Gameful Interventions for Climate Communication

Abstract

Video games can be persuasive assets in climate communication and serve to direct pro-environmental attitudes by engaging players with interactive gameplay, persuasive narratives, and immersive simulated realities. However, there is limited knowledge on how to employ specific game design aspects to influence attitudes in the context of climate change. This thesis investigated how, and to what extent, game design and player experience processes can contribute to effective and creative climate communication. My research developed a conceptual Climate-Oriented Persuasive Edutainment (COPE) model to describe how game design features and elements wrapped in a climate-themed message frame can form player experiences that contribute to pro-environmental attitudes. Employing the model as a criterion, I conducted two parallel within-subjects experiments using two eco-games, where participants were randomly assigned to play either Beyond Blue in Experiment 1 (N=36) or Plasticity in Experiment 2 (N=37). The experiments employed a pre/post-test design with a delayed post-test administered three to five weeks after the intervention. Through collecting a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, this research investigated how, and to what extent, participants' experiences of the intervention's aspects of game design, based on the COPE model, influenced their pro-environmental attitudes. The experiments examined the effects of the interventions' message framing on pro-environmental attitudes, using both explicit and implicit attitude measurements and in three phases (pre-test, post-test, delayed post-test). Furthermore, my research measured the effects of feature-based game design (mechanics, narrative, and animation) and element-based game design on attitudes. The qualitative data (semi-structured interviews and a set of open-ended descriptive survey questions) served to identify patterns and trends to produce themes. The combined quantitative and qualitative evidence aided in framing a set of persuasive design directives (MICROGATES). The results showed that both eco-games increased players' pro-environmental cognitive attitudes after gameplay. The findings also revealed that playing Plasticity increased short-term threat perception and long-term positive eco-emotion in participants. By demonstrating the efficacy of persuasive design and environmental message framing in gameful interventions using explicit and implicit measures, this research contributes to the application of interactive technology for effective climate change communication in the short and long term. Also, my work demonstrates that climate communication can benefit from a carefully designed theme-centric, detail-driven video game as an effective creative tool.