The United Nations’ UNEP Digital Transformations Team unveiled the finalists and categories for its annual Playing for the Planet Awards.
Facilitated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Playing for the Planet Alliance was launched in 2019 and includes major studios including Sony Playstation, Microsoft Xbox, Supercell, Ubisoft and Unity. Six more studios joined the initiative in 2022, including the Pan African Gaming Group, Humble Bundle, Gameloft, Gamigo, Ohbibi and Sumo Group.
The alliance was founded to encourage the video game industry to reduce their emissions and to help inspire gamers to develop sustainability awareness and commit to climate action.
The UNEP also has a climate change poll that is being sent to gamers through the Playing for the Planet partners among game companies.
“We did our Green Game Jam awards last year, but we’ve never done a whole spectrum of awards. So we have evolved from last year and also added some categories,” said Sam Barratt, head of youth, education and advocacy at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and co-chair of the UN Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI), in an interview with GamesBeat.
The new awards include the champion award for an individual doing great work. Other new awards include purpose-driven games, change makers and a technology award.
“It’s not just purely for Green Game Jam participants, but also to acknowledge that other good work is happening outside the jam as well,” Barratt said. “Collectively, this brings attention to the overall cause. What we’re trying to do is build a new cultural approach inside the studios, where people think around purpose in games is not something that is exotic and seasonal, but ever present.”
Regarding video games, Barratt said this medium is special in terms of its opportunity to engage, opportunity to activate, and the opportunity for a quite profound connection between game themes and real world impact.”
Barratt said that surprised his team this year is some of the studios have taken this on in a way with such an intentionality, in terms of continuously delivering games with environmental sustainability themes or activations. Many of the titles are focused on being scientifically correct.
“I think the caliber and the quality of some of these potential winners is definitely the best we’ve seen,” he said.
And believe it or not, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is on the list. (It was nominated for using the Xbox Sustainability toolkit, which resulted in a 4% average reduction in power usage across the tens of millions of Call of Duty players around the world. This savings was realized not just for Xbox platforms, but PC and PlayStation as well. Practically speaking, this power savings is enough to power a small U.S. town for an entire month).
There’s a growing number of organizations aimed at the game industry and gamers with environment causes.
“From the UN perspective, I think it’s it’s really positive a lot more people showing interest in working in the industry. But I think what I think it’s important for the industry is to be supported to meet its goals. We’re happy to be very collaborative.”
Category finalists
Below is the list of categories and finalists.
Chosen by the UNEP’s Digital Transformations Team, the award for the activation that best incorporates the theme of real world action on food, waste and/or restoration. The nominees are:
- Carbon Island
- Dragon Mania Legends
- EverForest
- June’s Journey
- Sky Farm Island
- Media’s Choice
Chosen by a team of games media professionals, the award for the activation that excels in engaging players to learn more about the topic through great storytelling and/or thought leadership.
- Hay Day
- June’s Journey
- Love & Pies
- Orna: A fantasy RPG and GPS MMO
- PUBG Mobile
- Call to Action
Chosen by representatives of the International Game Developers Association Climate Special Interest Group, a group of changemakers in the games industry. This award is for the activation that makes the best use of motivational techniques to build the foundations required for action, as provided in the workshop series.
- Farm Ville 3
- Klondike Adventures
- Love & Pies
- PUBG Mobile
- Sky Farm Island
The Trailblazer award is for the activation that has broken out of the status quo. It has the wow effect, the unexpected.
- FarmVille 3
- June’s Journey
- Love & Pies
- Orna: A fantasy RPG and GPS MMO
- PUBG Mobile
- Newcomer
The award for the best activation made by a game that has not previously participated in the Green Game Jam.
- FarmVille 3
- Merge Mansion
- New World
- Orna: A fantasy RPG and GPS MMO
- PUBG Mobile
- Jam Spirit
The award for the studio that lives and breathes the values of the Green Game Jam: collaboration, sharing best practices, working as one team, and cheerleading other studios.
TBD
Player’s Choice is the award which received the most amount of votes from players throughout the activation go-live period in September.
- Hay Day
- June’s Journey
- Love & Pies
- PUBG Mobile
- Top Eleven 2024
Google’s Choice Award is open to participants whose games are available on the Google Play store, chosen by representatives from across Google teams.
- Dragon Mania Legends
- FarmVille 3
- GamePoint Bingo
- Hungry Shark World
- Subway Surfers
Best Purpose-Driven Game celebrates a purpose-driven game* that is engaging, impactful and successful in its aims. The UN group defines “purpose-driven games” as games that focus on environmental themes (eg climate, nature, pollution) and that are designed for securing engagement on these themes as primary purpose instead of having purpose as a byproduct of pure entertainment.
- Beecarbonize
- Crab God
- Fathomverse: Explore the Depths
- Longleaf Valley
- Monument Valley 3
Best Green Activation. The Green Game Jam incentivizes the development of green activations and supports studios in their delivery. However, naturally many studios build green activations year round outside of the main programme. This category is designed to celebrate these activations that are not part of the Green Game Jam but still deserve recognition as excellent work.
The UN group defines a ‘green activation’ as an element that is added into a game or associated platform (eg. social media) designed to engage a live game’s audience on an environmental theme. A green activation can be anything ranging from a time limited event, to a new level, to a marketing campaign.
- Crab God
- Minecraft – Frozen Planet II
- Minecraft – Microsoft x C40
- Minecraft – UNESCO Greening Education Partnership
- Minecraft – Urban Miner
Best Green Tech celebrates the game that has most effectively integrated energy efficiency optimizations within their game(s). It recognizes efforts that have led to a positive environmental impact without significantly compromising gamer experience or degrading gameplay fidelity.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
- EAX
- For Honour
- Moonwakers : Episode 01
- Ultros
- Changemaker Award
This award recognizes the collective efforts of the studio in integrating eco-friendly practices, raising environmental awareness, and collaborating with others to inspire positive change within the games community.
- Chaos Theory Games
- Mojang Studios
- Rare Games
- Terragami (Terragami Interactive GmbH)
The Champion Award celebrates an individual who has demonstrated excellent leadership within the games industry on environmental sustainability.
- Galina Fedulova
- Jennifer Estaris
- Jude Ower
- Laura Carter
- Nico King
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