Symposium Ecogames: Game research meets sustainability

Ecogames - or games with a focus on ecosystems and sustainability - are imaginative spaces for playing and learning, expressing often contested moral and political values. They are used to raise awareness for a variety of sustainability issues, such as renewable energy transition, circular economy, sustainable mobility, and green water use and energy consumption.

These persuasive and participatory games represent an experiential turn in climate communication and storytelling, trying to reinforce ecological attitudes and behaviour and stimulate collaborative environmental decision making.

This symposium, organised by the Utrecht Research Focus Area Game Research, brings together experts in the fields of game design and research, communication, media and urban studies, ethics, geosciences, data and computer science. It explores the psychological, social, cultural and institutional conditions of a transition to a sustainable society, and the role ecogames could play in such a transition. Four Dutch game studios and creative storytelling agencies (Grendel Games, Spektor, Organiq and Play the City) will present their media productions and will discuss how these productions can be understood as rhetorical devices.

More information about the speakers and their projects can be found here. Also see our flyers (Ecogames and Game Research) and our Ecogames programme booklet.

Programme