Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
}
TY - CHAP
T1 - Gaming the Eco-system
T2 - Designing More-than-Human Game Worlds to Interrogate Unsustainable Systemic Technological Futures
AU - Stead, Michael
AU - Owen, Violet
AU - Coulton, Paul
PY - 2026/5/1
Y1 - 2026/5/1
N2 - The increasing ‘digitalisation’ of society presents a double-edged sword for transitioning towards an environmentally sustainable future. Our everyday interactions with product-service-systems, like ‘smart’ Internet of Things (IoT) devices, Artificial Intelligence-driven (AI) interfaces, and Massively Multiplayer Online games can help to make our lives more connected, convenient, and convivial. Due to their perceived immateriality, these systemic technologies are often also promoted as resource efficient and sustainable. Yet, because of their ubiquity and scale, these innovations are consuming precious planetary resources at an alarming rate. With a global footprint of 4% of carbon emissions and counting, digital technologies help to increase the Earth’s temperature and contribute to climate change, creating risks for biodiversity and human life. This chapter presents three case studies that, through the design and deployment of novel, interactive Serious Games, creatively interrogate the unsustainability of today’s socio-technical eco-system. Like Games for Change and Persuasive Games, Serious Games aim to provide more than simply an entertaining experience for players. They can help to raise peoples’ awareness and understanding of complex, real-world systemic issues including poverty, geo-political conflict, and climate change. Drawing upon insights generated through Participatory Speculative Design workshops alongside Bogost’s notion of Alien Phenomenology, the cases outline how Research through Design and Worldbuilding methods were applied to create the three More-than-Human game experiences. This emergent approach to More-than-Human-Centred Design allows practitioners to concretise and consider the tensions and trade-offs that exist between human and non-human actants including ecological stakeholders (e.g., flora, fauna, climate) and technological counterparts (e.g., data, AI, devices) across our contemporary socio-technical eco-system.
AB - The increasing ‘digitalisation’ of society presents a double-edged sword for transitioning towards an environmentally sustainable future. Our everyday interactions with product-service-systems, like ‘smart’ Internet of Things (IoT) devices, Artificial Intelligence-driven (AI) interfaces, and Massively Multiplayer Online games can help to make our lives more connected, convenient, and convivial. Due to their perceived immateriality, these systemic technologies are often also promoted as resource efficient and sustainable. Yet, because of their ubiquity and scale, these innovations are consuming precious planetary resources at an alarming rate. With a global footprint of 4% of carbon emissions and counting, digital technologies help to increase the Earth’s temperature and contribute to climate change, creating risks for biodiversity and human life. This chapter presents three case studies that, through the design and deployment of novel, interactive Serious Games, creatively interrogate the unsustainability of today’s socio-technical eco-system. Like Games for Change and Persuasive Games, Serious Games aim to provide more than simply an entertaining experience for players. They can help to raise peoples’ awareness and understanding of complex, real-world systemic issues including poverty, geo-political conflict, and climate change. Drawing upon insights generated through Participatory Speculative Design workshops alongside Bogost’s notion of Alien Phenomenology, the cases outline how Research through Design and Worldbuilding methods were applied to create the three More-than-Human game experiences. This emergent approach to More-than-Human-Centred Design allows practitioners to concretise and consider the tensions and trade-offs that exist between human and non-human actants including ecological stakeholders (e.g., flora, fauna, climate) and technological counterparts (e.g., data, AI, devices) across our contemporary socio-technical eco-system.
KW - Sustainable Futures
KW - More-Than-Human-Centred Design
KW - Serious Games
KW - World Building
KW - Speculative Design
KW - Research through Design
KW - Digital Sustainability
KW - Circular Economy
KW - Net Zero
M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)
SN - 9781032836195
BT - Towards Sustainable Game Design
A2 - Prax, Patrick
A2 - Whittle, Clayton
A2 - York, Trevin
PB - CRC Press
ER -