Greening up your gaming experience

by Shawn Schuster Feb 15th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Real life, Culture, Game mechanics, Academic, Education

While you're engaged in your favorite MMO, do you ever stop to think about the energy consumption you use? Is there an unused light on in the house somewhere? These are the types of questions that Professor Byron Reeves of Stanford University wants gamers to ask themselves, and get more involved with through a system of smart metering technology built into the games. Essentially, players would earn points on a leaderboard for performing certain "green" tasks like turning off lights... in the game.

Reeves recently pitched his idea to the radio show Living on Earth, where he described the process to the host, Bruce Gellerman and "avid gamer" Colin Ahearn. "So people will do something in a virtual world for points that they wouldn't do in the real world for money? I mean, I could save money by simply turning off my lights," Gellerman pointed out. The discussion goes on from there as Reeves explains how the system would be competitive and carry over into the real world. "So the whole goal here is to align entertainment and fun with utility and community value," Reeves said.

You can find out more information on Reeves's research at the Stanford website, watch a video on his plan in action or listen to the interview in mp3 format on the Living on Earth website.

Tags: blizzard, green, living-on-earth, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

W. Graves said on 12:30PM 2-15-2009

So whats the carbon footprint of my nighthawk? 0.o

James Egan said on 1:10PM 2-15-2009

Reprocess it immediately. :D

Global Warming is BULLSHIT said on 1:11PM 2-15-2009

Are you kidding me? I am sick of all your global warming hysteria retards... Why the heck would Massively make an article about something thats not even real (global warming is fake)

I might have to find another blog website now since it seems that Massively has gotten into the global warming hysteria...

If your scared massively, shut your site down! That might fix the global warming for the entire earth!!

Evi said on 9:44AM 2-16-2009

I have no problem with people who disagree on global warming. In fact, I do think there is an element of hysteria in the media over the subject. Where you lost me was at "retards". Try your argument again when you can state it without using juvenile language.

Avashnea said on 9:41AM 2-24-2009

Anyone that believes in the global warming myth IS a retard. It doesn't exist and never has. Tree huggers love pushing it down our throats because they crave the attention to their bullshit beliefs.

droid said on 1:40PM 2-15-2009

Yeah saving money is just absurd. Especially in these times.

Bob said on 1:46PM 2-15-2009

Carbon Footprints and the "save the earth campaign" are all just hogwash used for marketing.

Only 3% of the earth's Emissions are from humans. Much of it is needed by the plants.

This is the same scare as used in the 70's.

All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.

MCRaider said on 3:39PM 2-15-2009

Oh and

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/14/AR2009021401757.html?hpid=topnews

W. Graves said on 1:56PM 2-15-2009

i have no problem with people that don't agree with global warming... but saying that we have no impact on the environment is a little nutty.... and ill believe you if you take a few hits off your tailpipe :P

MCRaider said on 3:03PM 2-15-2009

If you just read the words "Green" and immediately jump to global warming then you should read the article again.

The whole idea is that people are more inclined to do a task in a game if a reward is gained from it. In this case turning off the lights.

But those same people would not turn off their lights at home to save money even though it would benefit them more to do so.

Green is the new way of our economy and technology. Now I am reading a bit deep into this but its relevant.

The green campaign is more then just about global warming, its about energy, snapping our dependence on foreign oil, and creating clean fuel.

It is much more then just "hogwash" especially if you can save a few dollars on your electric bill.

Dban said on 9:13AM 2-17-2009

But it is my electric bill, if I wanna waste my money and have the added benefit of making hippies cry then I'll do it.

I'll believe the greenies are serious when they start promoting the safest and cleanest fuel source out there, nuclear. Until then as far as I"m concerned they just want to tell me how to live and eventually green-tax me and our society back into the stone age.