Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v4i4.152Keywords:
serious game, energy efficiency, behaviour change, evaluation studyAbstract
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.References
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[2] Gee, J. P. (2006). “Are Video Games Good for Learning?” Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 1(3), 172–182.
[3] Abrahamse, W., Steg, L., Vlek, C., & Rothengatter, T. (2005). A review of intervention studies aimed at household energy conservation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25(3), 273–291.
[4] Cowley, B., Moutinho, J., Bateman, C., & Oliveira, A. (2011). Learning Principles and Interaction Design for “Green My Place”: a Massively Multiplayer Serious Game. Entertainment Computing, 2(2), 10.
[5] Saunders, H. D. (1992). The Khazzoom-Brookes Postulate and Neoclassical Growth. The Energy Journal, Volume 13(Number 4), 131–148.
[6] Michie, S., van Stralen, M. M., & West, R. (2011). The behaviour change wheel: a new method for characterising and designing behaviour change interventions. Implementation Science?: IS, 6(1), 42.
[7] Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. http://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
[8] SAVE ENERGY. (2012). SAVE ENERGY Green Paper (pp. 1–18). Retrieved from http://www.ict4saveenergy.eu/documents
[9] European Commission. (2006). Action Plan for Energy Efficiency: Realising the Potential COM(2006)545. Brussels. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/energy/action_plan_energy_efficiency/doc/com_2006_0545_en.pdf
[10] Bateman, C., Lowenhaupt, R., and Nacke, L.E. (2011). “Player typology in theory and practice”, Proceedings of the Digital Games Research Association, Think Design Play 2011. Utrecht, The Netherlands.
[11] Hopson, J. (2001). Gamasutra - Features - “Behavioral Game Design” [04.27.01] %U http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010427/hopson_01.htm.
[12] Darby, S. (2006). The Effectiveness Of Feedback On Energy Consumption. A Review for DEFRA of the Literature on Metering, Billing and direct Displays. Oxford: University of Oxford. Retrieved from http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/energy/downloads/smart-metering-report.pdf
[13] Ehrhardt-Martinez, K. (2008). Behavior, energy, and climate change policy directions, program innovations, and research paths. Conference on Behavior, Energy, and Climate Change, Washington, D.C., 2008
[14] Taylor, H., Hamilton, W. I., & Vail, C. (2014). Creating a lasting commitment to sustainable living. In S. Sharples & S. T. Shorrock (Eds.), Proceedings of the international conference on Ergonomics & Human Factors (pp. 259–266). Southhampton: Taylor & Francis.
[15] Backhaus, J. (2010). Intermediaries as Innovating Actors in the Transition to a Sustainable Energy System. Central European Journal of Public Policy, 4(1), 86–108. Retrieved from http://www.cejpp.eu/index.php/ojs/article/view/47
[16] Heiskanen, E., Johnson, M., Robinson, S., Vadovics, E., & Saastamoinen, M. (2010). Low-carbon communities as a context for individual behavioural change. Energy Policy, 38(12), 7586–7595.
[17] Stern PC (2008) in The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Economic Behaviour, ed Lewis A (Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge, UK), pp 363–382.
[18] Orland, B., Ram, N., Lang, D., Houser, K., Kling, N., & Coccia, M. (2014). Saving energy in an office environment: A serious game intervention. Energy and Buildings, 74(Supplement C), 43–52. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.01.036
[19] Geelen, DV, Keyson, DV, Boess, SU & Brezet, JC (2012). Exploring the use of a game to stimulate energy saving in households. Journal of Design Research, 10(1-2), 102-120.
[20] Fell, M. J., & Chiu, L. F. (2014). Children, parents and home energy use: Exploring motivations and limits to energy demand reduction. Energy Policy, 65(Supplement C), 351–358. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.003
[21] Abrahamse, W., Steg, L., Vlek, C., & Rothengatter, T. (2007). The effect of tailored information, goal setting, and tailored feedback on household energy use, energy-related behaviors, and behavioral antecedents. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 27(4), 265–276.
[22] Petersen, J. E., Shunturov, V., Janda, K., Platt, G., & Weinberger, K. (2007). Dormitory residents reduce electricity consumption when exposed to real-time visual feedback and incentives. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 8(1), 18.
[23] Lazzaro, N 2009,“Creating an MSO: Viral Emotions and the Keys to Social Play”, Presentation at Game Developers Conference 2009, San Jose CA. Available at http://www.slideshare.net/NicoleLazzaro/gdc09-mso-slides-100n032609
[24] Cowley, B. (2014). The QUARTIC Process Model for Developing Serious Games: “Green My Place” Case Study. In N. Lee (Ed.), Digital Da Vinci: Computers in the Arts and Sciences (1st ed., pp. 143–172). New York: Springer Science+Business Media.
[25] Garfield, R. (2000). “Metagames”, in Dietz, J. (ed.) Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Essays on Roleplaying, Sigel, IL: Jolly Roger Games, pp. 16-22.
[26] Nintendo R&D1 (2003). WarioWare [Videogame], Kyoto: Nintendo.
[27] Assembly Line, The (1989). Pipe Mania [Videogame], San Francisco, CA: LucasArts Entertainment.
[28] Taito (1983). Elevator Action [Arcade game], Tokyo: Taito.
[29] DMA Design (1991). Lemmings [Videogame], Liverpool: Psygnosis.
[30] Nintendo SPD (2005). Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? [Videogame], Kyoto: Nintendo.
[31] Nintendo EAD (2005). Big Brain Academy [Videogame], Kyoto: Nintendo.
[32] Schultz, W. P. (2001). The structure of environmental concern: concern for self, other people, and the biosphere. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21(4), 327–339. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494401902270
[33] Davidov, E., Schmidt, P., & Schwartz, S. H. (2008). Bringing Values Back In: The Adequacy of the European Social Survey to Measure Values in 20 Countries. Public Opinion Quarterly, 72(3), 420–445.
[34] Cowley, B., Bedek, M., Heikura, T., Ribiero, C., & Petersen, S. (2012). The QUARTIC Process Model to Support Serious Games Development for Contextualized Competence-Based Learning and Assessment. In M.-M. Cruz-Cunha (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Serious Games as Educational, Business and Research Tools: Development and Design (pp. 491–519). New York: IGI Global.
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2017-12-13
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Green My Place: Evaluation of a Serious Social Online Game Designed to Promote Energy Efficient Behaviour Change. (2017). International Journal of Serious Games, 4(4). https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v4i4.152
