2024-10-16
Less than a month ago PlanetPlay and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) joined forces to launch Play2Act, an in-game poll designed to explore gamer views on climate action. And over 500,000 people in more than 200 countries and territories from Aruba to Zambia have already engaged with the survey!
It’s a fantastic start to the initiative, with over two and a half thousand hours being spent on answering questions and more than 50% of the poll respondents stating they believe games can play a role in solving climate change and addressing environmental issues. Clearly there’s a lot of passion surrounding this subject.
While younger voices have made up a lot of the responses so far, we’ve noted with interest that over 20% of responses have been from people older than 36 years, and we’ve even received responses from those aged 60+.
Engagement has been strong across different education levels and genders too, allowing us to dig in and see how different groups of people feel, while also highlighting the diverse and inclusive nature of games as a medium.
Initial findings indicate that there is huge potential for games to help educate consumers about climate challenge programmes and strategies, which we will share in our first set of results.
Global Impact
Play2Act is currently available in multiple languages and features within games or has been promoted on socials by Founding Partners including Bandai Namco, Creative Mobile, Eline Media, FunPlus, Lockwood Publishing, Niantic, Rovio, SYBO, Ten Square Games and more.
This allows players to express their opinions on environmental action, all while staying immersed in their favourite virtual worlds.
Play2Act is part of the Games Realising Effective and Affective Transformation (GREAT) project, funded by the European Union Horizon and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which seeks to explore how games can be a powerful medium for citizens to engage with critical policy issues, including climate action, from 2023 to 2026.
PlanetPlay’s Chief Strategy Officer, Jude Ower MBE, recently spoke to VentureBeat about Play2Act, emphasising the power of games to influence positive environmental action by reaching global audiences, especially younger generations.
How to get involved
Play2Act is a unique opportunity for the games industry to unite and help reach 1 billion gamers to amplify our collective voice for a better future.
PlanetPlay and UNDP extend an open invitation to more game producers and studios, regardless of their size, to get involved!
If your studio would like to take part in Play2Act, contact Jude Ower today.