monoxide poisoning. But hey, I’m all for “saving the plant” even if it risks my life and limb! 🙂
Pathetic, sad and frankly, tiresome.
I confess I did not even bother to read the whole charade.
Well done Anthony for your patience.
Al Gore looks like a child in need of motherly care.
Sad.
On the tractor one, he forgot to say that if you can’t wait for the battery to charge, then you just hoist the sail – and away you go.
Al Gore is certain proof that there is no God. No God could have created Al Gore as even the dumbest God isn’t that mind numbingly stupid????
I remember back some 15-20 years ago, there was Sim-Earth. The goal was to evolve a species from a single cell to sentient beings capable of leaving the earth. The problem was that once the species became sentient, everything that happened from then on made “Gaia” mad… that is, until they built rocketships and left. That made “gaia” very happy…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimEarth
We should have thought of this idea. Imagine what will happen when millions of people are faithfully tending their Realitree but it withers because of “climate change”. Everyone will be able to see for themselves that, while the alarmist media reports have described conditions that kill trees, they can go outside and the real versions are still there. Obviously the media reports are wild exaggerations.
Also, I don’t play Farmville, but my teenage daughters seem to enjoy it. They cry foul whenever anything hurts their crops, including their own neglect, so I doubt they’ll blindly accept negative inputs from global warming. They’re much more likely to howl in protest and correctly observe that extra CO2 should be incorporated into the game to make their crops healthier.
I’ve already seen how inaccurate these games can be. I mean, who puts a Yeti and Penguin in the same ecosystem?
[snip – you don’t get to insert a word in my sentence to make your point – second warning – Anthony]
Actually a legit climate game would be interesting and educational. The game could simply be a medeical RPG where the average person was typically cold and hungry, eating porridge and working the fields by hand. Forget the tractor. You’d have an army of people in burlap armed with scythes. You could structure it with all sorts of fun options. For example, your plough horse died and your kids were all killed in a war. You and your aging wife are alone, cold, and hungry. You can pick freeze to death,starve to death, or use fossil fuels to get food and warmth.
Did somebody say “Al Gore” and “game”?
http://www.pictogame.com/en/play/game/q4qTCXQ1IYmp_al-gore-shooting
I’m sure there’s more.
🙂
how do you get the materials to make all these renewable items and transmission equipment?
I believe games would be positive feedback? Increases ‘education’, takes up time so people aren’t doing other things, which also is another population reducer. I do wonder which persons are in it for which reasons: power, truely believe environment is in danger, for redistribution of wealth, or help initiate population awareness/control (Malthusian or not). There are some that believe level of wealth correlates to population replacement rate, I’ve only found info as far as the 1970’s, so ‘all the above’ is a valid option.
South Park had it right about Al back in 2005 with the prescient Manbearpig episode.
You can watch the full episode here:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s10e06-manbearpig
Thank (or curse) Google and Eric Schmidt for giving this pompous fool a consulting gig and pre-IPO Google options back in March 2001. Because now he’s been enriched and is free to spout his bloviating nonsense without the constraints of a real job in the real world.
Gore now has a lifetime trust fund to hunt for Meanbearpig.
@ur momisugly Lucy Skywalker
” He’s going mad….”
Sorry, wrong tense 🙂
As with anything to do with Gore it is absurd, I struggled to read the whole thing.
The real loser is the English language: “the interstitial moments of their lives”, “gamification”, “realitree”.
I’ve tried the on-line translators but there all pay to use, so does anyone know ‘Laughing all the way to the bank’ in latin?
Slap the text under a picture of ManBearPig and you got his coat-of-arms.
He’s really getting desperate; a shepherd in search of sheep. I suppose he sees people who play these games as easy targets. More computer simulation. His view of reality is so completely subjective it’s scary.
This is just plain embarrassing.
I would love to see some trial runs of these ‘games’ with my kids and their friends.
This guff would get tossed within nano-seconds.
These people have a serious problem with their self perception if they think this is somehow ‘cool’.
It’s the gaming equivalent of my great uncle at a nightclub doing the chicken dance in a jacket with padded leather elbows.
Now – if they could somehow get it incorporated into the next ‘Call of Duty’…
If I abuse my climate too much will I get hairy palms and go blind?
Bernd Felsche says @January 12, 2012 at 12:51 am
Ahhh.
Pleas of insanity.
I said as I read the post ‘spare me the insanity please’……..
gratifying to read there is some consensus there.
Reads like an upgrade of Age of Empires or Civilisation where
‘take on the persona of a tribal leader (with a surprisingly long lifespan) at the beginning of human history who must lead his people from the dangers of nomadic life to the responsibilities of running a global empire’.…. .. The disaster button in Sim Cities might be needed..
http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/082/082486p1.html
yes this is idiotic but I when to the site: http://www.devon.gov.uk/climatechange and I don’t see any money making in it nor any begging for contributions
“What’s the matter, Timmy?”
“I was playing a game and lost all my food.”
“Aw, too bad. What was it this time, evil wizards or nuclear holocaust?”
“No wind.”
“I used to be the president, until I took an arrow in my knee”
Man-Bear-Pig – 2012
Al, take a minute and go to google search and check out the auto suggestions for “Al Gore is”
Are you picking up what the rest of the world is putting down? Even Google hates you. You lost.
Poor Al . . . . he’s really lost the plot now, can’t handle being ignored and brings new definition to being Stuck on Stupid.
Games are the new normal? It’s a good thing Al invented the internet, so somebody could invent games. Think of all the generations of mankind who have been forced to while away their free time watching their toenails grow.
What a whacko! This is just another good excuse to abstain from social media.
Same theme we’ve seen before:
Abstract misrepresentation of nature.
“In the forty years that I have worked to build public awareness of the need to urgently solve the climate crisis…”
Forty years? That would put us back to 1972. There was no talk of global warming aka “climate change” back in 1972.