Can Games Really Help Shape Climate Policy? A Global Experiment in Public Engagement

🎮 Can Games Really Help Shape Climate Policy? 🌍A Global Experiment in Public Engagement 🕹️ 👯

As the world faces a climate crisis, a key question emerges:How do we bring citizens into meaningful conversation with policymakers?

One surprising answer: games. 🎮🕹️

In collaboration with UNDP and game studios, we inserted a survey named Play2Act into popular mobile games — and it reached over 1 million people across every country in the world (excluding North Korea and Eritrea).

The result: ca. 200,000 completed surveys offering deep insights into citizens' views on climate policies — all collected through play.🗂️

This work is available in our Play2Act Case Study Report (https://lnkd.in/eX26c-fS), published in our Zenodo repository (https://lnkd.in/eD_AZeaN), where we share our latest research outputs. This project was also a finalist of the Falling Walls Summit Science Breakthrough (Engagement category) 2024. https://lnkd.in/eX9Kiebz

But there's more — we’ve also explored how this approach can scale and sustain itself.Our GREAT D6.3 Business Models Report examines how companies like SGI and PlanetPlay are developing innovative, purpose-driven games that serve as platforms for:

🌏 Climate engagement
📜 Policy exploration
📝 Collective learning

💡 Using frameworks like:

- Business Model Canvas
- Value Proposition Canvas
- Lean Canvas
…we uncover how to prove value to both players and funders, and what it takes to build a viable model for impact.

👥 Who should explore this?
- Anyone curious about how games can drive change
- Game developers building for impact
- Policymakers and NGOs seeking new engagement tools
- Researchers studying climate communication
- Funders interested in innovation with purpose

🔗 Dive deeper:

📄 Full Report – Business Models - https://lnkd.in/epGXFvwx
🎥 1-min Project Video - https://lnkd.in/dshaicXs📌 Policy Brief - https://lnkd.in/e7KYmdqZ
📑 Whitepaper - https://lnkd.in/exHt_j7x
🌐 Project Website - www.greatproject.gg
📄 Play2Act Report - https://lnkd.in/eX26c-fS

Let’s rethink how we engage the public in climate action — sometimes the biggest change starts with a simple game. (Pls free feel to reshare the post!)

Acknowledgements: Co-funded by EU & UKRI. Special thanks to all of the game studios that supported the Play2Act survey, UNDP and the whole GREAT consortium.