PlanetPlay and the UN create Play2Act initiative to poll gamers about climate change

PlanetPlay, a non-profit platform that contributes to environmental action through games, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have joined forces to launch a new initiative called Play2Act.

Through a poll embedded in popular games, Play2Act aims to capture public views about how video games can contribute to addressing the urgent and interconnected climate and nature crises affecting people and the planet, said Jude Ower, chief strategy officer at PlanetPlay (and formerly the CEO at Playmob, which was acquired by PlanetPlay in May), in an interview with GamesBeat.

The poll, set to launch with an initial rollout in the last quarter of 2024, followed by a second phase anticipated in mid-2025, is being conducted in the framework of the Games Realizing Effective and Affective Transformation (GREAT) project funded by the European Union Horizon and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The GREAT initiative, running from 2023-2026, aims to explore the innovative potential of games in helping citizens express their preferences and attitudes on policy issues, including the climate crisis.

“We’ve got so many studios now getting behind it. And essentially what we’re doing with the data is to take the aggregate, anonymized data to the UN and they’ll use that to see if they could influence climate policy as part of something called the climate promise,” Ower said. “We’ll have an industry wide report. Every six months, we’ll update the questions so that they can track progress and trends and have the most up to date data.”

Origins

Ower while at Playmob worked before with the UNDP to survey 30 million gamers to get their insights on how they feel about climate change, and that provided good feedback for policymakers. That took place a few years ago.

And now the latest move, which has been a couple of years in the making, is to do new polls and collect that data on a regular basis to understand changing attitudes over time.

“The hopes is that could, at speed and scale, get gamers to speak up on how they feel, and then provide this data to policymakers,” Ower said.

The only way to reach large numbers of people, Ower figured, was to do it through polls inside games. The UNDP thought about its next iteration about how to use games as a tool for policy change on climate. The funding came through GREAT. That helped “put the methodology under a microscope” and make the survey more scientifically robust.

Now the poll is live in a bunch of games.

“The partnership with the UN fits perfectly into this so we set something up called Play2Act. It is a two-year project with UNDP. Every six months, we roll out a new survey in game,” Ower said. “We use a game link that can be put into the editorial of in-game messaging.”

Play2Act will use in-game polls to gather insights from players, particularly younger audiences, on how green gaming content and video games can be powerful tools to help fight climate change and preserve nature. This interactive approach allows players to share their views while staying immersed in their favorite games.

Respondents will have the option to fill out the survey in 10 languages: Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Microsoft Xbox, FunPlus, Rovio (AngryBirds2, Angry Birds Friends and Dream Blast), Niantic (Pokemon GO!), Sybo (Subway Surfer), Space Ape Games (BeatStar, Transformers: Earth Wars), Jagex (Runescape), Trailmix (Love & Pies), Hi-Rez (Smite), Creative Mobile (Nitro Nation) and Ten Square Games (Fishing Clash) are some of the initiative’s founding game studios and publishers.

PlanetPlay and UNDP extend an open invitation to more game producers and studios, regardless of their size, to join Play2Act.

Given their impact and reach, video games have the potential to play a significant role in helping to tackle the climate and nature crisis.

Rhea Loucas, CEO at PlanetPlay, said in a statement, “With the global gaming population expected to surpass 3.3 billion by the end of 2024, video games have solidified their status as one of the most influential cultural forces of our era. This initiative seeks to strategically engage the gaming community, leveraging the unparalleled reach and impact of video games as a powerful driver of positive change.”

Jennifer Baumwoll, acting UNDP Climate Hub Director, said in a statement, “Thanks to a multi-partner collaboration, Play2Act will enable players to speak up on how video games can be part of the solution. We want to use this popular platform to give a voice to all actors on how a critical industry like gaming can contribute to global climate and environmental action. Guided by Climate Promise, UNDP’s flagship climate action initiative, we aim to mobilize collective action and implement groundbreaking solutions to address the climate and nature crises.”

Yennie Solheim, Director of Social Impact at games publisher Niantic, said in a statement, “By giving video game players the opportunity to voice their opinions on sustainability, we can start to encourage positive change addressing the global nature of climate change. We’re excited to partner with PlanetPlay and use our technology to foster community engagement and support sustainability efforts.”

The results will be analyzed by academics contributing to the GREAT project on gaming and climate policy. Participating academic institutions include Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (DIPF), Zentrum für Soziale Innovation (ZSI), Bolton University, Oxford University, and Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), providing expertise in research, social science, and data science.  This research project aims to provide a robust methodology and scientific foundation for games to act as a vehicle for influencing global policy.

Play2Act is breaking new ground in climate advocacy. Loucas added, “Together, we are pioneering a movement to make gaming a force for good. Let’s unite to reach one billion gamers and amplify our collective voice for a better future.”

Right now, the engagement rates are above 50%. The goal is to reach more than 100 million people with the current poll.

“That’s amazing,” Ower said. “Players really want to speak up.”

The questions relate to things like how gamers feel about games taking action for climate change; if they want to take action for climate change and nature; and what more they would do. Altogether there are seven questions. Once the players finish the poll, they can return to the game.

Over time, Ower said the hope is to expand from mobile games to PC games and perhaps consoles, possibly through a QR code.